Game Moments #10 - Operation: Flashpoint
While everyone else was playing Battlefield:1942, I was off playing a different military combat game called Operation: Flashpoint. This was a gem of a title taking place in an alternate-history cold war conflict in 1985. Interestingly enough, it was created by a group of developers who were all on the other side of the "Iron Curtain" that year.

The game had reasonably decent graphics and amazingly expansive environments - four entire islands. All vehicles were able to be entered and driven, including the civilian aircraft, helicopters, boats, and tanks. Buildings would collapse when they took too much damage. Equipment was persistent, so you could kill an enemy and take his weaponry if you felt so inclined. The game featured tons of 1985-era weapons and vehicles. And on top of it all, it included a fairly full-featured scripting language and mission builder, and full multiplayer play.

I wasted many, many days of my life to that game, none of which I regret. Multiplayer with a nearly impossible cooperative mission with friends was absolute frantic joy. Our little custom-designed deathmatch arenas were also a lot of fun. We were addicted and having a blast playing it. George McEwan, who did some of the modeling for Void War, got so good that he was able to capture tanks with a silenced MP-5 in a popular mission. Normally, when you shoot the commander or gunner, the other one would immediately duck into the vehicle and "button up." George could shoot both of them before they had a chance to react, and the driver would panic and flee the tank. That made that particular mission pretty easy when he could pull it off.

The game's physics weren't stellar, but they worked well enough. On more than one occasion I'd managed to blow a helicopter out of the sky with a well-placed rocket or portable anti-aircraft missile (well, okay, it usually took multiple hits) only to have my smug glee replaced with desperation as the burning aircraft came crashing down to the ground right on top of me. There were all kinds of other "tricks" to the game - like flushing out snipers by simply bringing the building they *might* be in crashing down around them. In one free-for-all multiplayer match the single helicopter was always destroyed so early in the game that we just got used to using it kamikaze-style as a big bomb, usually ejecting and parachuting to safety as our would-be destroyer got a face-full of of falling metal. And few things were as satisfying as seeing that annoying and nearly-indestructable tank drive over the anti-tank mine you'd placed while it was chasing you. Except when the same thing happened but you managed to survive the encounter - that was even better (but rare)!

One of the coolest "moments" in the game wasn't recognized by me until a couple of weeks afterwards. Three of us at the office were playing through the campaign. In one part of the game, your "character" is captured and is being taken to be executed. You are flown in to a prison camp by helicopter, and dropped off. Then you'd be marched off to a pit and shot by a firing squad. Needless to say, that's not the satisfactory "conclusion" to the mission - your true goal is to escape and make it back halfway across the island to friendly territory.

Shortly after disembarking the helicopter, the guards got distracted. I took the opportunity to break ranks, and run behind a building. Lucky me, there was an AK leaning up against the back wall, and I snagged it. The guards were running around both sides of the building to get me, so I shot two of them, and then shot the pilot of the helicopter. I jumped into the helicopter, and with the popping sounds of small-arms fire hitting the vehicle, I took off. This whole sequence actually took me about a half-dozen tries - I'd usually get killed before entering the helicopter. But I eventually pulled it off.

The flight home wasn't bad, but as i mentioned, the islands were pretty huge. And mostly occupied by enemy forces. There was at least one other helicopter that gave chase, and there were several times I had to dodge anti-aircraft guns or missiles. I deliberately took a circuitous route, trying to defeat the 'scripted' enemies, but they seemed to be everywhere. But I got back to friendly territory pretty quickly. Mission complete.

So we were talking about the mission at work, and I commented on how short the mission was, but how cool it was that they scripted out all the enemy forces occupying the island so that I couldn't just avoid them by not making a beeline to safety.

George, on the other hand, had a completely different story to tell. He'd not stolen the helicopter, but had rather been marched out to where the execution was to take place, but found an unattended BMP (an armored personnel carrier) and had jumped in and escaped by roads. He said the mission was long and difficult, as he was being chased by no less than two tanks and encountered numerous enemy convoys and roadblocks all the way back to safety. It had not been a short mission at all!

One of the other guys at the office had a completely different story to tell. He'd escaped on foot, without weapons, and had been required to dodge patrols (and the aforementioned tanks and convoys) the whole mission, and it had taken forever! I think he was kicking himself for not taking the helicopter.

At that point, we were all pretty impress with how open-ended the mission was, in spite of the inherent limitations of scripting. Somehow, we'd come away from the same game, the same episode (or "level"), with three completely different stories to tell. And they were all exciting.

So when I think about Storytelling and Narrative in games, I think back to that one prison-break mission. While there were several little scripted elements to the mission (mostly to provide you with an opportunity to make a break for it), the real "story" was of the player's making, assisted by the game. Everyone felt they were taking the "obvious" option and following the mission's pre-designed chain of events, but the truth is that there were neither.

Labels: Flight Sims, Game Moments, Mainstream Games

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