Operation Flashpoint 2

Format PC

Developer Codemasters

Publisher Codemasters

Genre First Person Shooter, Sim / Strategy

17 Comments

There is one question to ask, one question to answer even before the demonstration begins. One question that almost defines the development of Operation Flashpoint 2. "Can you do that?"

I point at the incredible rendered scenes that the British developers, Codemasters, have made available to the press. The extraordinary images of soldiers under fire, of helicopters approaching their landing zones, of massed infantry and armour striking forward. The frankly unbelievable postcards from the future that you can now see spread across these very pages. Brant Nicholas, Flashpoint 2's Senior Producer, doesn't even blink. "Yeah. Of course." "Christ."

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising
is the sequel to the best soldier sim ever created. It's a game being built to exacting specifications by military obsessives, to simulate the authentic behaviour of battle-hardened troops and push PCs to their limits.

Everything from the interiors of vehicles to the bolts on the most lowly of assault rifles has been rigorously researched and meticulously recreated. The background story is a plausible tale of war for oil on a tiny island claimed separately by Russia, China and Japan. The missions are excerpts from wargames played by former military experts in a simulated conflict between China and the US. It's a game built on an almost embarrassing level of detail.

It's a moon shot for Codemasters - a game that will look, sound and play a generation ahead of the competition. The geography, all 220-odd square kilometres of it, includes rolling hills, forests, swamps and an extinct volcano to run around in. The dynamic environmental systems include day and night cycles, weather and accurate physics. Operation Flashpoint 2 is a game long in the planning, long in the making, and long, oh‑so-long awaited.

One problem: right now, all they have to demonstrate their ambition are target renders (based at least on the actual art assets created for the game) and a very, very early prototype. For now, we have to take their word for it.

For the story of Flashpoint 2, you need to speak to Andrew Wafer. It's a story that begins in 2001, when he was working on the original Operation Flashpoint.

A vast and uncompromising simulation of warfare between Russia and the US, it went on to sell over two million copies. From its first moments, you could tell that it was different. Rather than appearing at the edge of combat, straight into the action, you'd often take a truck, or hike to the frontline. Instead of a great big pool of health, and a ready supply of health-kits, one bullet - sometimes from a sniper nestled in a bush a kilometre away - would end a mission. Andrew is exactly right when he says "players of the original Operation Flashpoint had two reactions to that moment. Either they turned it off immediately, never to play again, or they fell completely in love."

The original Flashpoint was developed with Bohemia Interactive, developers based in the Czech Republic. After its success, Bohemia and Codemasters both wanted to produce a sequel, but had "different ideas of where the sequel should go." Andrew spent the next few years touring the globe. "I went everywhere, all over the world, looking for a team to make Operation Flashpoint 2."

No one had the technology. No one had the vision. No one understood the raw attention to detail and endless geography a second Flashpoint game would need. So, in 2005, after years of fruitless searching, the executives at Codemasters made a decision.

They were going to do it themselves. Clive Lindop takes up the story. He was hired specifically by Codemasters to build the battle AI. In his job interview, he says,
he was asked "how would you go about building Operation Flashpoint 2?" His answer: "there's no other way to do it: to build everything from scratch, the technology, the art assets, the island, and the AI."

So Codemasters began reconfiguring themselves for what was going to be their largest, most expensive, riskiest project ever. A studio in Kuala Lumpur was set up, employing 70 artists specifically to build the ultra-detailed weapons and vehicles that the game would feature. Two full-time researchers were hired to ensure that the dynamics and tactics of each side would match current doctrines.

And the tech teams began crafting a game engine, using, as one of its elements, technology from Codemasters' well-regarded racing games. All they had to work with was the renderer: the code that produces images of landscapes. The terrain engine, physics models, weather patterns, lighting... everything else would need to be built from scratch.

The art team's aim to create an atmosphere of heavy, muted war is best demonstrated in their attention to the impact of violence. Laser-guided bombs and artillery (you'll be able to call down a limited number of off-map strikes during the campaign) leave the target area devastated, and produce plumes of charcoal thick smoke that climb upwards of 15 storeys, and are visible for miles. Mortars and grenades (yes, they're included, unlike in previous Flashpoint games) will tear flesh apart. Limbs will separate, and the blood from flesh wounds seep through clothing.

