[SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Party-approved discussion of ArmA 3
User avatar
Ferrard Carson
Posts: 565
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2012 6:08 am

[SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Ferrard Carson »

Zero-th thing Zero-th: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS, AS THOUGH THE TAG WEREN'T ENOUGH TO PROVE THAT. IF YOU MISCLICKED AND WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS NOW, TURN BACK OR FOREVER STAY THY TONGUE!















:hist101:

First, let me say that I tried the A2 / OA campaigns and wasn't very impressed. Eagle Wing was the shiznit, but that was the only bright spot to Combined Ops. A2's campaign just wasn't that engaging to me, and OA was too Iraq '91 / Curbstomp to be all that enjoyable. I booted A3's campaign with no expectations, just a desire to see what the story held.

By the start of Mission #2, I was blown away. Like Adams. But in a good way. Unlike Adams.

Seriously, the pacing, the engagements, the presentation of the story... spot on and beautiful. Enough of your objectives are scrubbed that you learn not to put full faith in the briefings, but enough are completed to keep you on your toes. The betrayal is timed for you to be at that great vantage point, and it's great hearing all of Stratis go to absolute shit over the radio. The missions play long enough to explore their premise a fair bit, but not long enough to overstay their welcome. When you're about to tire of wandering the forested hills, the missions throw a curve at you to keep you from boredom. The arrival of the CSAT, though predictable, was still an "Oh shit" moment of dawning comprehension, especially the way the squad-lead voice-actors sold it.

There's that wonderful sense of continuity that only ArmA can really afford. Knowing that Stratis is going to shit around you because as far as you can see, there's just pillars of smoke rising from every NATO encampment. Getting to the final objective of "Crossing Paths," and hearing on the radio that Maxwell's being attacked. But you don't really need to hear on the radio, because you can just look back over the ground you've traversed and you see it being arty'd to shit. The amount of work that went into "showing, not telling" must've been enormous.

Were there problems? Yes. The ridiculous spread on the arty in "Radio Silence" for one. I mean, holy smokes, is Charlie's mortar tube really in that bad of shape that it can't land a single round anywhere near its target? A2's laser-beam accurate shells are silly too, but silly in a non-infuriating way. Every now and then, the AI would derp and Adams in particular would prove his invincibility by walking right up to an AAF, soaking a magazine of bullets, and then jamming his rifle into the confused mook's face.

Still though. It's a brilliant campaign. The constant tension, the ever-present feeling that AAF forces could be just over the next rise, and that at any time, your mission parameters may change for the (much much) worse. Like you're almost completely helpless in the face of a massively superior force and it's all you can do to just... Survive. (see what I did there? :D )

4.5 / 5 stars from me. Docked .5 for the artillery - too inaccurate in "Radio Silence," just slightly too accurate in "Tipping Point."

~ Ferrard
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."

User avatar
Crocuta
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:04 am

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Crocuta »

Agreed on all counts.

I wasn't holding out much hope for this campaign, as everything since Operation Flashpoint has declined in quality and copied its beats without being as comprehensively awesome. Can't wait to see the action move to Malden Altis, though.

User avatar
Thirith
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:29 am

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Thirith »

In defense of the Arma 2 campaign, I love it when it works. Its more free-form missions are very ambitious and work tremendously well when you don't run into bugs - which does happen all too often, unfortunately. It helps that I love Chernarus, though; give me Eastern European woods and hills over sun-bleached Altis and Stratis any day.

I'm very curious to play "Survive", mainly because the showcases by and large failed to engage me. The Infantry and Combined Arms ones didn't do it for me, mainly because the results felt so random. I know that randomness is a large part of the Arma experience, but these missions seemed extremely badly balanced for SP play.

