ArmA: Armed Assault
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Publisher: 505 Games Genre(s): Simulation, Shooting Home Page: http://www.armedassault.com/
 Bohemia Interactive Studio, the developer of Armed Assault, was a small, virtually unknown, Czech-based game studio. That was until 2001, when they released their first title, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Operation Flashpoint was the first game ever to feature realistic first-person modern warfare and for the most part succeed in the effort. The ambitious game attracted a large cult following, even though it was criticized for a large number of bugs and an excessively difficult campaign, both signs of a premature release. It did well enough, though, to warrant two add-ons, an Xbox port, and ended up selling over two million copies in total. With ArmA: Armed Assault, Operation Flashpoint finally gets a spiritual sequel. Since Bohemia parted ways with their previous publisher Codemasters, who still own the intellectual property of Operation Flashpoint, they couldn't publish a sequel with the original name. Armed Assault, however, is Operation Flashpoint - updated in every possible way, larger and even more ambitious, but with the same gameplay ideals at the core. This story is very similar to Chris Taylor's Supreme Commander, which by the way is a pretty amazing coincidence, since the two "spiritual sequels" were published on the very same date in Europe: February 17th. Looks like spiritual sequels are all the rage now! I wonder who's next - perhaps the Microsoft Flight Simulator crew will take off and release their next title with a different name (how about Takeoff: The Ultimate Airplane Game)? Even in this day and age of digital distribution, the international game publishing circus still runs in circles around its customers. Atari is set to release the game in the US on May 5th, with the revised title ArmA: Combat Operations as well as a handful of new features. So while you may not be able to buy the game for another month, read on to find out what to expect from this revived classic.
You're not in Petrozavodsk anymore, DmitriArmed Assault is set on the fictional South Atlantic island of Sahrani, split between a Northern communist state and a Southern kingdom. Southern Sahrani is a NATO ally and has a notable U.S. military presence. The single-player campaign starts with the North attacking the South, claiming that its intent is to give humanitarian aid to the oppressed Southern subjects. The plot is very tacky, and the news report cut scenes that carry it forward are mediocre at best. There are twelve independent single player missions set in the same conflict, although the last six must be unlocked by finishing the earlier ones. Both the missions and campaign feature different player characters from mission to mission, and the player is able to switch to controlling a different protagonist even during a mission. The campaign is non-linear, as the player can choose to attempt auxiliary missions whose outcome affects how the main missions play out.
The rather weak plot is further undermined by the forces and arsenal fielded by each side of the conflict. The Americans obviously use U.S. Army weapons and vehicles, while the belligerent Northern forces are equipped with Soviet-era Warsaw Pact arsenal. This worked well in Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, where the setting was NATO vs. Soviet forces in the 1980s, but times have changed. A conflict styled after the Cold War European theater feels contrived and out of place in a tropical-temperate paradise. Had the developers been gutsier, they could have set the game in 1995 Kosovo, or turned their attention to a different type of conflict entirely. Sahrani feels like a cheap, anonymous set for an Operation Flashpoint remake. Actually, there's no doubt about it: the game's excellent mission editor really spills the beans, as the two sides are identified as East and West, not North and South.
Related Stuff Games: ArmA: Armed Assault
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