Operation Flashpoint: Red River to be both fun and challenging, says Codemasters

Operation Flashpoint: Red River's creative director Sion Lenton has implied that the main goal when developing Red River was to deliver a product which not only provides a challenge, but fun as well.

Speaking with IGN, Lenton said the team "spent an awful lot of effort," trying to implement fun in Flashpoint as he feels there's a "fatigue with the run 'n' gun, whack-a-mole-style military shooter," at present.

"Everyone likes a challenge and everyone likes to think and I think that's one of the big things that Flashpoint brings to the table," he said. "It's more about what's going through your head and what decisions you make.

"We've got difficulty modes which cover things like checkpoints and spawning in – on the starter mode if you lose three of your guys, you hit a checkpoint and you'll get them back, and that changes as you ramp up the difficulty levels. But really the idea is to give it that variation and replay value. I've described them as kind of the fighter, magic user, wizard and dwarf, and that's how different we want to make them.

"Again, it's a real return to basic gameplay stuff – it's choosing your class and honing it."

As far as not including competitive multiplayer in the game was concerned, Lenton said the game is aimed at playing with friends instead of strangers like most shooters. Instead of competitive mode, multiplayer focuses on teamwork and co-op which Lenton feels "is going to start to take off and it'll be as big as competitive multiplayer."

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is out during Q2 2011, and is set in Tajikistan.

Watch the latest video for it below.