Fortunately,
Operation Flashpoint shines where it matters most--gameplay. While the title can be damned frustrating due to the raw difficulty of 'realism' and some strange design decisions, there's a lot of fun to be had too, especially for those who are looking for an action game that's much more realistic than pretty much anything else out there.
The concept of the game starts off good, and only gets better as the game progresses. You start off stationed on the Malden Islands, a private with a fat lot of nothing to do. Before you know it, however, the islands come under assault, and as the resident NATO troopage, you have to go and find out just what happened. The plot gets more and more interesting as the game progresses, and you move up in the world, driving and flying various vehicles and even giving orders to subordinates instead of the other way around. Set during the time of the Cold War, the game definitely intrigues with the setup.
And it's quite intriguing in the actual play as well. Most games are limited to a 'zone' or 'corridor' of play, especially shooter-type titles; you find yourself closed in by artificial obstructions, keeping you from free reign over the environment. Not so in Operation Flashpoint. If you want to amble all the way to Timbuktu, more power to you. This sort of freedom is downright disconcerting at first, because it's not typical that you get to execute true flanking maneuvers on an enemy in a first-person game.
Of course, the game doesn't have to be played in first-person. Indeed, when you hop inside of vehicles, it'd probably be a wise decision to switch to a more omniscient view. Did I say vehicles? Yes, yes I did. You want to drive jeeps? Tanks? Helicopters? Have at it, then. There's a world of vehicular enjoyment to be had in Operation Flashpoint. To keep the game simpler, you don't have to learn a whole new control scheme for each vehicle, so there's definitely some tradeoffs for the hardcore sim crowd when it comes to the various things you can pilot. But it's worth it for those of us who look at the instruction manual for Microsoft Flight Simulator and whimper like dogs.
The game's plenty realistic, though. At the beginning you'll find yourself the human equivalent of cannon fodder, trying to dodge flak and basically survive from second to second. As the game progresses, you'll find yourself in possession of bigger and better hardware--realistic, of course--and on tougher missions, where you have to juggle more things and even perhaps command some folks of your own.
If you get tired of the gunfire and tanks and heavily-scripted single-player missions, you can always jump into multiplayer. Doing squad-based combat with your friends can be entertaining, but you need to make sure to hook up with a solid team of players, or do it on a LAN. In a game this realistic, coordination is absolutely necessary if you don't want to get your collective heads blown off.
