Great foundation for military simulator genre. Increadibly immersive. Minor quibbles to core game play. Polish needed.
The graphics while not the aboslute cutting edge of what a small handful of games now offer are still very, very good and definatly not last generation as another so called professional reviewer said. The explosions from artillery, mortors etc. are the best in any game I've seen. Ragdoll phyisics are good. The intensity is without a doubt the best of any military shooter out to date. I can't play for more than an hour at a time or I start feeling sick like battle fatigue as if I were watching Black Hawk Down over and over again. The overall destructable environment, however, could be greatly improred. While buildings can be destroyed by bombs and artillery and windows can be broken, most things are not destructable and a small fence can stop a tank. Also trees and foilege do not appear to be affected by gun fire. They could take a lesson from Battlefield in this area. They say the Ego graphics system is scalable so that the game can be enhanced to whatever the latest hardware will handle, so I think the ground work is set for an even more explosive sequal.
The AI can be dumb at times, but ironically it actually feels right under the circumstances. When you are in the chaos of battle, guys are going to scramble around and not always make the best decisions with regard to cover and yes sometimes may run in front of their own guy's firing at the enemy. Any issue with the AI is a quibble and not that distracting from the game. There is little scripting so things always have new twists and suprises on replay. There are a few minor glitches here and there like not being able to jump over small boulders sometimes or a rare stutter or hangup on somthing, but again nothing really distracting from the overall effect. The vehicles look good but the handling is loose and vehicles seem more of an afterthought to the game, this is definately an inventry game.
The biggest thing that could be improved is the order system. Going through the menus is a bit awkward. A Brothers in Arms or Full Spectrum Warrior system for issuing orders would work sweet here. However, the more I play the less the order system is an issue. Most of the low reviews I've read show the reviewers lack of competence and not an issue with the game. For instance one guys said it was a joke that you can see all of the enemy on the map display and that your squad memebers will shoot as soon as they see someone and not wait for commands. Well, enemies only show up on the map if they have been spotted which is completely reasonable and you can order your guys to hold fire until you give the command to shoot. Simple minded gamers need to avoid this game and stick to Halo. Why they are even on here reviewing somthing they don't have any grasp for is beyond me.
I have only tried multiplayer once and found a game right away, but could not figure out what was going on with the battle and nobody was using their microphones so I dropped off to see if there was another group playing but then could not find any other active games. I read in other reviews there are problems with finding games and lag. Hopefully they have this fixed by the time I finish the campaign and try to get back into online play.
Bottom line is that if you liked the original Flashpoint or are into the military fps simulator genre and the complexity that goes with it then you will enjoy this game and appreciate it as a solid foundation of somthing great to be built on for furture versions. However, if you only have enough money to buy one game this season and are not sure you will enjoy the pace or appreaciate the intensity of a military simulator and prefer to jump right into quick FPS action to rack up kills in an established game that has addressed most wrinkles then get COD MW2 when it comes out. Or if you are really strapped for cash, get the $15 download of Battlefield 1943 which is addictivly fun, but an entirely different genre than Flashpoint.