The Mission Editor
The mission editor is a very powerful tool, but it’s easy enough to set up a quick fight. Place a few units on the map and if they can see each other they will fight. So if you want to practice some tank warfare it’s a simple enough task to place a T80 platoon a kilometer away from some M1 Abrams and let them slug it out. Delve a little deeper and you begin to see the depth in the way missions in Operation Flashpoint are constructed. Various triggers and conditions can be set on events and messages included. It’s possible to create as detailed and complex missions as are seen in the campaign. In the editor it’s also possible to push your CPU to the limit. While many campaign battles are impressively large they have been limited in size so that the minimum spec isn’t too high. But if you’re PC is up to the task then it’s worth opening the editor on the desert island map and setting up battalion sized engagements. I reviewed the game on a 1.2 Ghz Athlon Thunderbird/GeForce DDR machine and the game ran beautifully all the way though the campaign. But in the editor it was possible to put enough troops on the ground at once to make my PC chug. The shots you see of the armored columns moving through sand, like some memory of the Gulf War, are examples of my toying with the editor.

The Campaign
But the real center of the game is the campaign. As I said earlier, I’m not about to spill the beans on the twists and turns in this Cold War conflict but I will explain one mission and how the campaign game plays. Missions often begin with a game engine based cutscene. It may be a conversation with a commander or even events elsewhere in the war. Then a map is loaded with the mission objectives listed in a soldier’s notebook. The notebook makes clever user of links so clicking an objective in the book means the map scrolls to that point. The notebook also includes helpful diary entries, weaponry selection for you and your squad (if current rank permits) and a list of friendly units at your disposal. The map and notebook can be called up at any time once a mission has begun and included a compass, watch and relevant radio gear.

During the mission the number and function keys are used to keep in touch with friendlies and those under your command. There are many ways of ordering troops around and it’s too Bohemia’s credit that this variety exists. One way is to select a soldier (or group of soldiers) using the functions keys then pointing using the cursor where you’d like them to go. This can be done in the first person view, third person view or even via the map. Commands are made using the sort of context sensitive menus you tend to see in space shooters and flight sims. With a little practice it’s easy enough to order troops to change formation, mount a vehicle, change combat mode, attack a target, pick up an enemy weapon, scan a certain direction etc. Whether you are controlling a platoon of soldiers, tanks, boats, trucks or choppers the principles remain the same.

Okay onto a sample mission, this one take place late into the game. David Armstrong is now a Lieutenant and is in command of Alpha platoon. After a brief cutscene the platoon is deposited on a beach by an amphibious version of the M113 infantry carrier. Bravo platoon has landed a few hundred meters to the left, Charlie platoon to the right. The first task is to assault the hill where the enemy has a stronghold. After a brief Saving Private Ryan style battle the church on the hill is taken. A radio report comes through that the enemy is counterattacking. The reality hits home as a BMP Infantry Fighting Vehicle and a T80 tank attack Bravo Company on the left flank. I am about to order my LAW gunner to fire at the armored vehicles when he uses his initiative and opens fire anyway. It takes a couple of shots before the BMP is dispatched. The soldier then uses his last rocket on the T80 but with little success. Then tank has now broken though Bravo platoon and is heading our war to retake the hill. My LAW soldier is out of ammo and those of us still alive have decided to hide in the available flora. Diving into a bush I spy a dead enemy soldier, a dead enemy soldier with an RPG. I take the weapon and wait for the T80 to pass. Then from as close as I dare I give it the RPG right in the weakest part, its ass.

The counterattack has been foiled and with the beachhead secured it’s time to move to this mission’s real objective, the nearby airport. There are too many armored vehicles and troops for us to take on here but we have air support to call upon, with the proviso that we destroy the Shilka AAA battery before we call in the flyboys. We crawl towards the airport using the terrain for cover when a massed ranks of enemy troops counterattack. It’s a frantic meeting engagement where I lose half my platoon, including my machine gunner and medic. I order one of the troops to take the M60 and we move on towards the Shilka. But I’m too far towards the left flank to use my remaining RPG round on the Shilka without drawing fire from the airport. But fate intervenes, Charlie Platoon have moved steadily up the right flank meeting less resistance that Alpha and Bravo. That squad’s LAW trooper takes out the Shilka and I radio the air support. Two AH1 Cobra attack helicopters appear and begin ripping through the enemy positions. I give the order to engage and we charge at the enemy positions.

Now that is my kind of fun. This wasn’t a mission where the player gets to use vehicles. But if we’d reached an enemy tank that was unoccupied we could have mounted it. The game is very flexible in this way. Be warned though, if you are the kind of persons who gets peeved when a flight or tank sim has a screw out of place then Operation Flashpoint isn’t for you. Tank battles take place at point blank range; long distance gunnery exhibitions are rare. What Bohemia has done with Operation Flashpoint is create a game that is based on reality but with concessions being made to the most important aspect of a game – fun. So there are medic tents where a bullet wound can be instantly healed, tanks hit by RPG jump like they been sideswiped by an asteroid.

One of the things that usually annoys me about wargames, whether based in the air, space or land is that the whole conflict rests on the shoulders of the player. It’s galling in Starlancer to be kicked out of the force because you couldn’t quite take out a massive battle cruiser on your own. As the destruction of the Shilka in the previous mission demonstrates, you are part of a team. Yes mistakes will be met with a reprimand from the brass, but no one expects you to win every battle on your own. CPU controlled comrades are bright and skilled enough to handle battles on their own.