Operation Flashpoint (series): Difference between revisions

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[[File:Operation Flashpoint cover 4356.jpg|frame|[[Click. "Hello."|Greetings]], [[Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You|private.]] [[Oh Crap|The Cold war just went hot...]] '''[[Bang Bang BANG|BANG.]]''' ]]
 
Released in 2001, ''Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis'' is a [[Tactical Shooter]]/[[Simulation Game|Soldier Sim]] that was quite revolutionary for its time, earning critical acclaim for its innovative open world gameplay and consistent focus on realism (so much so that the engine was even adapted for real militaries to use as a [[wikipedia:VBS1|training simulator]]). OFP let players roam on massive islands several square kilometers in size and use a wide variety of vehicles however they see fit, and all this at a time when most FPS games limited the player to oppressive indoor settings and small outdoor arena-style maps, and typically only featured usable vehicles in [[Unexpected Gameplay Change|on-rails shooting sequences]], if at all.
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** ''Resistance (2002)'' : Major expansion pack by BIS. Contains significant engine updates, a new island, and a new campaign.
** ''Operation Flashpoint: Elite (2005):'' A slightly modernized Xbox port of the first game that was met with lukewarm reviews on release.
** ''[[Arm A]]: Cold War Assault (2011)'': A free [[R EmakeRemake]] (or refurbishing if you will) mega patch (v1.99) for the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'', released in celebration of the game's 10th anniversary by the developers. Because of the whole legal debacle with Codemasters, Bohemia Interactive reclaimed the rights to the assets. Applying this patch to an installed copy of ''OFP'' will therefore rename the game to ''ARMA : Cold War Assault''. The patch also [[Take That|removes the Codemasters-produced]] ''Red Hammer'' expansion and omits it from new installations of ''Cold War Assault''. '''NOTE :''' Please '''[[I Am Not Shazam|don't confuse]]''' the original ''Operation Flashpoint'' with the ARMA series proper - it's only a predecessor and set in the same universe, but otherwise completely separate. The [[Insistent Terminology|new title]] [[Screwed by the Lawyers|is there only because BIS can't release the patch under the original name of the game, since it's now owned by Codemasters]].
* ''Virtual Battlespace (2002):'' Taking the Operation Flashpoint engine, BIS developed this engine to sell to the United States Marine Corps, the Australian Defense Force, and other military organizations as a training tool. It was eventually sold to [[wikipedia:VBS1#VBS1 customers|many modern militaries all around the world]]... although according to BIS, it was ironically competing at one point with a modified version of ''Operation Flashpoint''.
 
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For its two different [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual successors]], please see ''[[Arm A]]'' and ''[[Operation Flashpoint (Codemasters)]]''.
 
