Operation Flashpoint
Encyclopedia
Tactical shooter
A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...
and battlefield simulator video game developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio
Bohemia Interactive Studio
Bohemia Interactive , also referred to as Bohemia Interactive Studio , is an independent computer and console game developer based in Prague, Czech Republic...
and published by Codemasters
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
. The game uses the same engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
, Real Virtuality
Real Virtuality (engine)
Real Virtuality is a computer game engine developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio , originally called Poseidon. It is used in the video game Operation Flashpoint and its expansions, as well as Arma, Arma 2 and Arma 3...
, as the military simulator VBS1
VBS1
VBS1 is a military simulator which relies heavily on modern game technology and is therefore generally referred to as a serious game. The platform is derived from the first-person entertainment game Operation Flashpoint and is developed by Bohemia Interactive Australia. The system enables the...
. It was released on June 22, 2001 in Europe and August 30, 2001 in North America. Set on a group of fictitious islands in 1985, Operation Flashpoint puts the player on one of three sides in a hypothetical conflict between American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Soviet forces. The Resistance is the third playable faction. Two expansion packs were released; Gold Upgrade, which included Red Hammer, a campaign from the Soviet perspective, and Resistance, which introduced various new features and improved graphics and sound effects. An Xbox port was released in 2005 under the title Operation Flashpoint: Elite. Operation Flashpoint was praised for its attention to realistic combat.
In 2006, Bohemia Interactive released a sequel called ArmA: Armed Assault
Arma
-Businesses, institutions and organizations:* Agung Rai Museum of Art located in Ubud, Bali - also related to the ARMA resort* American Rock Mechanics Association, a geoscience organization...
. It is based on an improved Flashpoint engine and it was released under the title ArmA Combat Operations in the United States on May 1, 2007. ArmA: Armed Assault's successor ARMA 2
ArmA 2
ARMA 2 is a tactical shooter video game for the PC developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio. It is considered the spiritual successor in the Operation Flashpoint-series following its predecessor, ArmA: Armed Assault . ARMA 2 was released in June and July 2009...
was released on June 19, 2009.
A game titled Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was released in October 2009 by Codemasters. This game was not developed by Bohemia Interactive, who had reserved the exclusive right to develop sequels to the original Operation Flashpoint, and released a statement that "it is not right to promote this game as the ‘official sequel'."
In June 2011, Bohemia Interactive re-released Operation Flashpoint as Arma: Cold War Assault, as Codemasters
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
retain the rights to the 'Operation Flashpoint' trademark. Owners of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the Game of the Year Edition may download and install the latest patch for free , and the game is available for purchase via a number of digital distribution channels. It should be noted that this release does not include the Red Hammer expansion, which was developed by Codemasters and not Bohemia Interactive Studio.
Gameplay
Operation Flashpoint's gameplay varies significantly depending on the player's role, but the game is best described as a tactical shooterTactical shooter
A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...
with significant vehicle elements and minor real-time tactics
Real-time tactics
Real-time tactics or RTT is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics...
elements. OFP's gameplay is largely team oriented and the player spends much of the game with a squad of up to 11 AI controlled members, either as a member of the squad or as its leader. On-foot gameplay and the vehicle elements are blended seamlessly and the player can get into any available vehicle at any time, orders and mission conditions permitting. Whether on foot or in a vehicle the player can view the action from both first and third-person views, as well as an additional 'command view' available to squad leaders which gives the player a limited birds-eye view of the surrounding area. At the start of each mission the player is presented with a briefing explaining the situation, describing the player's goals in the mission and, often, providing further information in the form of notes. Once in-game the player is provided with a map, compass, watch, and a notebook. Depending on the mission the player may be required to participate in and complete a variety of tasks, from simply driving a truck or guarding bases to attacking or defending various objectives, patrols, reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines, air support, or any combination of these and more.
When the player is given command of a squad of NPC
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s, the game becomes more strategy oriented. As a leader the player is responsible for guiding the squad to its objectives and is able to issue a wide variety of orders to men under their command, such as movement orders, designation of priority targets, formation orders and various other tactical instructions governing how they should behave such as holding fire or attacking only select targets.
Equipment
Operation Flashpoint features a wide variety of Cold War-era equipment, all of which can be used by the player, depending on availability in any given mission. Available firearms range from standard-issue military assault rifles such as the M16A2M16 rifle
The M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...
and the AK-74
AK-74
The AK-74 is an assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union as the replacement for the earlier AKM...
, machine guns, and more specialized weaponry such as sniper rifles and suppressed
Suppressor
A suppressor, sound suppressor, sound moderator, or silencer, is a device attached to or part of the barrel of a firearm which reduces the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon....
submachine guns, all of which have iron sights or telescopic sights that the player can use to aim.
Available vehicles include wheeled vehicles (such as jeeps and trucks), patrol boats, tanks and APCs, helicopters and even fixed-wing aircraft such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II
A-10 Thunderbolt II
The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat, twin-engine, straight-wing jet aircraft developed by Fairchild-Republic in the early 1970s. The A-10 was designed for a United States Air Force requirement to provide close air support for ground forces by attacking tanks,...
