Written by Jeff Buckland, 5/15/2007
Played on:
Windows
Pentium M 2GHz CPU
2GB DDR2 RAM
GeForce 7800GTX Go
Windows XP
Minimum System:
2GHz CPU
512MB RAM
GeForce FX or
ATI Radeon 9500 Video
128MB Video RAM
DirectX 9
If I said there's a new military simulation out that you should try, you'd probably think I was talking about some slow, plodding turn-based strategy game. Or maybe a naval simulator. But here's one called ArmA: Combat Operations, a first person shooter that could be the most realistic one you've ever played. This is no arcade action game - this one is definitely only for the hardcore players. It's from Bohemia Interactive and it's a spiritual successor to their smash hit Operation Flashpoint.
And ArmA shares a lot of qualities with Bohemia's last game. From the large, open battlefields to a vast range of weaponry, gadgets and vehicles, you'll find that there's plenty to do here. There are multiple game modes that can be played online and offline, but the main story comes through a single player campaign. You play as an American soldier on the fictional island of Sahrani in the Atlantic. The Americans are buddies with the south half of the island, the Kingdom of South Sahrani. The NDRS in the north are the Kingdom's enemies and they're backed by Eastern European and Asian forces. When the north decides to invade and take over Sahrani once and for all, your vacation-like deployment in Sahrani turns into a vicious fight for survival.
The ArmA campaign is broken up into many missions which will have you defending southern Sahrani from the attacking forces, and eventually taking the fight to them. The first few missions are brutally difficult but as you get the hang of things and start learning a few of the game's dozens of weapons (and dozens of vehicles), things will hopefully get a little more comfortable.
But that's not to say that this is an easy game to get into. If you played and loved Operation Flashpoint, then buying this game is going to be a no-brainer. But those who are expecting a slightly more realistic version of Battlefield 2 are going to be in for a big surprise. This game is tough as hell compared to the Battlefield series, so if you want to survive either online or offline, you'll have to really master the game's ridiculously large number of controls and gain an understanding of things that Battlefield 2 doesn't even start to burden you with.
The island of Sahrani is mostly pretty plain with a couple of cities and several towns and settlements dotted throughout. Missions in this game do not limit you to only a certain area, and they don't care how you complete your objectives, either. Sure, some of the earlier missions only give you a limited selection of equipment, basically forcing you to complete your goals in a specific way, but it's not long before you start getting a choice. You'll also get a choice to jump into some side missions that, if completed, will make your life easier in the tougher main missions later. From sniping to sabotage, full on assault to defending a hardened position, there are all kinds of missions to complete - some are alone, some will be with your squad. As you gain leadership abilities, you'll be able to order them fairly effectively. The AI is decent but still flawed in many ways, both for your buddies and for your enemies. You'll see them using cover and terrain to their advantage fairly often, but other times they'll charge right at you in a straight line, begging you to take them down.
And that's another important point here. ArmA is totally unforgiving and one solid hit on you, even from hundreds of meters away, is going to kill you. There is no "easy" difficulty, so you'll instead have to learn how to hit your enemy from hundreds of meters - or at least figure out a different way to approach a fight - if you actually want to win. The learning curve here is so steep we might as well call it a learning cliff, but the game is rewarding if you can climb up it. And if you're like me, the first thing you'll do once you start it up the first time is start reconfiguring controls. Honestly, I don't think there are actually enough keys on the keyboard for everything in this game. Yes, it's that complex. You'll be able, at least, to bind functions as a double-tap of a key so you can to share a bit of keyboard space between two very similar functions.
