History VideoGame / OperationFlashpointCodemasters

* LittleUselessGun: Pistols in general. As with any shooter on the realistic end of the FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism, pistols are a RangedEmergencyWeapon (with a very short effective range, something that's not ideal to be fighting in in this game) that only see use when you run dry of ammo for your rifle. Though, with the lack of supplies, this will be the case unless you take weapons from the Chinese. ''Red River'' lets you ditch the pistol altogether and replace it with a backup M16 assault rifle once you finish the first mission, which is highly recommended especially if you're playing a designated marksman or support gunner to complement your designated marksman rifle or LMG. In both games, at the close ranges in which a pistol would be effective, an enemy can mow you down in a quarter of a second anyway often before you'd be able to react,''Red River'' does have (if using a controller, it doesn't have an effect with mouse and keyboard) Rifles/LMGs impose a turning speed penalty, which pistols ignore, allowing to them to potentially let you turn fast enough to save your hide at close range.

* GoodBadBugs: An amusing glitch seemingly caused by reloading while changing stance in ''Dragon Rising'' causes your character's hands to not move from their neutral position while the reload happens, resulting in the magazine change and chambering of your weapon seemingly occuring telepathically.

* PressXToDie: If you're being incapitated in ''Red River'', you have an option to bleed faster by holding down the use button causing the revival timer to decrease rapidly to your death. Doing so in single player will fail the mission, however in co-op this is useful to respawn immediately if you're impatient of waiting someone to revive you.

** Downplayed in ''Dragon Rising''. You are issued a field dressing for use on yourself and squadmates when shot. However, this will only stop you from bleeding to death and will not heal and damage done to body parts. In order to do so, you then need to either call for a medic to heal your wounds properly or wait for a checkpoint, where you are instantly healed, Only the Medic class is capable of this and no one can take their syringe if they die.

* OneHitKill: Averted in ''Dragon Rising''; at the game's standard engagement range of about 200 meters, enemies can take up to 4-5 shots to the torso to kill, which makes it worthwhile to try and go for headshots. Played straight in ''Red River''; insurgents go down in one shot from any weapon. [=PLA=] troops wear body armor so one hit from an assault rifle won't kill them, but they'll still be incapacitated and unable to fight unless given first aid by a squadmate. You yourself die in about 3 or 4 shots in both games unless its to the head/close range, where it easily become a one-hit kill.

* LittleUselessGun: Pistols in general. As with any shooter on the realistic end of the FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism, pistols are a RangedEmergencyWeapon (with a very short effective range, something that's not ideal to be fighting in in this game) that only see use when you run dry of ammo for your rifle. Though, with the lack of supplies, this will be the case unless you take weapons from the Chinese. ''Red River'' lets you ditch the pistol altogether and replace it with a backup M16 assault rifle once you finish the first mission, which is highly recommended especially if you're playing a designated marksman or support gunner to complement your designated marksman rifle or LMG. In both games, at the close ranges in which a pistol would be effective, an enemy can mow you down in a quarter of a second anyway often before you'd be able to react.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In both games, the health of you and your squad is restored to 100% at each checkpoint, to prevent you from causing an UnwinnableByMistake situation where the game checkpoints while you're too critically injured to get through the next combat encounter, the easiest difficulty in Dragon Rising expands this to reviving dead teammates as well.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Red River'' is noticeably easier and more user-friendly than ''Dragon Rising''. You have the ability to completely restore your health instead of merely stopping bleeding, you're able to choose your loadout for each mission and are also able to start with both a marksman rifle and an assault rifle at the same time, and for the first 1/3rd of the game your enemies are poorly equipped insurgents who lack vehicle support and can be killed with one shot due to not wearing body armor. Even when you fight the [=PLA=] who are wearing body armor, one M16 shot will still incapacitate them and take them out of the fight unless they're patched up by a squadmate. Engagements also tend to take place at closer range, at an average of about 100 meters compared to an average of 200 meters in ''Dragon Rising''. The only way in which ''Red River'' is more difficult is the fact you're less accurate with the assault rifle (capable of missing aimed shots even at 50 meters) and need to upgrade your accuracy with the game's RPGElements.

* ArtificialStupdity: The AI has a decent chance to leave it's cover to rush the player, even when the player is far away for it to be suicidal, Like ARMA AI they don't know how to pick up weapons/ammo (Made worse since the player cannot order the AI to pick up ammo/weapons from corpses/crates.) and their behaviour when they fall back to the combat knife is either "Stand behind a tree and hope you don't get shot" or "Crouch run at the target slowly.".

