By: Chuck “Magnum” Ankenbauer
Introduction
At E3, Bohemia Interactive gave members of the press, and some reviewers Alpha versions of their upcoming title, Armed Assault. After a few weeks of playing this Alpha code, I will begin with a series of mission after action reviews highlighting some of the things I’ve noticed in the press release demo.
Please understand and fully realize that
this is still work in progress and only 75% complete. Armed Assault plays pretty much the exact same way as Operation Flashpoint, mainly because it’s made by the same developer, Bohemia Interactive. But due to right ownerships to the Operation Flashpoint name, this is not
OFP 1.5, or OFP2, it is Armed Assault.
Mission Briefing:
The first multiplayer mission included with the press demo is “Seize the City”, a simple co-op mission where two squads move out and attempt to take a well forticated city. (Be advised the only multiplayer is LAN with the demo, so I play it alone with the AI.)
Squad Alpha moves out towards the city, there completely AI controlled so they don’t do much but help me by being a decoy for my squad. I choose to be the squad leader of Bravo squad. I take the default layout of weapons and have a full squad of twelve under my command.
I review the map, zoom in and decide to let Alpha run strait in, as AI like to do, and I will have my squad mount an M113 transport, we will move to the left of the town, on the downside of a hill, then dismount and move up to the cities flank. Easy victory, right?
The Mission:
Alpha squad went marching off on there on towards the city. I mount the M113 as the driver, since I do better then any AI driver. I then order my squad to load up, they comply like good soldiers and we are on our way.
I take a turn to set up the flank, I move far to the left of the objective, I then move up towards the city, using the down sloop of the hill to conceal my approach. Once within a good, comfortable position, I order my squad to dismount, I then dismount my self and give the order to form up on me, the default being a wedge formation.
We then begin moving up to the crest of the hill, since were in a wedge formation, I will be the first to crest the hill and will use my binoculars to survey the situation.I then begin to hear the sounds of a firefight in the distance, this tells me that Alpha squad has begun there assault on the city.
I spot the first of many enemies, an anti-tank soldier, set to take out my M113, if I was stupid enough to just drive straight up there. I bring up my scope, and squeeze the trigger, BANG, target down. I then decide to thin the pack a little and toss up a couple of fragmentation grenades; I must score a couple of hits because I see bodies flying, along with the 50 cal machine gun set up overlooking the approach.
I then order my squad to advance; they move up and engage at will, per my latest order.
Bravo squad successfully takes the over watch hill, God only knows what’s happening to Alpha squad, I still hear the fire fight in the distance.
My squad has moved into a good position to take the town on the flank. I take a look at the map, zoom in a little and formulate my plan of attack.
Up to this point I haven’t lost a man yet, but that’s about to change as we move from a simple flank assault to some building to building fighting. The squad becomes hard to control and harder to issue specific orders, especially when working with the AI.
I split my squad into two teams, and attempt a low level bounding over watch maneuver, but I’m slowly losing men. There are more enemies down then friendly, but with each report of a soldier down, the success of the mission becomes questionable.
I’m down to just a team size squad, and attempt to take the final machine gun nest, by using building to building cover and movement.
The distant firefight has ended; I question if Alpha has successed or failed. I lose the last of my men, and as I spot two enemies in the distance I attempt to bring up my rifle for the kill, but the enemy is faster and I take a three round burst to the chest.
As I lay in the street, blood spilling into the drainage system, I wonder… “What went wrong, what should I have done different?”
Lucky for me I can, it’s just a game.
