Operation Flashpoint (Codemasters)

The other Spiritual Successor series to the acclaimed Operation Flashpoint trilogy from 2001-2002. Developed and published by Codemasters, without any input or co-operation from the original developers of the franchise, Bohemia Interactive Studios.

To clear up and explain the situation a bit for troping gamers: After finishing their work on Operation Flashpoint, the developer Bohemia Interactive Studios and publisher Codemasters had a major falling out and split ways. BIS took the rights to the engine, Codemasters got the rights to the name. BIS has since upgraded the engine for the sequel ARMA series, while Codemasters developed its own "official" sequel, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Essentially, the BIS sequels closely resemble the original, except they have much better graphics and improved gameplay, while Dragon Rising feels, well, different from the original OFP, and a lot of old veterans seem to think that it suffers from New and Improved Syndrome.

The plot of the game itself takes place in the near future, when the People's Republic of China adopts an expansionist policy and attempts to capture several rich new mineral deposits in various neighbouring regions of Asia (many of the old reserves have been depleting, particularly those of fossil fuels). The latest target of the Chinese is the (fictional) resource-rich Russian island of Skira in the icy waters of the North Pacific, formerly a disputed territory between Russia and Japan. NATO forces are called in for help and the inevitable clash on the island with the People's Liberation Army begins.

The sequel, Operation Flashpoint: Red River is the first game in the wider franchise (including the original BIS games) that takes place in a real country: Tajikistan.

Works in this series:

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (2009): The Codemasters-developed game which legally has the same name as OFP.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River (2011): Sequel to Dragon Rising, taking place in Tajikistan, where the Chinese intervene in a conflict between the US and insurgents, further threatening security in the region.

Not to be confused with the Canadian series Flashpoint.

For the main rival of this series, see the Spiritual Successor created by the original developers, ARMA.

NOTE: Please do not list any entries related to the original Operation Flashpoint series here. They have their separate page.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Red River feature the following tropes:

Actionized Sequel: The Dragon Rising/Red River development team have stated in interviews that their goal was to take the core concept of Flashpoint and produce their own more mainstream, more accessible product in the form of an open-world shooter game rather than a straight "hard simulation" like Arm A. The end product is more streamlined, has less downtime between firefights, and is somewhat more forgiving in terms of difficulty, with a similar feel to games like STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (although this still makes the gameplay much more unforgiving than any other shooter aside from hardcore sims like ARMA).
Banned in China: Dragon Rising is, surprisingly, an aversion. The game is noteworthy in China for the portrayal of PLA troops, gear and vehicles rendered nicely in current-gen graphics, with gameplay pitched as seeing the battlefield from the enemy's point of view.
Cluster F-Bomb: Your Marine teammates in Red River swear like...well, Marines.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Staff Sergeant Knox.
Dueling Games: With the Arm A series.
Hide Your Civilians: In Dragon Rising, only corpses of civilians are seen. It's never really explained why you see no living civilians on Skira, except for a brief "they were all evacuated already" explanation.
Chinese With Chopper Support / Red China: The PLA feature as adversaries in both Dragon Rising and Red River.
China Takes Over A Resource Rich Island And Meddles In Central Asia
Mad Libs Dialogue: Attempted aversion (as this was a supposedly oft-cited shortcoming of Operation Flashpoint and ARMA). Dragon Rising tries to backpedal by making sentences out of phrases instead of individual words. Your Mileage May Vary about Dragon Rising's overall quality, but this is probably a marked improvement.
Motor Mouth: Staff Sergeant Knox in Red River never stops talking throughout the entire game. Much of what he says is certainly insightful in a Semper Fi This Is Reality sort of way, but it's still a lot like traveling through several missions with a walking Author Filibuster six feet behind you the whole game.
Next Sunday A.D.: Reflected in the fact that pretty much all American and Chinese equipment seen is of contemporary manufacture, without any futuristic trappings. Fitting, since the original series also didn't use any hi-tech gizmos (it was set in the 80s, but still used only standard army stuff instead of experimental Cold War tech).
Semper Fi: The Marines feature prominently.
Shout-Out: Red River has a Stargate SG-1 reference in the opening cinematic of the final mission.
Spin-Off: Best described as this towards Operation Flashpoint. Unlike in Arm A, there are no references to the original series. Given how the devs seem to be steering the series to take place in more Real Life countries, it might even take place in its own separate Alternate Universe.
Worthy Opponent: The Chinese Army is described this way in Dragon Rising, especially in the ending after they've safely been beaten. Yeah, like that's really going to stop it from being Banned in China... wait, what? It really worked??
- Averted in the sequel, which takes a much more realistic, heavily jingoistic approach to the USMC's attitude towards the opposing side.