How gruesome they can allow themselves to be? Bran nods, clearly concerned. "It's a moral issue: we have artists who've been quite affected by the images of injuries they're working from." Gratuitous imagery is not what they're looking for. Occasionally horrific: yes. Realistic, definitely.

The ludicrous attention to detail presses hard on the 3D artists who make up the majority of the Flashpoint team. One artist has been tasked with building trees - leaf by leaf. Codemasters experimented with software to autogenerate their foliage, but couldn't get the right results, nor would the light shine through correctly. So instead, all the forestry had to be hand-drawn. Some artists spend their days equipping and texturing the soldiers. A soldier's kit has to be accurate: they work from acres of current photography and footage. When the US Army changed their camouflage pattern to a slightly more pixellated version, the artists just sucked it up and redid their infantry.

It's at this point, as our expectations reach sky-high proportions, that Codemasters show their prototype. It comes with a caveat: it's still being worked on. This is the most basic version of the game - a testbed without the graphical detail. The terrain is bare, but real. There is a couple of completed vehicles - Bradley APCs and trucks that hug the ground and bounce along the curves and bumps of the landscape, but don't have the accurate cockpits the game will eventually include.

Brant looks into the air as the sun whips through the sky, demonstrating the day and night cycle. As the sun sets, the shadows lengthen - accurately playing over our soldiers' weapons and ammo bags. Brant turns his soldier to look at a hill that flows into cliffs, at least three miles off. A few button taps, and Brant warps to the hill. From here, we can just make out the little group of buildings where we started.

Why do Flashpoint's battlefields need to be this big? It's so that they can accurately simulate modern warfare. They have to be massive to accommodate real-world tank tactics. They have to stretch on and on to give aircraft time to turn and make another pass. Any compromise could destroy the game. The fact that we can look to the horizon, that battles can ebb and flow far from our current location, is fundamental to Flashpoint's appeal.

More than just big, Flashpoint's missions and scenarios need to feel realistic. This isn't one man against an entire army: Flashpoint's campaign is an infantry experience that eventually morphs into a combined arms sim. You'll start off as a rifleman, but gain access and training in new toys
as your experience with the game increases. Your standard rifle is supplemented by a Javelin launcher (Codemasters show off how Javelins work in-game: they need to be assembled before firing, and the iron sights are identical to the real weapon's). Soon, tanks and helicopters begin to appear in your missions.

But perhaps the hardest challenge of all is teaching the computer soldiers how to play. That's Clive's job: ensuring the infantry know how to cover and flank, that vehicles know their role in the battlefield. He's developed a playbook system, analogous to an American Football coach: the AI knows that if placed in dangerous situations, it can implement 'supressed retreat 3' to escape.

Tactics and plays are ripped straight from the US military protocols (the Chinese Army is also rumoured to use leaked American training documents to drill their troops). Clive promises that the extensive suite of mod tools will also include an AI playbook editor.Flashpoint found massive longevity in the mod community, thanks to a superb map editor. Flashpoint 2 will continue that tradition.

The presentation Clive, Brant and Andrew are giving dissolves into conversation. They talk of the missions they're working on: of beachfront assaults co-ordinated with helicopter landings; of night missions to take out Sea Hawk missile silos, allowing troop carriers to break the beachhead; of planning and escaping ambushes; of urban and countryside engagements.

It's clear, in their conversation, that they get it - that they understand that turning Operation Flashpoint into a quick arcade-style shooting gallery simply will not work. It's clear that they understand the importance of Flashpoint's original community. It's clear that they consider the game's natural home is on the PC (console versions will come, but without the same level of graphical fidelity) and that, even if the game will run well on today's Core 2 Duo processors, they're planning for the future, and building in enough overhead to take advantage of next years octo-core processors.

And it's clear that Codemasters get the importance of multiplayer. Their presentation includes a brief, unassuming slide: multiplayer modes. I ask about co-operative play - about whether we could join a platoon of friends and take on Flashpoint's hardest challenges together. He smiles. "We have to hold back some things for later announcements." I ask about co-op for Flashpoint 2's entire campaign. His smile just widens.

Tim Edwards