If Operation Flashpoint: Red River didn't belong to such an oversaturated genre, its technical deficiencies would be a bit easier to overlook. Despite its stark difference in play style, Codemasters' latest shooter is doomed to compete with a handful of better-known military first-person shooter franchises. Of course, not every game can look as good as Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops, but Red River looks plain and unimpressive. I can't attest to the natural beauty (or lack thereof) of Tajikistan, but Red River doesn't paint a very flattering picture of the long-suffering country. Let's assume that it's not supposed to; that's fine and everything, but nothing else in the game looks notably attractive. The weapons and character models look merely decent, but none of the action is visually appealing. Again, I'm not a combat veteran, so it's very likely that the action isn't intended to come across as something choreographed by Michael Bay. Then again, Bay himself is referenced in a conversation between two Marines...

I'll admit it: Operation Flashpoint: Red River's sound design made a really good first impression on me. The man who drives you around in a Humvee during the game's downtime has pretty awesome taste in music. Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" and Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" are two of the greatest heavy metal tracks ever recorded. Furthermore, Colonel Hardaway is voiced by none other than Al Matthews (Sgt. Apone of the Colonial Marines in Aliens). The most memorable character is Staff Sergeant Knox, but only in the "did he really just say that?" kind of way. Nearly every speaking role is a fist-pumping swearsmith whose only desires involve shooting things and thinking up creative ways to use four letter words. Lots of the battlefield chatter is repeated ad nauseam. This is made worse by the fact that most of it is broken up into small independent phrases. As a result, too many lines sound robotic and forced. The sound effects aren't memorable, but they aren't flat-out bad.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River knows what it wants to be. Where most modern first-person shooters avoid the "real" parts of warfare, Codemasters' flagship squad-based military shooter franchise embraces them. Here is a game with intentions of delivering something closer to the true modern soldier experience. That means a lot of downtime punctuated by quick bursts of deadly violence.

Red River places you in command of Fireteam Bravo, a group of Marines deployed in Tajikistan with the express purpose of routing insurgents who are on their way out of Afghanistan. Naturally, things get a little heavier than that; I won't spoil it, but anyone who can read deep enough into the game's subtitle can guess what happens. It's not an interesting story, but it's more plausible than the laugh-out-loud absurd scenarios presented in the Modern Warfare games. However, this isn't a game about non-stop shooting action; in fact, you do quite a bit of stopping, so to speak.

This brings us to one of Red River's biggest problems: pacing. Downtime is prevalent throughout the majority of the campaign, whether you're on the battlefield or waiting nearly a minute for a mission to load. Neither is completely forgivable, but the in-game downtime is (surprisingly) the most troublesome. You'll spend a lot of time riding in a vehicle listening to Knox browbeat his subordinates, but you'll spend even more time hauling your squad across wide expanses of land -- on foot. Yes, your character will run miles over the course of Red River's campaign. Combine that with the game's unforgiving checkpoint system, and we've got trouble.

Having never played an Operation Flashpoint game in my life, I fully expected this to be the Demon's Souls of the first-person shooter genre. I was wrong, but I still found Operation Flashpoint: Red River to be a challenging game. First off, this shooter acknowledges and respects the terrifying power of a single bullet. After all, a single bullet has the power to terminate most living organisms. If you shoot an enemy once, he hits the dirt. Whether he falls dead or drops to the ground writhing in pain depends on where you shoot him, but a single bullet is always all it takes to stop a single enemy dead in his tracks. The same is true of you and your squad. Well, almost, at least. At a distance, your enemies are usually very poor shots. Get within eighty meters, however, and your chances of biting the dust rise exponentially. However, it's here that the game adopts a few noticeably "gamey" concessions to make the experience more forgiving. If you are shot, holding the (A) button will trigger two four-second actions: staunching your bleeding, and recovering to full health. This isn't realistic in the slightest, but it helps to keep you in the action.

I have an extreme love-hate relationship with Operation Flashpoint: Red River's artificial intelligence, though there's more hatred involved than love. The problems are placed under a magnifying glass in the form of a squad control interface called the QCR (Quick Command Radial). There are several permutations of orders to choose from, but of the commands featured, you'll be lucky to find four that actually work perfectly. Your squad has a mind (or should I say mindlessness) of its own, and they do a very poor job of following orders. Highlight an enemy emplacement and give the order "Flank Right," and play the Benny Hill theme as everybody charges straight forward. Some of the orders do work, but most don't.

On the good side of things, friendly bots are fantastic shots. You can probably make it through an entire mission without firing a single shot. Of course, you'll probably have to patch your buddies up a number of times, but it's still nice to see developers willing to put the emphasis on teamwork.

Speaking of teamwork, Operation Flashpoint: Red River was designed from the ground up to support four-player co-op. You can play the campaign with up to three other people, or you can dig into a handful of Fireteam Engagements. Naturally, if you have a buddy or three to replace the game's resident tactical dunces, the campaign experience improves. If you and your teammates have a good deal of patience and a keen eye for battlefield tactics, you might just find yourself having a good time putting insurgents in the ground and upgrading your loadouts as you progress through the game. However, you'll still have to deal with the dreadful pacing problems. The Fireteam Engagements are comprised of a few mission types, which range from defending positions and convoys to rescuing downed pilots to simply hunting all the bad guys down.

If you're in the market for a different kind of first-person shooter, Operation Flashpoint: Red River might have what you're looking for. You'll need to have an inclination for more thoughtful, slow-paced combat and a good bit of patience. If that describes what you're looking for, give Red River a shot. Just be prepared to deal with some issues here and there.