ArmA: Combat Operations

When you have trained troops and are in the last stages of a pull-out, and then the warmongering other country (the one you have been primarily training troops to repel) attacks, what are you to do but jump in and lend a hand.

That is what faces U.S. troops on the fictional island of Sahrani, a nation in the Atlantic. U.S. forces have been training the troops in Southern Sahrani when, as the U.S. is leaving, Northern Sahrani attacks. Reinforcements are inbound, but it is up to you – the player – and the other remaining U.S. forces to stand your ground and, hopefully, thwart the plans of the invaders.

In order to do that, you will have to be proficient in a wide range of skills, from various weapons, to commanding troops, to vehicles – both land and airborne.

Bohemia Interactive and Atari are behind the game, which is – for all intents and purposes – the sequel to Bohemia’s Operation Flashpoint title and iterations (Codemasters was the publisher of that title). While the game presents itself as a first-person shooter, it is billed as a strategy game. That, right there, should clue you in to the fact that this is a deep military simulation. And if it doesn’t, walk through the precision of the tutorial demands. Not only do you have to learn to use a variety of weapons (and vehicles), but you have to pass the course to move on during a testing phase. Commands are given and must be followed precisely.

This is nothing new to those that have real-life military experience. The commands given to enlisted personnel (and lower-ranking officers from their superiors) are somewhat inflexible and leave little room for improvisation. When told to jump, you are not supposed to discuss variants on the jumping form, degree of elevation or wind factors, rather you are only allowed to ask ‘how high, sir/sergeant/chief?’ – on the way up. That is somewhat the element that ArmA brings to the picture. This is not a game that is off the charts in terms of graphics (though they are decent), but rather it is a precision attack on what you may think you know about shooters. This is a game about strategy and skill. Of course, pure dumb luck can also help you get past the missions.

The game is broken down into the campaign mode and a mode of individual missions. There is an editor as well to give the game much more playability. Multiplayer consists of team scenarios and co-op games. Though not seen, rooms were capable of holding up to 64 players.

The single-player missions are nice, but the campaign is the meat of the game. The story is progressive and you will find that you may be sent alone behind enemy lines or put into a squad-based scenario entrenched on the front lines in defense of a town. There are secondary missions, but they all seemed to be a fast track to repeating the whole mission level. Why? Because they were insanely difficult. How so? Imagine standing alone and facing a platoon of intelligent enemy soldiers. Your task is to halt their advance. That might give you an inkling of the scope of the difficulty attached to the secondary missions.

The game itself takes place in a huge world. You can, if you keep your eye on your primary objective, do a little exploring, but your goals take first priority in this game. Fail and you will restart. It is advised that you hit the checkpoints along the mission’s path before freelancing so at least you don’t have to restart each mission from the beginning.

ArmA does seem to have its share of load times, especially when first launching, but the interface is easy to navigate and though there is a minor learning curve, the true difficulty attached to the game comes from the missions themselves. Simply put, unless you have a solid understanding of what you are doing, you will be mercilessly beaten down.

The control scheme moves from the familiar when firing weapons or commanding a squad to head-scratching when flying the helicopter. Vehicles accelerate at abnormal speeds, which can make parking on what seems like a dime a challenge.

While the title of the game, ArmA, may be a bit vague, this still manages to be a decent military simulation that is very challenging. It is not recommended for the casual shooter fan who likes the quick in and out of other military-based shooting games – these missions have a decent length and are very challenging.

Gameplay: 7.1
The vehicle controls seem very unrealistic, or just hard to the point of frustrating at times. But the general control scheme in the other main areas is easy to understand. The AI makes this game a very realistic military sim and very challenging.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics are decent and fit the game. There are definitely some aspects that are good, but others, such as detail tied to load times (faceless squad members until the whole level is loaded) and seemingly short draw ratios hamper the overall effect.

Sound: 7.7
The dialogue delivery is barked out in a thoroughly military manner, there is the crackle of radios, some ambient sounds, and the harsh report of weapons and heavy machinery and vehicles all filling up this game’s audio track. All are serviceable, but nothing that is unexpected.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
There are two difficulty settings – regular and veteran. The only reason this gets a touch of the ‘medium’ rating is that the game is not overly hard to jump into; the controls for flight are difficult and the game’s overall strategic difficulty is a challenge. Forget the secondary missions and the game is more on the medium-to-hard difficulty scale; include the secondary missions and you are on hard.

Concept: 7.4
This game bears a striking similarity to Operation Flashpoint, which was released in 2002. It may, though, be one of the better military simulation games on the market. On the downside, clunky controls and some unrealistic elements hamper the overall game design.

Multiplayer: 8.0
Good online support with co-op modes and an array of team-based combat.

Overall: 7.4
This is a game that takes a while to get comfortable with. The vehicles can seem problematic but the foot-based missions have a sense of realism that is both unnerving and intriguing. This is not the type of game that a casual player would want to pick up and jump in to. Though essentially a shooter, the game is billed as a strategy title for a reason.