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[[UH-60 Black Hawk]]
*[[UH-60 Black Hawk]]


[[CH-47 Chinook]]
*[[CH-47 Chinook]]


[[OH-58 Kiowa]]
*[[OH-58 Kiowa]]


[[AH-1 Cobra]]
*[[AH-1 Cobra]]


[[AH-64 Apache]]
*[[AH-64 Apache]]


[[Mi-17]]
*[[Mi-17]]


[[Mi-24 Hind]]
*[[Mi-24 Hind]]


[[SU-25]] Frogfoot
*[[SU-25]] Frogfoot

[[A-10 Thunderbolt II]]


*[[A-10 Thunderbolt II]]


===Water-borne Vehicles===
===Water-borne Vehicles===

Revision as of 14:57, 28 January 2008

Operation Flashpoint
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis boxart
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis boxart
Developer(s)Bohemia Interactive Studio
Publisher(s)Codemasters
EngineReal Virtuality
Cold War Crisis: 1.00 - 1.46
Resistance: 1.75 - 1.96
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Xbox
ReleaseEU June 22 2001
NA August 30 2001
Genre(s)Tactical shooter
Mode(s)Single player, Multiplayer

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, sometimes shortened to Operation Flashpoint, and abbreviated OFP, is a tactical shooter and battlefield simulator video game developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio and published by Codemasters. It was released on June 22, 2001 in Europe and August 30, 2001 in North America. Set on a group of fictitious islands in 1985, Operation Flashpoint puts the player on one of three sides in a hypothetical conflict between NATO and Soviet forces. The Resistance is the third playable faction. Two expansion packs were released; Gold Upgrade, which included Red Hammer, a campaign from the Soviet perspective, and Resistance, which introduced various new features and improved graphics and sound effects. Operation Flashpoint was praised for its attention to realistic combat.

In 2006, Bohemia Interactive developed an unofficial sequel called Armed Assault. It is based on an improved Flashpoint engine. Armed Assault was released in the United States on May 1, 2007.

An official sequel not developed by Bohemia Interactive, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising, is being developed by Codemasters. It is due for release in early 2008.

Synopsis

Cold War Crisis

The year is 1985, and Mikhail Gorbachev has come to power in the USSR. While his Glasnost and Perestroika reforms are welcomed by western governments, there are communist hardliners in his own government that are unsympathetic to his cause.

One of these men, a fanatic hardline general called Aleksei Guba, is determined to bring down Gorbachev and make himself the next leader of the Soviet Union. Guba commands an army on the island base of Kolgujev. Nearby is Everon; an independent republic, and Malden; another republic which has a strong NATO presence. Guba invades Everon, crushes the militia force there, and secretly plans to take the war to the Americans.

The NATO presence on Malden, under the command of the American Colonel Blake, moves in to investigate the loss of contact with Everon, and reports of invasion by an 'unknown hostile force'. When a helicopter of troops sent to investigate doesn't return, Blake orders a full scale invasion of Everon, not knowing about the Soviets, and the deadly conflict that would lie ahead.

During the campaign players take the roles of one of four characters:

David Armstrong - A determined Private in the US Army who is training on Malden when the fighting breaks out.

Robert Hammer - An inexperienced tank commander who has been called into front line service due to a shortage of tank crews.

Sam Nichols - A Black Hawk pilot who is called on to fly helicopter gunships, and eventually an A-10 Thunderbolt.

James Gastovski - A retired US Special forces soldier, Gastovski is called out of retirement to carry out sabotage missions.

American infantry preparing to seize a Soviet-held village.


Weapons of Operation Flashpoint

The following weapons are available for the player to use in the PC version of Operation Flashpoint. Each weapon in the game is accurate to its original specification, with correct sights, characteristics and handling.

Assault Rifles

Sub-Machine Guns

Support Weapons

Sniper Weapons

Heavy Weapons

Miscellaneous Weapons

Vehicle Mounted Weapons

Combat Vehicles of Operation Flashpoint

The following vehicles are available for the player to use in the PC version of Operation Flashpoint. The player can take the position of driver/pilot, gunner or commander. The interior and exterior of the vehicles are visually accurate to the original specification.


