Re: [SPOILER] A3 Campaign Review for "Survive"
Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 7:49 am
I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by the campaign part 1, especially after hearing some of the praise it received. All in all, I'd say I preferred Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead's campaigns - when they worked and didn't succumb to bugs. (It helps that I played neither until a couple of years after they were released.)
What I definitely minded was that a couple of the missions were heavily predicated on randomness - which is fine, since Arma has always had that unpredictability, but it doesn't motivate me if I can die or all the other guys can die in a situation regardless of how smartly I play. It may be realistic, but it's not enjoyable to be killed repeatedly by mortars, nor is it particularly satisfying to make it knowing that this has nothing to do with skill, only with how the virtual dice fell.
What the campaign did well, though, was provide an introduction to how Arma works. I've been playing since Operation Flashpoint, but there are enough changes in the latest game for me to appreciate the more tutorial-like build-up.
At this point, with Operation Flashpoint more than ten years in the past and still (IMO) offering the best Bohemia Interactive campaign by far, I think they should actually go back to that well and either do a remake or a modernised reimagining, at least as an add-on. At the very least they should learn from what they did well with OFP's campaign much more than they have, in my opinion. After all, I'm pretty sure that most current gamers (not the hardcore fans, mind you) were not around for the original game.
What I definitely minded was that a couple of the missions were heavily predicated on randomness - which is fine, since Arma has always had that unpredictability, but it doesn't motivate me if I can die or all the other guys can die in a situation regardless of how smartly I play. It may be realistic, but it's not enjoyable to be killed repeatedly by mortars, nor is it particularly satisfying to make it knowing that this has nothing to do with skill, only with how the virtual dice fell.
What the campaign did well, though, was provide an introduction to how Arma works. I've been playing since Operation Flashpoint, but there are enough changes in the latest game for me to appreciate the more tutorial-like build-up.
At this point, with Operation Flashpoint more than ten years in the past and still (IMO) offering the best Bohemia Interactive campaign by far, I think they should actually go back to that well and either do a remake or a modernised reimagining, at least as an add-on. At the very least they should learn from what they did well with OFP's campaign much more than they have, in my opinion. After all, I'm pretty sure that most current gamers (not the hardcore fans, mind you) were not around for the original game.