Introduction
Despite being old, Operation Flashpoint is still good game. The open ended design, ability to play with all the toys, and the fully dev supported 3rd party mod community has kept this game alive for over 5 years, which is ancient history in game terms. Armed Assault is the what Bohemia Interactive Studios term an 'interim sequel'. Their vision is a fully dynamic battlefield environment in which the player takes a small part but as yet the technology to support this is still some way off. ArmA is an update to the award winning game incorporating some of the best bits developed from the XBox port and their commercial military training tool, VBS1.
Gameplay
ArmA is a first person platoon level tactical simulation. The semi-dynamic campaign is based on a fictional scenario in which you play the part of the USMC liberating a small island (small = 40km across - it'd take you a day realtime to walk it). Each main story mission is accompanied by a couple of optional missions that can impact on the main mission itself. For example, ambushing the enemy base may reduce the number of reinforcement they can call on but reduce the element of surprise. There are also a number of single player missions and an extremely powerful but remarkably easy to use mission design tool (the one used by the devs).
Sights and Sounds
Although a vast improvement, the graphics are already looking a little dated compared to some of the cutting edge FPS's. That said, the island enviroment is a treat, complete with rolling hills, mountains, forests, wildlife, some very nicely done built up areas and dynamic weather patterns. Downside is if you ramp the settings up to full it chugs and actually looks worse than having things on medium - I think they've messed up the antialiasing a bit at highest levels (or my card ain't up to it). Sounds are disappointingly weak but there's already a 3rd party mod out that beef them up if it upsets you. It runs pretty well (30fps) with lots on screen and in built up areas.
Stuff that sucks
There's a dissapointing lack of attention to detail that really detracts from what could be a superlative title. The physics engine is unconvincing, which is an annoying oversight after the effort being plied into this area in other titles. The environment is not fully destructable and things that are blow uppable go boom or collapse in the same way every time (this was a major criticism in OFP which they've not addressed). Some of the missions are bugged, albeit due to the open ended dynamic scripting which means the AI can do interesting things, sometimes it just does the wrong thing. Once or twice I've had to restart a mission because the AI went off on one and I've had to use the -endmission cheat once to horse the end of a mission that was borked. Also, some of the voice acting is terrible and the animations, though improved, still suck.
Conclusion
BIS are very loyal to their fan base (they even hired one of the best modders) and already they are talking about releasing the full suite of dev tools to the community. My copy of OFP is unrecognisable from the original and I can see ArmA going the same way, which will keep interest alive for years to come. They've added Join Game in Progress to MP now which will significantly boost COOP play, and the Team Switch function, although not exactly a respawn button, means that the game ain't over after the first shot when you forgot to lean round that corner, pop smoke and commando role up to that unoccupied T72, jump in the gunners seat and mow down the poor unsuspecting crew who were having a fag round a camp fire.
Final word: despite a few oversights, ArmA is everything that I hoped a sequel to OFP would be. Thank fuck for once a dev has taken what's good and improved it rather than breaking something to 'make it more appealing to the wider community'.
Linky to a good news/mod site: http://www.armedassault.info/
Score :
