I got home from school today at around 2 PM, and immediately ran to download the newest version of Project Reality, version .8. After quite a time waiting in queue, and actually downloading the files, I installed it, hopped onto teamspeak, and went right in game. The server that I am a regular at, Tactical Gamer, was having a bit of troubles with the new version (MD5 issues), and so I decided to pop my head into another server, TCombat, which was running Korengal. A friend of mine, Google, and I started up a squad on the U.S. Army side.

I was immediately struck by the level of detail that was put into both the map itself and the new animations/weapons/game-play. Me and Google, who were both experiencing one of our first maps on .8, got our bearings, checked out some of the new animations, hopped into a Humvee, and sped away, looking for caches.

Driving around Korengal is an experience in itself. The map is simply stunning. This is coming from someone who is playing the game on medium-high graphics and no anti-aliasing on. I can only imagine what the map is like on the higher settings. The villages scattered around the middle were intricately designed, and the buildings themselves were beautiful. I was astonished by the level of enter ability, as in: almost all the buildings I saw were enterable. Cache hunting in this map was a series of clearings and breechings. The countryside was beautiful as well, with the swaying high grass and surprisingly serene river that runs through the map.

Now, Google and I had reached our destination, the first cache. We searched high and low for quite a good time, looking in each building, shed, nook and cranny that we could find. I consulted my map, and finally saw that there was one place, a compound, that we hadn’t searched. As we carefully trotted up the road, I experienced my first bit of combat in the “new” Project Reality.

As I walked, I heard a gunshot directly ahead of me, and my screen turned a dark black. I dropped to the ground, and tried to find cover in a road that provided none. I told Google to run and dip into a ditch, which he did, as I looked for the insurgent engaging us. I found him, and began to sight in on him, when another bullet rocked my screen. This time, a burst of red filled my sights, almost blinding me. I jumped up and ran in the only direction I knew, towards a ditch. As I fell in, the red began to appear quicker and harder, completely blinding me at times. Google rushed up and began to heal me, at which time I began to throw grenades into the compound. The explosion startled me, a new sound I had not heard before, a sharp concussion sound, with a loud blast. I was healed, and ran up to the road, popping shots into the wall with my M4. Up went a grappling hook over the wall, and me and Google began to advance into the compound, ready and alert.

We found the cache almost immediately, safely tucked into one of the buildings. I was surprised how easily it blew, a few shots on it from the M4, and it began to smoke and flame. Google, however, decided that it would be intelligent to fire an RPG into the smoking room. Needless to say, it ended in disaster, and I was forced to drive the humvee back to main and pick him up.

25 minutes later, 4 more additions to the squad, and we were off, this time capturing the small base in the western side of the map (of which I can’t pronounce the name). Having set up a rally, we advanced carefully and slowly, capped the base, and held off a few waves of insurgent attack. At this point, we began experimenting with the few vehicles in the map.

The Stryker is an excellent vehicle. Its turret gun, which is controlled from the safety of inside the vehicle, is a deadly weapon. The screen to the gun looked almost like the real thing, and was simply beautiful. Me and a few squaddies piled up into humvees and the Stryker, and took off, looking for yet more caches. At this point, I learned that Korengal is not a very vehicle friendly map. Many blind turns, rough terrain, and hostile places make it a death trap for almost anything with wheels. As I drove the Stryker over what I assumed was a land-bridge, we fell into the water. A trap, set conveniently by nature, had sunk our precious Stryker. Turns out it wasn’t a land bridge at all, but rather more of a piece of land juttying out into the river. Thanks, CodeRed, for tricking us.

Skipping a few parts of the story, I would like to talk about a ride we took in the Littlebird over Korengal. Never before had I felt so immersed in a map, so “there”. Flying right over the tree and house tops, searching for caches in the air, the occasional bullet “pop pop”-ing over the rotors and on the metal, really stood out to me. I sensed something unlike anything I have before whilst playing a video game, I felt as though I was there, as though I really was flying over the tree tops. My squad and I extracted from the Littlebird, and began our push back up to the base (which had been earlier re-captured by the insurgents). At this point, I was getting ready to actually leave the game, as I had real-life stuff to do (surprised me, too). However, I felt that I should make this last push memorable. Before we rushed in, I called an artillery strike on the base, to soften it up. I had to run up the road, openly exposed, to get the coordinates for the strike, but I did, and managed to dive into a ditch before getting shot at. As I sat in the ditch, getting suppressed but not hit, I waited for the artillery to begin raining death down upon the base.

It, at first, sounded like the explosion of a grenade: A deep concussion, a loud blast. But it continued, kept at it, and began to get louder. I popped my head up from the ditch, and saw the bunkers in the compound being destroyed, insurgent bodies flying in the air. But I began to see red, began to get blinded by the red. I was too close, I couldn’t run out. The screen turned black, red, and black again. A final blast and I was staring at a screen, simply stating: “dead”.

As I sat there, I was actually stunned. I had actually felt as though I had lost something. This wasn’t my average “just hit respawn” feeling. I felt a sense of sorrow. As weird as that might seem for a video game, I was actually upset at losing my character.

It takes a lot to really immerse a person in a videogame these days. Graphics are getting better, games are getting more immersive. But I must say that I have never experienced something quite like I did tonight. It imprinted a lasting memory on me, a very good memory. I must thank the Devs and all who worked for this, thank you so much. Together, they have managed to make a game, which is completely free, be so much more than your average shoot-em-up, tactical FPS, or RTS. They have made a game based in Reality. A Project Reality.