Operation Flashpoint: Red River PC Review

If you’re looking for a COD-like experience then you better look elsewhere. Operation Flashpoint: Red River is a tactical military shooter that takes you to the boots of Sgt. William Kirby. The fire team leader of fire team Bravo. The plot takes place in Tajikistan. A fictional place where the remaining Al-Qaeda fighters retreated and attempted to make it their new base of operations. In Red River, you get to choose between 4 different classes before you start your mission. These are the Rifleman, Auto-Gunner, Grenadier and the Scout. The Rifleman is the adaptable member of the team. Why? It’s because his equipment has a bit of every class. His basic M16 and M4A1 can be attached with a sniper, or a thermal scope which is just like the scout. His M16 and M4A1 can also be attached with an M203 grenade launcher just like the grenadier. And his suppression skills are almost as remarkable as the auto-gunner. Next is the Auto-Gunner. This guy is the suppression expert. When it comes to missions where you have to hold the line, this is the guy you want. Ordering your auto-gunner to suppress and enemy position should pin the enemy down long enough for the rest of your team to flank, and kill them. And this is where the Grenadier comes in handy. When it comes to close quarters combat, never go without this guy. He is the expert in these situations. He has the best armor in the squad and also carries the highest amount of M203 ammunition. But, going close quarters can be hard without the Scout. The Scout is the dedicated marksman of the team. He can take position from long range to provide support. He can either tell the enemy’s position so chances of getting killed is low, and, he can also kill them with his sniper rifle.

So in Operation Flashpoint: Red River, you will find that each class has a role to play. And to make things better, you level up along the way! Leveling up unlocks more weapons and upgrades so every time you play, it’s worth it. The campaign can take around a long 10-15 hours to complete. Red River is not an easy game. If you get injured, your injuries will be a major problem unless you patch it up. Here, regenerating health never exists. You have to patch your wounds to survive. And patching your wounds can take some time too. If your bleeding (this happens when you get hit very bad) you are required to patch it up or else if you lose too much blood, that will lead to your death. Your teammates also receive wounds. And many people complain that they spend most of their time healing their teammates than shooting. Well, that’s because they need to learn a better strategy. My strategy when playing is that first, clear the area, and make sure it’s all clear of hostiles. Then, order your teammates to patch up the most severely wounded teammate while I heal some of the rest. This makes it 2x much quicker. Some people also complained in its predecessor, Dragon Rising, that sometimes your teammates would just get in your line of sight than accidentally cause friendly fire. In Red River, your teammates now warn you if they’re going to your line of sight so there is much less friendly fire. Another great aspect of the game is that each mission is a drop-in and drop-out which basically means that the level starts with your briefing either on a humvee or a CH-53 sea stallion.

Each mission starts with a quick briefing and ends with a debrief

The game also features “Fireteam Engagements” and “Online Co-op”. If you really hate working with AI’s then just get 3 competitive friends and have some fun in the co-op mode. You pretty much enjoy co-op mode much better rather than the single player since your teammates are much easier to co-op with. Specially if your just talking right beside each other. However, friendly AI’s in the campaign are good shooters. Scoring headshot after headshot. Am I sure? Yes. 100%. I investigated every corpse they killed and the blood is all over they’re head. While in Fireteam Engagements, your fire team, Bravo, will execute several missions. These include CSAR (Combat Search & Rescue), Rolling Thunder (Escorting a convoy), Last Stand (holding the line while facing a lot of PLA troops and having the freedom to evac anytime during the game) and Clean Sweep. (Clear all hostiles in the area).

Overall, Operation Flashpoint: Red River is a good game. But your squad leader, SSgt. Knox, is swearing all the time. And it really isn’t pleasing to the ear. But still, the game has good squad gameplay and gives that good sense of satisfaction after completing a mission. This earns Red River with a rating of 8.5/10. Every penny you paid is worth it.