Platform Tested: 360
Platform(s) Available: 360, PS3, PC
Tactical FPS
Red River is the follow up to Dragon Rising, released in late 2009, which was itself a follow up to earlier Operation Flashpoint games developed by Bohemia Interactive. Dragon Rising, under Codemasters control, deviated somewhat from the original Flashpoint games and suffered from a lack of polish. But have Codemasters improved upon it with Red River?
Well, yes and no.
As far as making an approachable shooter Red River is a step ahead of Dragon Rising. It's also several steps behind the likes of Call of Duty, Halo and numerous other big name shooters. In fact the game suffers a little from not being sure whether it wants to be like its predecessors or like the guns blazing, hold your hand every step of the way, action games that are popular today. In terms of pure action it can't compete; which means that when it does hold your hand it's, well, boring. Fortunately that's easily rectified.
When will the river run red?A quick flick of a difficulty switch later and the majority of the HUD is removed. Now you have to pay attention. Now you have to be careful. Now you have to think about what you're doing. Of course the downside is that now the game is brutally difficult. On the hardest difficulty we're talking no checkpoints and no respawns in hour long missions. Having to restart because you died right at the end can be... aggravating. Luckily the game allows some customisation of difficulty levels allowing you to adjust the HUD to your preference or allow respawns while disabling the majority of the HUD. While there are a few options to this which I feel should really be included it covers most of the bases.
Another benefit of this is that in co-op you can play on a lower difficulty but still allow better players to play with HUD options removed and get the most out of the game. And co-op is where this game really shines. Working together as a team is a great experience and while the removal of the dedicated medic class from Dragon Rising is a disappointment as far as roles is concerned there are four different classes to choose from, although the overlap is a little extreme in some cases. You also have the benefit that if you die half way through a mission (on hardcore) you've probably (if your team mates are any good) got a bit of time to go grab a cuppa while they finish the mission.
Besides being great fun, playing co-operatively saves you from worrying about AI companions. Not that the AI is bad. It isn't, or at least no worse than most AI, the problem, and I hesitate to call it a problem, but the issue some people will have with it is is that it tends to disobey stupid commands. That's right, if you're lying bleeding out next to three enemies and you command your team mate to heal you they will probably wait until the enemies are out of the way rather than rushing in and dying; it makes sense but some people expect the AI to do exactly as commanded.
Anyone for night missions?On the flip side, if you don't give the AI many commands they won't be as effective. And giving commands can be slightly problematic in the middle of a combat situation, another reason to play co-op; asking Timmy to flank left with Rob while you go round to the right and Simon lays down covering fire is a lot easier than instructing AI.
Instructing AI is done through the use of a fairly simple radial menu. You can give commands to either the whole squad or to individual members. It can take some time, especially until you become familiar with the layout. You can also give some orders from the map which is useful and there is a similar radial control for issuing support commands (just try not to order mortars on your current position by mistake).
The campaign is fairly long, though slightly shorter than Dragon Rising. Also the PvP modes from the previous game have been removed though there are now a number of smaller missions aside from the main campaign which see you clearing areas, rescuing pilots in enemy territory, defending locations and escorting convoys. Each of these missions, including the campaign ones are given a rating and earning successive medals will help improve your characters basic attributes. You will also earn experience towards your current class, allowing you to earn unlocks. While this is a nice system you get to the point where the rifleman more or less does everything and the other classes only have minor benefits.
Whatever class you are you can use any of the weapons in the game, although how competent you are with them varies slightly. Your arsenal includes the likes of rifles, snipers, anti-vehicle weapons, grenade launchers and mounted weapons. You can also, depending on the weapon equip attachments like scopes and silencers.
Each character can also equip two of a set of perks which do things like increase the amount of ammo you can carry, reduce the chance of your weapon jamming, increase your endurance or simply provide you with more experience. As the rifleman gains access to an attachable grenade launcher and a rifle nearly on par with a sniper for most medium distance fighting these perks are the main reason to play as different classes once you've levelled them all up.
While the game is polished more than Dragon Rising was there are still a number of issues that carry over from the previous game but most of them are either minor or rare. Some of the language is also a little, excessive, though whether you consider that an accurate depiction of the military experience or a bad attempt to characterise the only person in the game who really has any character will depend on how you see such things.
Rating:
Audio: 7/10 [Excessive language and occasional glitches mar otherwise good audio]
Graphics: 7/10 [Looks good for the most part]
Gameplay: 8/10 [Great on harder difficulties but the degree of challenge isn't for everyone]
Multiplayer: 9/10 [Great co-operative game, team work and communication is a must]
Presentation: 8/10 [The HUD and map work well and are fairly adjustable]
Lasting Appeal: 8/10 [Between levelling up your classes and getting gold medals on all the levels there's quite a lot to do]
Story: 7/10 [Run of the mill military storyline]
Overall: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Better than Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - Worse than Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Like this? Try Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
If you want a challenging co-operative shooter Red River will provide your blood bath. But if you're just looking for action packed thrills there are better alternatives.
Illusion
