ArmA: Combat Operations ArmA
is a challenging and immersive game of modern warfare, but one packed
with plenty of frustrating moments and flaws, as well.
The
things that set ArmA apart from the rest of the crowded military
first-person shooter field are the same things that set Flashpoint
apart from this pack. There's a feeling of verisimilitude in ArmA that
you don't get in most shooters, and that's due to the way that Bohemia
Interactive approaches the game. Instead of putting you in a relatively
small environment or holding your hand while taking you on a heavily
scripted rollercoaster of a ride like most shooters do, ArmA plops you
down in the middle of a huge island that's 400 square kilometers in
size. While individual missions won't
require you to traverse the entire breadth of the island, you will
still operate in huge patches of territory, and that really gives you
the sense that you are in some real place, as opposed to being in the
level of a game.
ArmA is set on the Atlantic island of Sahrani.
Think of it as an allegory to South and North Korea, but on a much
smaller scale. The Kingdom of South Sahrani is an ally of the West, and
the United States has deployed a small US Army contingent there. The
NDRS is a totalitarian regime armed with Warsaw Pact equipment and has
a nasty habit of invading its southern neighbor. Of course, the North
invades the South again, and you'll play from the perspective of the
American side, trying to slow and then reverse the invasion. This means
that you'll participate in large-scale battles on foot and in a variety
of vehicles, as well as volunteer for numerous side missions that
require stealth or speed.
The campaign, told through some
surprisingly well-done voice-overs narrating otherwise low-budget
cutscenes, does feature some nice twists to it. There are basically two
kinds of missions in ArmA: primary and auxiliary. The former are
required to progress the story forward, while the latter are completely
optional and can make your life a bit easier. For instance, if the main
mission is a defensive one where you have to stop a big assault, you
can even the odds a bit by conducting an auxiliary mission beforehand.
This can involve sneaking behind enemy lines to assassinate a key enemy
officer or ambush enemy convoys en route to the battle. This provides
plenty of gameplay variety, as you can experience the wide range of
modern-day military operations, though the downside is that these
auxiliary missions can be so brutally difficult that they're often
worth skipping, but more on this a bit later.
There are moments
that happen in ArmA that are possible only due to the game's scale. You
can be crouched on a hill, overlooking a vast valley, and watch enemy
soldiers and tanks maneuver several kilometers away. Engagement ranges
are much more like they are in real life, as you're trying to nail a
target that's a couple hundred meters away. Or, you can literally get
lost in a big town, with the crack of assault rifles and the boom of
tank cannons around you. Each noise can send you scurrying for cover.
Sure, a lot of games have these kinds of immersive sound effects as
well, but for the most part they're just general background noise. In
ArmA, if you hear assault rifles in the distance, you know that there's
actually a firefight going on nearby, and you can investigate or run
away from it, if you want. It's amazing how immersive this game is. A
perfect example of this is early on, when you're on Humvee patrol and
rolling through the countryside and towns of South Sahrani, only to be
ambushed. The transition from tranquility to war is jarring, and
experiencing it feels like watching news footage or a documentary movie.
