I'd actually forgotten how amazing this game looks until I'd checked out the videos which you can see below by following the 'HERE' links, plus the several images I copied from the net. I got a little carried away with the images but only because I wanted to show you how amazingly life like this game looks. You should hear the game while in the middle of a fire fight; with the surround sound turned up as much as I dare (the windows rattle if I try to put the volume on full, lol). The audio is fantastic and really adds to the overall immersivness that this game gives you. Wear ear defenders if you decide to play it on full volume, lol.
If I had to score the necessity for having this game; (well for a FPS and war gaming addict); on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give this a 9 (lol)
The game reminds me a lot of Operation Flashpoint, however, there’s a reason for that. It’s because it’s the second Armed Assault game that was created to follow on from the original Operation Flashpoint and its expansions, which were released from 2001 to 2002. You can get the original for as little as $5 or less. It's packaged as the ‘Game of the Year’ edition and includes the original game, called Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis plus two expansion packs called Red Hammer and Resistance. It’s still a great game in my opinion, and is probably one of the reasons it hasn't been converted to freeware like some FPS games from that period (e.g. Hidden & Dangerous plus one I'll be posting next week in the free games project) I’ve recently reinstalled the original Operation Flashpoint; the graphics are fairly basic, but it's graphics were actually really good for the time (much like Line of Sight: Vietnam {though that was released a year later}) and is similar to ArmA and ArmA II in game play, though they have far superior graphics. I usually give my older games away (anything pre 2002), but Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, is one of those games I just can’t part with. Armed Assault (ArmA) was released early in 2007 (unless you lived in Russia which got it late in 2006), then an expansion pack was released later in 2007 called Queens Gambit.
ArmA II was released late Spring/early Summer and was in my opinion a great game, unfortunately I wasn’t as gobsmacked with it as I am with the latest Operation Flashpoint; though there was a good reason for that - I’d bought several games at the same time as ArmA II and couldn’t decide which to play. I was really into Fallout 3 at the time and one of the games in the package I received included a hard copy of the first two DLC’s (The Pitt and Operation Anchorage), so apart from checking the game out to see what I thought about it, I hardly played it, also I was buying games from Steam like they were going out of fashion (I’ve bought 212 games via Steam since late January 09 - yeah I know, I'm mad). Still I played it enough to be able to say that the game play comes pretty close to the realism of the latest Flashpoint game.
If you like first person shooters with a lot of realism, Armed Assault II (ArmA II) will give you lots of it and then some. The graphics are nearly as good as Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, though maybe the soldier models are not quite as realistic, however, the environments look as good. I think Flashpoint wins in the AI department as well, but then again it has had several months more pre release tweaking than ArmA II. It’s not a run and gun type shooter, nor is it a linear style game that dictates where you head for throughout the game. If you want to succeed in game you'll need to play it as though you are really in a theatre of war, using tactics and stealth.
The game world is massive and is played as a sandbox game, which means you can go almost anywhere in the game world (though some restrictions do apply while taking part in missions). It’s basically a spiritual prequel to the latest Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, which was released about two weeks ago; only Dragon Rising is even more polished than ArmA II. I love the challenge of all the Flashpoint and Armed Assault games, apart from the first of each series, they look, sound and feel almost real, though the first armed Assault is actually a good looking game as well, but the environmental realism doesn't quite hit the spot like ArmA II and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Of course, graphics are not the be all and end all, but they definitely add to the game play experience in my opinion. Thankfully, the game play is as good as the graphics, so the game isn't relying soley on it's graphics like some games I've purchased over the last year do (e.g. Damnation, Legendary, Velvet Assassin and Dark Sector.
If you are a shooter fan, especially a FPS fan (you can play the game in FPS or TPS) I highly recommend you buy ArmA II while it’s on sale. I‘ll be digging my copy out again once I tire of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. I may even re-install the first Armed Assault and it's expansion Queens Gambit as I hardly touched the expansions missions - (the usual reason, getting side tracked by newly acquired gammes, lol)
I do think the controls for this game are overly complex. I had to create a stand-up card with all the key bindings written down when I played the game for the first few time (I still have it). The controls reminded me a little of the Battlefield 2 key commands, with seperate sections for infantry, land vehicles, aircraft controls as well as team based controls. Looking at the game manual I roughly count over 80 seperate key commands, though some such as movement are repeated in the vehicles and infantry commands. That said, once you've played the game a few times the key bindings do become easier to remember. Many of the key bindings are common to most FPS games, and it's only because you have vehicles and squad based commands that there are so many keys to remember
You can see armed assault II (ArmA II) in action via the following video’s, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE,
The following are reviews worth reading before you decide whether to buy this fantastic game or not. Check ‘em out HERE, HERE and HERE
You can find out details of the offer HERE. As always, it’s a Steam game so you’ll need a Steam account and the Steam client to get this game (both of which are free)