. If a vehicle is accessible to the player, they can take the position of driver or simply ride in the vehicle as a passenger. Many vehicles, such as tanks, require a crew of at least a driver and a gunner to be used effectively. All vehicles have accurately modeled 3D interiors.
Operation Flashpoint pioneered the use of realistic vehicle and aircraft combat in FPS
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
games. While Operation Flashpoint does not provide the same level of vehicle realism as a dedicated simulator like Steel Beasts
Steel Beasts
Steel Beasts is the name for a family of tank simulators created by eSim Games for Microsoft Windows.Its subject is contemporary combined arms tactics at a company scale....
, or Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0 is an air combat simulation originally released on December 12, 1998 by MicroProse. It is a realistic simulation of the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter in a full scale modern war set in the Korean Peninsula. Falcon 4.0s dynamic campaign engine runs autonomously...
, it is nevertheless notable because it does not only simulate aircraft, tank and infantry combat with consistently high levels of realism, but also accurately simulates the complex relationships between these elements
Combined arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different branches of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects...
in warfare.
Multiplayer
OFP's multiplayer features several gameplay modes. The game mode is determined by the mission chosen by the server administrator.- DeathmatchDeathmatch (gaming)Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
- In which the players spawn in an arena and fight each other with a variety of weapons and vehicles found in the map, the player with the most kills at the end of the round wins. - Team Deathmatch - A game mode similar to deathmatch, in team deathmatch players join one of two teams and must kill players of the opposing team to earn points.
- Capture The Flag - In Capture The Flag, players must steal the flag and take it to a designated location, while preventing opposing players from doing the same. This mode may be team based, or free for all with no alliances.
- Domination - In Domination, one or more objective is marked with a flagpost. The two teams must war for control of the location. Whichever team holds the objective for the longest amount of time gains the most points and wins the round.
- Demolition - One team must protect an objective from the other team, which must destroy the objective. Whichever team prevails in their goal wins the round.
- CooperativeCooperative gameplayCooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
- In which one or more teams of allied human players work cooperatively to accomplish a variety of objectives.
Operation Flashpoint also includes an in-game mission editor which can be used to create anything from single missions to entire campaigns.
Setting
Unlike most first-person shooters, in which a dozen or more separate, self-contained 'maps' typically make up the game world, the game world in Operation Flashpoint consists of large fictitious islands. Each island is at least a dozen square kilometers in size, and is surrounded on all sides by ocean. This is essentially the same concept, but on a much larger scale and using oceans, rather than what should be surmountable barriers (such as walls or cliffs), to stop the player from leaving the area.The game takes place on three different islands: The island-states of Everon and Malden (the latter is a home of American military forces), and later in the game, on the barren Russian island of Kolgujev which is the staging point for the renegade Russian forces invading Everon and Malden.
Plot
The year is 1985, and Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
has come to power in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. While his Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
reforms are welcomed by western governments, there are communist hardliners in his own government that are unsympathetic to his cause and are ready to do anything to stop these reforms.
Aleksei Guba, a renegade general, is determined to bring down Gorbachev and make himself the next leader of the Soviet Union. Guba commands an army on the island base of Kolgujev. Guba invades nearby Everon, crushing the militia force there, and secretly plans to take the war to the Americans.
The NATO presence on Malden, under the command of the American Colonel Blake, moves in to investigate the loss of contact with Everon, and reports an invasion by an 'unknown hostile force'. When a helicopter of troops sent to investigate doesn't return, Blake orders a full scale invasion of Everon, not knowing about the Soviets. Most of the soldiers sent to Everon are the recruits who are about to be sent home after the finish of their duty.
Though the NATO forces manage to take control a portion of the island, the Soviets eventually counterattack, causing heavy losses to the American forces and forcing their hasty retreat back to US-controlled Malden. The Soviets don't only reclaim Everon but push onto Malden as well which brings the Americans on the edge of defeat. Blake receives an ultimatum from Guba but at the same time he is informed by Washington that a full carrier group is on route at flank speed to lend assistance. Time is of the essence as both the US and Moscow denied that hostilities broke out on the islands to prevent panic but at the same time the USSR began a full-scale mobilization, allegedly as a military exercise. General Guba is in possession of a nuclear-tipped SCUD
Scud
Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies...
aimed at Malden and the American forces must prevent the missile launch from happening to avoid the beginning of WWIII.
During the campaign players take the roles of one of four characters:
- David Armstrong - A determined PrivatePrivate (rank)A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
in the United States ArmyUnited States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
who is training on Malden when the fighting breaks out, he lost his squad on Everon after a botched retreat attempt. Due to his performance, Blake promotes him to Lieutenant and assigns him to frontline combat, spearheading NATO advances. - Robert Hammer - An inexperienced tank commander who has been called into service due to a shortage of tank crews. He is eventually promoted to platoon commander.
