Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis

"For fans of realistic and military games"

Intro: As much bashing as this game has recieved, it still manages to be the best at what it does, simulate war. If you are a military freak, you will fall in love with this game Like I have and play it until you dream about shooting Ruskies (I am russian though, so I dream about doing operations against the west)with an M-16, its countless variations, an RPG, grenades, a few variations of the MP5, and of course...the vehicles.

Graphics:::
9/10
Suit the game perfectly. Nice and gritty feel, just the right amount of color, pretty damn good character models ( although most of them wind up being hosed with an M-16 so it hardly matters), supposedly (i have not checked, I cannot join the military yet) very accurate vehicle models, rain effects, wind effects (only noticable on bullets), sunshine, clouds, sun rise, sunset, even snow with some mods. The bad part is the foilage. You spend a lot of time crawling in it for defense, and when you get this close, it is very pixelated.

Sound:::
9/10
Repetitive, yet it still manages to fit the game. Most shots sound authentic though a little muffled. Voice acting is top notch except during missions, where a computer generated type voice gives you orders. Music is very good where you can find it.

Gameplay:::
10/10
This is where OFP shines. Take part in a huge military operation with tanks, choppers, infantry, even jets. Be a low ranking grunt, an officer, a tank commander, a tank gunner, a commander of a squadron of choppers, you name it, you can be it. Sneak into enemy territory as a black op as well. The campaign is excellent. Some missions are heavily scripted making it seem like real war. Here is one example that is burned into my mind. After trying to take over a city, our infantry squad requests air support to take us out because heavy enemy armor was coming. As our rescue chopper arrives, it flies right past my head, and im watching all this on my monitor, its real game, not a cut scene. 2 RUssian MI-24's, choppers, fly in after our air support, and as he is about to land, he is shot down by the choppers, and our squad is left on the ground in enemy territory with no way out. Awesome.

Personal Curve::
10/10
A military junkies dream. The mods that are now available for this game allow you to add a MiG-29 jet fighter, F-16, Tomcat, Harrier, Russian version of the SWAT team, Steyer Augs, artilerry stations, even commercial jets and ships. So many mods are out, you can fool around with realistic military technology of the past, present and future. There are WW2 mods available.

Final:: If you like war, and you can handle being shot at from 10 directions and not knowing what is going on...the game is for you. The feeling of war is there. When you go prone just to save your skin, you start looking around where the shots are coming from as your buddies fall under fire. Its just plain awesome. If you cannot handle one hit kills, and dont like hiding in bushes waiting for a target, this game might not be for you. There is a demo though, so download it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/03, Updated 01/09/03