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In both games, the health of you and your squad is restored to 100% at each checkpoint, to prevent you from causing an UnwinnableByMistake situation where the game checkpoints while you're too critically injured to get through the next combat encounter.

** Downplayed in ''Dragon Rising''. You are issued a field dressing for use on yourself and squadmates when shot. However, this will only stop you from bleeding to death and will not heal and damage done to body parts. In order to do so, you then need to either call for a medic to heal your wounds properly or wait for a checkpoint, where you are instantly healed.

* [[HideYourChildren Hide Your Civilians]]: In ''Dragon Rising'', it's never really explained why you see no civilians on Skyra, except for a brief [[{{Handwave}} "they were all evacuated already"]] [[BellisariosMaxim explanation]].

* OneHitKill: Averted in ''Dragon Rising''; at the game's standard engagement range of about 200 meters, enemies can take up to 4-5 shots to the torso to kill, which makes it worthwhile to try and go for headshots. Played straight in ''Red River''; insurgents go down in one shot from any weapon. [=PLA=] troops wear body armor so one hit from an assault rifle won't kill them, but they'll still be incapacitated and unable to fight unless given first aid by a squadmate. You yourself die in about 3 or 4 shots in both games.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Red River'' is noticeably easier and more user-friendly than ''Dragon Rising''. You have the ability to completely restore your health instead of merely stopping bleeding, you're able to choose your loadout for each mission and are also able to carry both a marksman rifle and an assault rifle at the same time, and for the first 1/3rd of the game your enemies are poorly equipped insurgents who lack vehicle support and can be killed with one shot due to not wearing body armor. Even when you fight the [=PLA=] who are wearing body armor, one M16 shot will still incapacitate them and take them out of the fight unless they're patched up by a squadmate. Engagements also tend to take place at closer range, at an average of about 100 meters compared to an average of 200 meters in ''Dragon Rising''. The only way in which ''Red River'' is more difficult is the fact you're less accurate with the assault rifle (capable of missing aimed shots even at 50 meters) and need to upgrade your accuracy with the game's RPGElements.

The plot of the game itself takes place in the near future, when the People's Republic of China adopts an expansionist policy and tries to capture several rich new mineral deposits in various neighbouring regions of Asia (many of the old reserves have been depleting, particularly those of fossile fuels). The latest target of the Chinese is the (fictional) resource-rich island of Skira in the icy waters of the North Pacific, formerly a Russian and Japanese disputed territory. The NATO forces are called in for help and the inevitable clash with army of the [=PRC=] starts from there.

* WideOpenSandbox: ''Dragon Rising''. Averted in ''Red River''.

* LittleUselessGun: Pistols in general. As with any shooter on the realistic end of the FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism, pistols are a RangedEmergencyWeapon (with a very short effective range, something that's not ideal to be fighting in in this game) that only see use when you run dry of ammo for your rifle. Though, with the lack of supplies, this will be the case unless you take weapons from the Chinese. ''Red River'' lets you ditch the pistol altogether and replace it with a backup M16 assault rifle once you finish the first mission, which is highly recommended especially if you're playing a designated marksman or support gunner to complement your designated marksman rifle or LMG.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Red River'' is noticeably easier and more user-friendly than ''Dragon Rising''. You have the ability to completely restore your health instead of merely stopping bleeding, you're able to choose your loadout for each mission and are also able to carry both a marksman rifle and an assault rifle at the same time, and for the first 1/3rd of the game your enemies are poorly equipped insurgents who lack vehicle support and can be killed with one shot from anything bigger than a pistol due to not wearing body armor. Even when you fight the [=PLA=] who are wearing body armor, one M16 shot will still incapacitate them and take them out of the fight unless they're patched up by a squadmate. Engagements also tend to take place at closer range, at an average of about 100 meters compared to an average of 200 meters in ''Dragon Rising''. The only way in which ''Red River'' is more difficult is the fact you're less accurate with the assault rifle (capable of missing aimed shots even at 50 meters) and need to upgrade your accuracy with the game's RPGElements.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Red River'' is noticeably easier and more user-friendly than ''Dragon Rising''. You have the ability to completely restore your health instead of merely stopping bleeding, you're able to choose your loadout for each mission and are also able to carry both a marksman rifle and an assault rifle at the same time, and for the first 1/3rd of the game your enemies are poorly equipped insurgents who lack vehicle support and can be killed with one shot from anything bigger than a pistol due to not wearing body armor. Engagements also tend to take place at closer range, at an average of about 100 meters compared to an average of 200 meters in ''Dragon Rising''. The only way in which ''Red River'' is more difficult is the fact you're less accurate with the assault rifle (capable of missing aimed shots even at 50 meters) and need to upgrade your accuracy with the game's RPGElements.