- Sam Nichols - A Black Hawk pilot who is called on to fly helicopter gunships, and eventually an A-10 ThunderboltA-10 Thunderbolt IIThe Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat, twin-engine, straight-wing jet aircraft developed by Fairchild-Republic in the early 1970s. The A-10 was designed for a United States Air Force requirement to provide close air support for ground forces by attacking tanks,...
. - James Gastovski - A retired U.S. Special ForcesUnited States Special Operations ForcesUnited States Special Operations Forces under United States Special Operations Command are active and reserve component forces of U.S. Military...
soldier, Gastovski is called out of retirement to carry out sabotage and scouting missions. He is also a huge fan of the James BondJames BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movies.
Reception
Operation Flashpoint has won critical acclaim for its realism of simulating military conflict situations on PC, even to the extent where the game's technology has been adapted for real soldiers to use as a special combat training application VBS1VBS1
VBS1 is a military simulator which relies heavily on modern game technology and is therefore generally referred to as a serious game. The platform is derived from the first-person entertainment game Operation Flashpoint and is developed by Bohemia Interactive Australia. The system enables the...
.
Partial listing:
- PC ZONE Classic Award
- IGN Editors Choice Award
- Gamespy: Best of 2001 (PC Action)
- Computer Gaming World's Editors Choice Award
- The Adrenaline Vault: Seal of Excellence Award
- ECTS winner
- The Wargamer: Award of Excellence
- Gamestar.de Award
- PC Gamer Awards
- COMBATSIM.COM: Best Integrated Battlefield Simulation 2001
Expansions
An add-on campaign Red Hammer, which was developed by Codemasters, depicts the same conflict as the OFP:Cold War Crisis, but places the player in the role of a Russian soldier, Dmitri Lukin, rather than an American soldier. During the course of the campaign, Lukin, who is one of the few soldiers stationed on Kolgujev with previous combat experience, switches from his steadfast fight against American forces on Everon and Malden to joining the resistance fighters on Everon battling his own countrymen in order to pave the way for an American take-over of the island. He is also tasked to kill or capture the last officers still loyal to general Guba. There are a few vehicles added, including the AH-64 Apache, BMP-2BMP-2
The BMP-2 is a second-generation, amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following the BMP-1 of the 1960s....
. The save game system was altered significantly, making reverting to a previous level impossible. Lukin had been a Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
but was demoted to Private for not obeying the orders and shipped to the regular army for insubordination. During the course of the Red Hammer campaign he is put in command of a squad, promoted to Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
, drives tanks, flies helicopters and eventually gets promoted to Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and assigned back to Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
.
Resistance, an expansion, featuring updated graphics, sounds, and multiplayer mechanics. The storyline takes place three years before the events of the main storyline. The player takes on the role of an ex-Special Operations
Special operations
Special operations are military operations that are considered "special" .Special operations are typically performed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does...
soldier, Victor Troska, who has returned to his homeland of Nogova after years in exile serving with British Special Forces. During the first introductory mission to the campaign, the island is invaded by the Soviet Union after some members of the socialist party betray the country and invite Soviet forces to overthrow the government. Troska is approached by Nogovans who are resisting the Soviet occupation and asked to join them. Initially, Troska refuses to have any part in the fighting and rebukes them because he wants to put the combat behind and also believes that any resistance will take many of the inexperienced soldiers' lives. Later, a wounded guerrilla-fighter being pursued by Russian soldiers takes refuge in Troska's shed.
Later, the Soviet soldiers, led by Colonel Guba arrive and Troska is forced to make a decision: betraying the partisan, trying to negotiate with the Soviets or fighting off the Soviet soldiers and join the resistance.
- The first choice makes Viktor to join the Soviets who give him a task to locate the main resistance base and reveal its position to Soviets. After finding the base Victor is once again forced to decide whether he will betray the partisans or lead the Soviets to the false location to join the resistance anyway. If he chooses to betray them, the Soviets win and Victor is executed with the other partisans as a traitor who cannot be trusted because he betrayed his close friends.
- The second choice only makes the Soviets more angry and the negotiation is unsuccessful.
- The last choice forces Victor to grab the gun, kill the Soviets holding him and his friends at gunpoint and escape to join the resistance.
When Victor joins the resistance he is immediately forced to take command and fight the Soviets who attack their base and kill the resistance commander. Then he leads his units to assault some Soviet bases to collect some weapons, ammunition and tanks as the resistance forces have only a limited supply of weapons. Besides the fighting this becomes a very important objective through all campaign. After some initial successful actions more people begin to join the resistance, making it stronger. Later the resistance receives some weapon supplies from the Americans who also send James Gastovski and his team in to assist the resistance. Victor is also helped by Tasmanian Devil, an informant of unknown identity who passes critical information to him via radio (he is later discovered by the Soviets and killed). The successful actions drive the Soviets back until they are pushed to the airfield where Guba holds his tactical bombers to be used to obliterate Nogova after the Soviet retreat. Victor manages to destroy the bombers but the Soviets encircle him and is MIA
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
after that, presumably dead. The American forces sent by Colonel Blake wipe out the remaining Soviet forces but Guba escapes before the final defeat.