Review: ArmA II

Were I to leave the confines of my computer desk and sign up for the army I wouldn't get past basic training. My mouse and keyboard skills would be useless in the real world and bunny hopping under fire would be hugely ineffective against the likes of the Taliban. However, there is a way for me to experience war without the penalty of...um...death and it comes in the form of Arma II. It's an ultra realistic war simulation and to say it's hard is an understatement.

Arma II development history is quite interesting. Bohemia Interactive Studios developed Operation Flashpoint a decade ago in conjunction with Codemasters. Long story short the pair parted ways and BIS kept the engine while Codemasters retained the name. Codemasters is set to release Operation Flashpoint 2 later this year so until then Arma II will have to fill the void.

Realism

ArmA II is set in the present during a fictitious conflict which resembles the Balkan troubles of the 90s. There isn't much depth to the story, but suffice to say your main job will involve investigating war crimes, protecting the local population and gathering intelligence for your senior officers in the United States Army. You command a recon team consisting of four men and in order to carry out your objectives you also have a vast number of vehicles and support options available. This, combined with the huge open-ended world map makes Arma II the definitive tactical shooter.

When you begin your mission you have an array of vehicles to choose from. Tanks, light amour, planes, helicopters, trucks and even bikes. If one of your own vehicles break down you can commandeer one of the townspeople's cars, although driving to war in a tractor is ill-advised. On top of that you also have a vast amount of weapons to use with all of them being as accurate as their real life counter parts.

Once you're kitted up for your mission combat is the next step and the realism continues. When your soldier is sprinting for long distances he can become out of breath. This will in turn make aiming difficult as it's nearly impossible to keep the gun steady. When you're in the first person mode running causes the screens to shake in tangent with the movement and jumping does not exist. Also, expect bullets to cause serious damage as there is no regenerative health or med kits. In fact, you will have to drag or carry injured comrades out of harm's way to administer first aid. This can make for some thrilling moments.

Early on you gain command of the recon team and so another part of the game is opened up to you. The command menu is used to issue orders to your squad members. It's not as detailed as I would like it to be and overall it's too complicated. Making simple commands requires pressing too many buttons and sometimes trying to find specific commands during battle is too dangerous and not worthwhile.

So it's a left, then a right, then another left?

All the vehicles and guns wouldn't be nearly as fun if it wasn't for the huge open-ended map that ArmA II is set in. It's 225 square km of forests, towns and countryside. BIS has made the world feel alive. It's populated with wildlife and civilians who go about their business every day. You'll notice that the enemy tends to favour forests while the United States army will populate settlement areas. Both sides will also engage each other as your allies will go on patrols and actively travel to known trouble spots. The rebels are no slouches as well. They have ambushed me on a number of occasions and travelling alone can be extremely dangerous. I only felt safe travelling the roads in amour.

The main meat of the game can be found in the campaign story mode. It involves a civil war between the communist rebels and the pro democratic government. During each mission you will be given numerous choices to make and each decision will greatly affect your character and how the game develops. For example, be aggressive with civilians and not aiding them could cause them to lose faith in you and pass intelligence to your enemy, this in turn can cause an ambush to occur when travelling through the town again. Also, aiding them will allow you to gain valuable information on the enemy.

The missions are well thought out. It's not your standard affair of go here, kill that, take this. Instead, it involves gathering evidence of war crimes by interviewing the local population, scouting out locations for the main attack force or even following numerous leads in the hope of finding weapons smugglers. The campaign only contains twelve missions, but each mission can last several hours.

Now for the bad stuff

The gameplay in ArmA II is excellent; however, to say this game is bugged is an understatement. Broken would be a more accurate description. I played the game with patch 1.02 so luckily I managed to miss out on the early problems, mostly involving the AI and its path finding issues, but the game still feels like it's in the beta stages. It has crashed to desktop on a number of occasions and many times my screen has gone completely white for periods of up to 30 seconds. Not only that, but the game is poorly optimised. Top of the range PCs are experiencing poor FPS and it does not work properly with SLI. I managed to find a guide online which helped me to tune the game, but I really shouldn't have to go to the trouble of renaming ArmA2.exe to crysis.exe or crysis64.exe to enable SLI. BIS seriously need to look into quality control as these problems existed in Operation Flashpoint and ArmA I.

The bugs don't stop there though. The next major one that occurred actually made me laugh, but only for a brief period. Let me set the scene. I was tasked with the apprehension of a rebel officer and was told to report to the main base for more information. I travelled to the base and reported to the commanding officer. He briefed me on the situation and directed me to a local government soldier. He was to provide information on my target. He proceeded to tell me all about the man I was hunting. He pinpointed three training camps in the mountains and also gave me the names of local contacts who could possibly provide more leads. I spent ten minutes planning my journey. When all was said and done I hopped in my APC and pulled out of the main base...only for the flipping target to plough into me. Mission complete. I'm sorry, but I was under the assumption that this guy had gone underground. Evidently not.

You'd think that would be the only mission with such a major problem, but it actually goes downhill from there. In the mission “Manhattan” the game can become unplayable. Certain objectives disappear from the game and so part of the mission can't be completed. In another side mission of Manhattan you're tasked with finding the main enemy base and aiding in its capture. However, the support never arrives because the M1A1 tanks that are supposed to help are stuck in trees and never reach the base. This now means your four man recon team has to take the base alone and given how realistic this game is it's an absolute nightmare. In fact, nearly all the side missions in Manhattan are bugged so there's no real point trying them as you're only wasting your time. What a shame.

I can see my house from here

ArmA II is a beautiful looking game. Actually, I'd say it's one of the best looking games on the market right now. Soldiers look and move realistically. All the vehicles are also extremely detailed both inside and outside. When driving around in my little tank I was very impressed with the scenery. Rabbits, dragonflies, sheep and wild boar are all noticeable and don't appear as blobs. The only downside to all this is that you will need a pretty good PC to enjoy smooth gameplay.

All the weapons have realistic sounds. After hours of gamplay, I was able to discern the difference between US weapons and Soviet weapons. Due to the high risk of attack and the fact that no area is safe the game also has a wonderfully tense atmosphere. When my APC was hit by a RPG I had to abandon it and walk to the nearest town in search of a vehicle. To say walking down a deserted mountain pass was tense is an understatement. Every bit of distant gunfire had me hitting the deck ready for action. Paranoia had set in by this time.

What else can I do?

If you grow tired of the main campaign you have a number of options available to you. There are several single player missions that are just as detailed as the main campaign, but are not tied down to the story of Red Harvest. You can also go online and play the campaign with friends (if you got them...I don't) which is a lot more enjoyable, but actually makes the game harder as you won't have the AI and its lightning quick reflexes and eagle eyes to aid you.

The famous editing tool makes a return so expect to see numerous fan based single player missions available for download. I used to be very handy with the old OFP tool and I'm busy learning how to use the new one. As of yet I have not made any mission that I would deem good, but once I grow bored with the game I will be pumping them out hard and fast.

Final thoughts

If and when BIS fully patch this game you can rest assured that it will be the definitive military simulation. Until then it's hard for me to recommend it as the bugs are just too much to handle. It's a shame that ArmA II has suffered the same problems as its predecessors. One would think BIS had learned from its mistakes.