Land Based Vehicles

  • 5t Truck

Aircraft

Water-borne Vehicles

LST (Landing Ship, Tank)

PBR (Patrol Boat, River)

Operation Flashpoint Add-ons

Red Hammer

An add-on campaign Red Hammer, which was developed by Codemasters, depicts the same conflict, but places the player in the role of a Russian soldier, Dmitri Lukin, rather than an American soldier. During the course of the campaign, Lukin switches from his steadfast fight against American forces to battling his own countrymen in order to pave the way for an American take-over of the island. There are a few vehicles added, including the AH-64 Apache, BMP-2. The save game system was altered significantly, making reverting to a previous level impossible.

Lukin had been a Spetsnaz in Afghanistan but was demoted to Private and shipped to the regular army for insubordination. During the course of the Red Hammer campaign he is put in command of a squad, promoted to Sergeant, drives tanks, flies helicopters and eventually gets promoted to Lieutenant and assigned back to Spetsnaz.

Resistance

Another add-on, Resistance, is set three years before the events of the two preceding games. The player takes the role of an ex-Special Operations soldier, Victor Troska, who has returned to his homeland of Nogova after years in exile serving the US Special Forces. During the first introductory mission to the campaign, the island is invaded by the Soviet Union. Initially, Troska refuses to have any part in the fighting and ignores the persuasion of the Resistance pioneers, despite feeling guilty and helpless as his countrymen are massacred by the Russian invaders. One day, a seriously wounded guerilla takes refuge in Troska's barn with Russian troops on his heels. Troska has virtually no choice but to lead a ramshackle uprising, and the player must use his/her resourcefulness to salvage weapons and ammunition from fallen enemies to supplement supplies which are continually available at later stages in the campaign. The expansion pack also updates the graphics, sounds, and multiplayer mechanics.

Gameplay

File:Ofp 6.JPG
A Soviet T-80- platoon engaging American armoured units.

A server host has the ability to choose cooperative multiplayer missions where a team of human players fight together to accomplish specific objectives, as well as the player-devised Conquer The Island (CTI) mode where two teams of human players, or alternatively one team of humans and one team controlled by AI, have the ability to build their own bases complete with basic defences, train AI infantry units, build empty or AI-crewed vehicles and clash in large-scale battles.

Operation Flashpoint also includes an in-game mission editor which can be used to create anything from single missions to entire campaigns.

Control

Unlike other FPS games in which the aiming reticule is set in the center of the screen, and aiming moves the whole body's position, Operation Flashpoint's aiming reticule is movable around the whole field of vision and only moves the player's body when the reticule is pointed near the edge of the screen.

The islands

Operation Flashpoint's three main islands, Everon, Malden, and Kolgujev, are based on actual existing islands. Everon is the Croatian island of Krk. Malden is the Greek Ionian island Levkas. Kolgujev is based on Tenerife Island, one of the Canary Islands. Another island in the game, Meganissi, the largest island just to the east of Levkas.

Nogova is an island introduced in the Resistance expansion pack. While it has no real world analogue, it shares landmark names with Bohemia Interactive's native Czech Republic and several areas appear to be very similar to areas in the game.

Fan-base

Operation Flashpoint's fan-base is still very active, even after a number of years since the game's initial release. A great number of fan-made missions and mods created using Flashpoint's mission editor are available for download on fan pages. The modding community has become so diverse, that there are a wide number of game modifications that almost change the gameplay entirely, such as total conversion mods.

The modders among the community have managed to represent many of the world's military forces in the game; addons range from 18th century muskets and cannons to futuristic aliens and spaceships. However, the main focus is on modern and realistic addons with a large number of today's armed forces represented, even including less well-known armed forces such as Finland, Sweden or Pakistan. A number of mods portray the American Civil War and World War II.

Xbox port

An Xbox port named Operation Flashpoint: Elite was developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio and published by Codemasters in November 2005.

See also