Character movement, while still feeling somewhat awkward and peculiar in ARMA 2, has improved greatly on the awkwardness of movement in the original Real Virtuality engine. The graphics of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis were adequate, but have been improved on greatly by ARMA 2. Even as a long-term fan of Bohemia Interactive’s games, I will admit that the Real Virtuality engine still has its flaws and foibles, but the engine revisions in the more recent ARMA series have gone some way in making the game more accessible and more fluid.

However, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis feels like a product of its time and while it represented an outstanding first attempt at a properly comprehensive combined-arms simulator, there are several details of the game which feel outdated. Along with an exceptional campaign which felt like an interactive playthrough of a Cold War thriller, the game included a comprehensive mission editor which allowed the game assets to be put to further use with user-created missions. The game presented full combined-arms tactics with infantry, armoured vehicles and aircraft on huge maps of more than 100km 2 in area, with firefights often taking place at several hundred metres. Of these tactical shooters, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was probably the most ambitious, presenting technical features which are still rarely rivalled today.

When Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was released in 2001, it joined a small number of other simulation-oriented first-person shooters of the era, including the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon.

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