Anyway, it's finished downloading the update, so "Survive", here I come! (And I'm hoping to join one of the Arma 3 Folk ARPS sessions these days...)
"Until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar. Like eagles. Yeah. LIKE EAGLES... ON... POGO STICKS." - Grim Fandango

Black Mamba
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 12:11 pm

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Black Mamba »

It would loose another point for me because of the few infuriating bugs you can find here and there...
For example when it comes to blow up the downed chpper, the medic got stuck in the same rock every single time I reloaded the game. The same rock, 5 meters from the chopper. So you can't complete the objective because you blow him up as well, and "Friendly fire won't be tolerated". Only way I found was to wound myself with a grenade, get close to him, notify the boss that I'm wounded, get even closer to him. Then he wold heal me and start moving away.

But the most frustrating experience was that open field crossing under artillery at the very end.
Any sequence that basically relies on luck only to be completed seems silly to me. And I was systematically exploderized about 15 times before I could get to shoot those paradrops. At which point, when I finally made it, I was the lose survivor of the group.

Last thing, that is kinda inherent to AI-led missions: the AI is still fucking stupid, and can get very frustrating too. I can't count the times I could see the enemy, yet the squad leader would just rush forward blindly until the whole group was gunned down point blank. At which point it's up to you to choose a BOF and do what you can to kill the enem from afar.

Note that the mortar dispersion in Radio Silence is not really a problem, as you can easily shoot everybody in the base yourself anyway.

Final thing that playing SP A3 showed me: we're definitely gonna need some AI mod at some point. Witnessing a dude that I just shot in the chest, 350 meters away, standing up, just turn towards me and shoot me in the face while I'm prone in the grass seems a bit... off.

Medic Eugene Roe
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 1:14 pm
Location: Texas, United States

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Medic Eugene Roe »

Agree on most all points. The campaign does leave some questions though. What the heck happened to Nikos? Where were the resistance hiding the whole time? Was CSAT taking over for the AAF or trying to take over the AAF? Besides those (which will probably be answered later), how the first mission seems to be all over the place, and the afforementioned mortar spread, the Arma 3 campaign is looking fantastic, and is leaving me hungry for more (cliffhangar, y u tease us so much).

The things I like are how they seem like people. They seem more human, having noticeable senses of humor, talking smack about their command, etc. Some of the odd talk you can listen in on at Camp Maxwell is really nice, some of it providing comedic relief ("Wait what, you tellin' me this place used to be British?"). The combination of seriousness with the soldiers having a need for comic relief reminds me of Sleeping Dogs, with a mix of dark, dark moments and a need to laugh it up to relieve tension with the characters, making them seem believable.

zitron
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 10:18 pm

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by zitron »

GOTY

Image

I rest my case.

User avatar
Stoner
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:53 am
Location: Dallas, Texas. USA

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Stoner »

Bad boy, Zitron, bad!!! Go sit in the corner. Then, to bed without supper you go.

Concerning artillery in Radio Silence, the first time I ran the scenario, I died. On second run-through, I estimated where the troops would be in 40 seconds (they always run the same pattern), and dropped 4 rounds on them. All visible troops were killed. I was still hit by the other, invisible troops. The squad made short work of them.

In the last mission, out of 8 guys, only I survived. Only one artillery round lobbed at me and it missed.

All-in-all, it was a nice little campaign. I'm looking forward to part 2.
Bitte töte mich nicht

Medic Eugene Roe
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 1:14 pm
Location: Texas, United States

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Medic Eugene Roe »

I hope Zitron isn't Pvt. Nelson. I'm worried now.

In the last mission, only me and 2 guys survived, not counting Miller's crew. The first shell was right in front of me but not enough to hurt some how, the second landed right on top of my team lead and someone next to him. Then they just kept coming, until the paratroopers dropped. Btw, anyone know how the paras dropped as normal units? I noticed one was a medic, wish I remembered if he still had his pack. Hope it didn't involve a lot of scripting.

EBass
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2012 1:46 pm

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by EBass »

What do you mean "as normal units"?

Medic Eugene Roe
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 1:14 pm
Location: Texas, United States

Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"

Post by Medic Eugene Roe »

They dropped with regular infantry kit. As opposed to the kit of the editor's Paratrooper unit, they dropped as medics and such.

Post Reply