Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Preview

There's probably someone in those trees trying to shoot at you

Back to that hill that caused so much trouble early on then. After taking out the single man ducking behind a small wall the view from the summit reveals an early warning radar - a device your squad has been tasked with destroying. It'll only take a single remote charge to blow it to smithereens, but getting there, down a steep hill that leaves you perilously open to enemy fire, isn't easy. As soon as you peek out over the peak bullets start raining in on your position, hitting the soft ground and sending dirt into your eyes, temporarily worsening your vision.

No doubt there are countless ways to tackle such a problem, but the most obvious seemed for me to lay down some fire on the enemy's position while the rest of my squad flanked them down the right of the hill. It worked, and soon enough a charge had been placed and the radar was no longer in working order. Next up came the most exciting part of the two levels on offer. An order came in to send in an air strike on an enemy-held village at the bottom of the valley on the other side of the hill. With binoculars equipped you're able to target a location and then send in a hail of howitzers. It would have been more exciting still had the work in progress Xbox 360 build actually shown the destruction as more than buildings popping out of view (presumably a glitch that won't be present in the final game), but it was fun all the same.

It was a sprint across the island to the chopper's LZ next, mopping up any enemies along the way, including a few nipping about in jeeps. Something that really needs a special mention is the audio work. With a good surround sound set-up I dare say Dragon Rising could have the most immersive audio of any FPS ever created. Jeeps growl, enemies rustle in bushes, helicopters thunder overhead, and bullets whiz past as if only millimetres from your virtual face. It really is hugely impressive and even manages to better the impressive, if somewhat glitchy open-world environment.

By the second mission - a small-scale assault starting on a beach - you'll likely feel more comfortable with the controls, but any confidence is short lived. My squad had been tasked with taking out the spotters at the top of a hill (there are lots of hills in Dragon Rising), but no sooner had one of my guys informed me of their position (issued with handy information on their compass direction and distance from you) had the three of them been shot dead. I won't lie: mission two proved too much for my simple FPS mind to take, with a later section involving a fairly heavily guarded village too tricky for my wannabe marines.

After countless failures, restarts and head scratching I'm still nowhere near to being up to speed with Dragon Rising's rules of combat. Getting your head around the slow pace, the orders menu, the reliance on cover and instant death is something that a lot of people simply won't have the patience for, and that's surely a concern for Codemasters. Easier difficulty settings don't really make the game simpler in the traditional way, instead offering more assistance in the way of highlighted enemies on your compass and illuminated bullets, and a RV system shows you where you've got to go. Only time will tell if all that is enough to give arcade action gamers a real chance of success.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is due for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 9.