Operation Flashpoint (series): Difference between revisions

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* ''Operation Flashpoint : Cold War Crisis (2001)'': The game that started it all.

** ''Red Hammer (2001)'' : Mini-expansion pack by the publisher, Codemasters, that contains a new campaign depicting the conflict from the Soviet side.

 

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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.

* [[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]]. }}

* [[Awesome Personnel Carrier]]: APCs feature heavily, from the M113 to the BTR. Infantry fighting vehicles such as the Soviet BMP and its American equivalent - the M2 Bradley - fit the bill in particular. The BMP is a common sight throughout and a very capable vehicle in good hands, being relatively fast, amphibious, and well-armed. The Bradley is similarly capable and its TOW missile launcher makes it an appreciable danger to even the strongest of Soviet tanks.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: ''Resistance'' has a very [[Tear Jerker|moving]] one.

* [[But Thou Must!]]: The second mission in the Resistance campaign offers the player a choice to either help the invading troops' army by revealing the location of a member of the titular resistance, or be summarily executed. You can actually choose to help the invaders, and you're even given a unique mission to find the location of the resistance base. When you do, you're again given the choice to join them or carry out the mission. Of course, since the leader of the invading army is not a very [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|rewarding leader]], he'll [[Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves|execute you if you carry out your mission]] anyway, so it's pretty much in your best interests to join the resistance.

** Averted the rest of the time - although there's a set plan for each mission, and you'll get constantly nagged over the radio if you don't carry it out, the game never actually ''forces'' you to obey orders. 'Course, those orders are usually given for a good reason, so it's generally a good idea to follow them regardless unless you like [[Have a Nice Death|high-angle shots of your own dead body]].

* [[Genre Busting]] : Especially when it first came out in 2001. There were nearly no serious war-themed simulation games back then. [[FPS]] games were still getting the hang of things like vehicular combat sections or adding more realism to the way weapons were used in-game. ''OFP'' already had things like huge continuous sandbox-style maps with no loading during a mission, both stealthy and confrontational infantry combat, iron-sighting, a slew of different ground-based, water-going or aerial vehicles available to the player, and showed the modern battlefield as an eeriely tense and chaotic place, not a big pre-scripted set piece extravaganza centered around the player.

* [[Good Guns, Bad Guns]] : Pretty much averted, particularly in the campaign of the ''Resistance'' expansion pack, where you act as the leader of a [[La Résistance|resistance group]] [[Fighting For A Homeland|fighting to liberate his homeland]] from a recent Soviet invasion. Practically all the standard guns of your partisans are either Warsaw Pact or civilian/hunting models. Most of your arsenal is therefore identical with that of the Soviet soldiers. On the other hand, there is a subversion later on, when the freedom fighters manage to acquire aid from a local NATO garrison : After this, they can also use a small supply of western firearms (e. g. FN FA Ls, Steyr Augs and M21 sniper rifles).

** [[Rare Guns]] : The Russian [http://world.guns.ru/smg/rus/pp-19-bizon-e.html Bizon SMG] and some of the grenade and rocket launchers are pretty good examples. The Bizon is unfortunately an example of...

** [[Anachronism Stew]] : Some of the firearms present. The M16 A2 is the standard assault rifle of the American NATO soldiers in ''Cold War Crisis'', whereas in the real 1985, it was a brand new version of the more ubiquotous A1 and hadn't been fully distributed en masse to the regular branches of the US Army. Also, in the ''Resistance'' expansion, set in 1982, James Gastowski supplies Viktor Troska's partisan group with a few Steyr Aug rifles - even though they still aren't very widespread in the US armed forces and were fairly new back in the early 80s (the first marketed version was produced in 1977). Another firearm seen too early is the aforementioned Russian Bizon SMG, used by the Spetz Natz soldiers since the ''Resistance'' expansion. It's a pretty awesome gun - except for the fact it started being produced in the early 90s and couldn't possibly be used by Soviet troops ten years earlier. The Bizon was probably included because of balancing issues (to give the Soviets their own silenced SMG)... or just because of [[Rule of Cool]]...

* [[Military Alphabet]] : Used regularly by your squadmates, as well as the voiceover of your character when you're commanding a squad.

* [[Missing Backblast]]: In a game which generally does its best to be realistic, the lack of backblast is somewhat jarring. Many mods add this, though.

* [[More Dakka]] : From light machine guns to large stationary ones to the ones mounted on tanks and [[Gatling Good|aircraft]]. You name it...

* [[Multi-Track Drifting]]: Possible at sufficiently high speeds in tanks, due to somewhat slippery physics.

* [[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.

** 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.

* [[War Is Hell]] : The games pit you in the role of a [[The Everyman|completely ordinary]], [[Redshirt Army|completely vulnerable]] and [[We Have Reserves|completely replacable]] [[New Meat|young soldier]]... who's fighting in small scale conflicts [[It Got Worse|that could easily spark]] [[World War Three]]... [[Averted Trope|No]] [[Anvilicious|heavy-handed]] condemnations of war or [[Contemplate Our Navels|sombre thoughts of your squadmates]] are ever heard, but the depiction of modern warfare in the game (subtle, yet straightforward) [[Show, Don't Tell|says more than a million words]] : It's nerve-wrecking, [[Everything Trying to Kill You|unpredictable]], [[Finagle's Law|often completely absurd]]. Virtually [[Anyone Can Die]]... And they do - ''[[Dying Like Animals|all the damned time]]''... Despite being war sims, the games never glorify or trivialize war and the way it changes the world, society and individuals.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWCfM5oCUSk Made all the more poignant] in ''Resistance'', where Viktor [[Technical Pacifist|tries to convince his friends against going to war with the Soviets]]. He's a recently retired professional soldier who [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|has seen too much death and suffering to count]], so he warns them that their desperate fight to liberate their homeland [[Defied Trope|isn't going to be]] [[War Is Glorious|glorious]] [[Hollywood Tactics|or easy]] [[Averted Trope|at all]]. But even though he's against the idea of fighting at first, [[The Call Knows Where You Live|he gets tangled up in the worsening situation]] and eventually decides to lead the Nogovan resistance cells (because if he didn't, things would probably end up even worse). [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|And to hammer the point of the trope home]], the end of ''Resistance''' storyline [[Bittersweet Ending|is anything but cheerful. The resistance fighters only manage to win at a terrible price and with heavy loses]].

* [[Where I Was Born and Razed]] : Happens in varying degrees in the [[Urban Warfare|city liberating missions]] of the ''Resistance'' campaign. Since all of them involve some tank warfare, expect the Nogovan resistance being forced to shell their own former homes and public buildings in order to smoke out the Soviet soldiers from their well-protected defences and hiding places.

* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: None of the games have "maps" in the traditional sense. You load an entire island, of perhaps 200-400 square kilometers, and then you play a mission on that island. It's essentially the same concept but on a much larger scale and uses the surrounding oceans, rather than [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence|walls or cliffs]], to prevent the player from leaving. While you're often restricted from just going anywhere you want on the island in the missions (because disobeying orders gets you in trouble and wandering deep into enemy territory is generally a bad idea anyway), many missions are set up in a sandbox manner, allowing you massive space to roam and a wide variety of equipment and support options. Occasionally, fan-made missions will put you in a ''[[Call of Duty]]''-ish linear mission.

[[Category:Simulation Game]]

[[Category:The Eighties]]

[[Category:X Box]]

[[Category:Stealth Based Game]]