Not to be confused with the Canadian series ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]''.
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* [[Ace Pilot]]: Sam Nichols is actually a subversion. While he's pretty skilled in piloting various transport and attack choppers, he himself admits (and even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]]) his inexperience in flying the A-10 Thunderbolt and other fixed-wing aircraft.
* [[AKA-47]]: Averted. All firearms and vehicles in the unmodified games use their real-world names.
** The only exception to this would be the Czechoslovak national AK-47 variantrifle, the [[wikipedia:Vz. 58|SA 58]] (a.k.a. Vzor 58). For some reason or other, it's referred to as "AK-47 CZ" in-game, althougheven though the rifle has nothing in-common design wise with the AK and it still shows up as "SA-58" on the weapon selection and mission planning screens.
** Also played straight with most of the civilian vehicles (Trabants, Mini Coopers, Zetor tractors, Škoda passenger cars), particularly [[Brand X|the brand logos above their grills]].
* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]: The invading Soviet army most of the time, with the defenders [[Watching Troy Burn]]. Inverted later, when the NATO and [[La Résistance]] forces finally start recapturing conquered territory.
* [[Alternate History]]: The plot of ''Cold War Crisis'' involves a conflict between U.S. and Soviet troops in an Eastern European island chain (the titular flashpoint), which started when the Soviets invaded a neutral island nation protected by NATO. The Soviet authorities deny any involvement in the invasion, saying the local commander (one General Guba) has gone rogue (which is implied to be a lie to maintain [[Plausible Deniability]]). What starts as a skirmish soon becomes a full-blown war with heavy casualties on both sides, {{spoiler|and the situation is only defused when American forces defeat Guba and prevent him from launching nuclear missiles at the neighboring islands. Dialogue in the following cutscenes suggests that both governments [[Rubber Band History|covered up the entire incident, with Western radio reports describing the conflict as a terrorist attack on a U.S. training camp that was easily resisted]]. }}
* [[Another Side, Another Story]]: The missions and overall story of the campaign in ''Cold War Crisis'' alternate between four main characters : An infantryman (Armstrong), a tanker (Hammer), a Special Ops soldier (Gastovski) and a fighter pilot (Nichols). The opposing side also gets a [[POV Sequel]] in the form of a separate campaign from the ''Red Hammer'' expansion pack.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: And they do, mostly. The only unique characters are either player characters or simply kept out of harm's way entirely (Colonel Blake, for instance, is only seen in cutscenes). The minor exception is the player's squad in the first half dozen missions. They can die too, but they just reappear in the next mission until they're [[Killed Off for Real|killed off for good]] later on.
* [[Artificial Brilliance]]: Although it hasn't aged particularly well, the infantry AI in Operation Flashpoint was ''extremely'' good for its time. [[Weaksauce Weakness|As long as they stayed outdoors]]. The vehicle crew and pilot AI was...[[Artificial Stupidity|significantly less impressive]].
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* [[Improbable Use of a Weapon]]: Completely averted. Unlike in most other action or war games, ''OFP'' actually teaches you how firearms would be used in [[Real Life]].
* [[In-Joke]] / [[Shout-Out]] / [[Creator Provincialism]]: BIS threw tons of [[Shout-Out|shout outs]] to both Communist-era Czechoslovakia and the late 20. century Czech Republic into the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' installments. Traditional Czech rural architecture and East Bloc era concrete buildings are practically everywhere, along with 1960s Czech buses, motorbikes, [http://www.volny.cz/nex/auta/obr-sk/praga-v3s.jpg Praga V3S army trucks], 1980s Škoda passenger cars and Zetor tractors. The local resistance groups use the Sa 58 as their standard assault rifle. The ''Resistance'' expansion in general takes the references [[Up to Eleven]].
** There's also an [[Easter Egg]] referencing [[MASH|M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]. {{spoiler|You can find it on the medic tent.}}
** One of the most fondly remembered fan-made [[Game Mod|game mods]] added the Communist-era Czechoslovak army to the whole NATO-USSR conflict of the original games. This faction's campaign story was generally... [[Played for Laughs|less serious than usual]]...
* [[Just a Stupid Accent]]: The English dub of the series gives the locals a fairly stereotypical Slavic / Eastern European / [[What the Hell Is That Accent?|whatever]] accent. Oddly, Viktor Troska [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent|speaks with a British accent]] (maybe [[Justified Trope|justified]] since [[Fridge Brilliance|he spent many years living outside of Nogova]] and working in various special forces, [[Fan Wank|maybe even the British SAS]]). The Czech dub of the game features everybody speaking without accents, while the Soviet characters are mostly dubbed by Russian native speakers in all versions.
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** Also, the [[Wham! Episode]] mission from the campaign of ''Cold War Crisis'', where private Armstrong {{spoiler|manages to hide in a forest after his entire squad has been ambushed and gunned down. His two-way radio is malfunctioning, so he can't contact the nearest NATO camp and hears about NATO forces evacuating the island. [[It Got Worse|Worse yet]], some of the Soviet soldiers readying the area for re-occupation are out to hunt him down. Good luck crawling it out of the forest and then trying to sneak through a highly visible meadow and through several groves and forests to the nearest evac site. It lies several miles from your starting position and is surrounded by enemy-infested terrain...}}
* [[One Bullet Clips]]: Averted. Ammunition is divided into tangible magazines, and if you reload when your magazine still holds any ammunition (even if it's only one round) it goes back into your inventory to be used later when you run out of full magazines. This can be a headache for compulsive reloaders, because they'll soon end up with half a dozen half empty magazines.
* [[One-Man Army]]: [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Sort of played straight]] in [[Stealth -Based Mission|sneaking and sabotage missions]] - if you're skillful enough. Otherwise completely averted. In the more demanding missions, you can't get much done without some proper teamwork and combined arms tactics.
* [[POV Sequel]]: The ''Red Hammer'' campaign from the eponymous mini-expansion pits you on the side of Guba's army, where you play the role of recently demoted soldier [[The Everyman|Dmitri Lukin]].
* [[Prequel]]: The ''Resistance'' expansion, taking place in 1982, three years prior to the events of ''Cold War Crisis''.
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* [[Sniper Rifle]]: The Americans have the M21, while the Soviets use their well-known classic, the SVD Dragunov. The ''Resistance'' expansion added one for the resistance fighters as well. Since they're understandably lacking a lot of purpose-built military equipment, [[Improvised Weapon|they use a scoped Remington hunting rifle]] to fill in the role.
* [[The Squad]]: You and your fellow fighters.
* [[Stealth Based Game]]: Stealth is a viable (and vital) infantry tactic and there are lots of [[Stealth -Based Mission]]s - for regular soldiers and commando units alike. One of the four playable characters in the first game is a special forces saboteur that specializes in sneaking around behind enemy lines, but other characters get to be stealthy as well, depending on the situation. Regular infantry assaults are usually preceded by stealthy crawling and maneuvering towards the target. One of the [[Attack Pattern Alpha]] commands for your squad is literally "use stealth". Since the game is a realistic soldier sim, the stealth is purely line-of-sight ([[Averted Trope|no chance]] the enemy soldiers [[The Guards Must Be Crazy|will forget about you once you alert them of your presence]]).
** Of course, as with much about the games, this can be adjusted and modded.
* [[Sticks to the Back]]: Primary weapons and launchers do this when not being held.
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[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:Third-Person Shooter]]
[[Category:X BoxXbox]]
[[Category:Stealth Based Game]]
[[Category:Tactical Shooter]]