[Zzzzzzzzz]

Well, I just completed the single player campaign of OFP and I'm not really sure what to make of it. There were a lot of things I loved. The game was so slick and stable, and gave every impression of being a detailed, realistic military sim/shooter hybrid. And yet... the game is just so incredibly slight. It's almost like a promising, half-finished fan mod was released as a full game. My complaints aren't quite the same as most of the ones I've seen here. I have no issue with the graphics, and the lack of ded server options doesn't particularly bother me. I didn't even have any great issues with the AI, although there's always room for improvement.

What does bother me is that I feel like I just paid full price for a demo or possibly a well presented proof-of-concept. Where is the content? After the fantastic, stage-setting opening, you're presented with basically a void of gameplay and storytelling. 11 or so very simple, very brief (if you take out the immersive slogs around the enormous, realistic game world, there is perhaps 2-3 hours of actual gameplay here, at a generous guess) missions flash by, with no real narrative or variation in play style. A seemingly impressive array of tactical options is presented to you via the squad commands and tactical map, but why use them when you really only need to leave your allies behind and creep forward with your rifle, headshotting patrol after passive, braindead PLA patrol?

The introduction gives the impression that Skira will be the scene of a massive showdown between the US and China, and that neither side can afford to lose. The game, on the other hand, gives the impression that China left maybe 20 guys and a couple of AA guns to defend the island, and the US deployed about 25 guys and 3 tanks to take them all out. I kept waiting for the moment that the game finally opened up, and the PLA started actually DEFENDING the island, rather than retreating and waiting to be headshotted. I felt like 'any mission now' the game would show its true colours and really get started. After all, why create such a vast, immersive gameworld only to fill it with just a couple short hours of gameplay? But then all of a sudden General Zheng (huh? who? this game had characters in it?) was dead, and it was all over, and I was left wondering why Codemasters never got around to turning this flashy tech demo into a computer game.

The most frustrating thing is that on the surface, OFP looks so promising, and ends up delivering so little. Unlike a lot of commenters here, I don't want the game to be something it's not. I'm fairly happy with what it already is. There just needs to be a lot more of it. Currently there isn't enough to justify any sort of price tag.