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st!gar

General Thoughts on "Manhattan".

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Since the release of vanilla ArmA 2, there has been a lot of discussion about the bugs in some of the game's more open-ended missions, particularly "Manhattan" and "Dogs of War", if my memory serves me correctly. However; at this point, I'd actually like to talk a little about the actual mission, itself.

I started playing through Harvest Red relatively late, and has just "completed" Manhattan. I can't say for sure that I have encountered any particular bugs - mostly when things go wrong, I can't for the life of me decide whether or not it was a bug, I made a mistake, or if the mission was just poorly designed. For example, I once waited for ages for Whatsherface 'Daki sympathizer to appear at the church without her ever showing, and I still have not been able to find the arms-smugglers anywhere. And I've played that fucking mission at least five times, now.

But, bugs aside, I just happen to think Manhattan is simply a generally bad mission.

I mean; it's not fun, it's not even very challenging and I spent 90% of it driving endlessly from A to B in my little APC. You drive to village X, talk to some NPC, drive to village Y, (on the complete opposite side of the map, of course.), where you are told to meet someone at village Z. And, of course, on the long, long, long way over there, nothing happens. You and the three other guys just sit there, gazing emptily into space, the APC slowly trudging away through dirt-roads and villages. You get bored of Chernarus quickly.

And whenever you actually do come across some enemies or a half-hearted firefight between some three CDF-rednecks and maybe five 'Dakis, (about three times in the entire mission.), you can bet your ass they won't have any sort of AT-capabilities, and as such can do absolutely nothing while your gunner mows them down literally without resistance. You just have to park the APC somewhere and watch. I have completed the whole mission maybe firing ten shots.

---

Two missions later, I had joined the CDF, and when the mission started, I actually almost fell out of my chair in shock. There were people shooting at me. There were friendly forces shooting back. I was actually playing a wargame! I was actually entertained! I was actually having slightly fun! :butbut: It partially resembled the feeling I got when I recently played the first Operation Arrowhead mission. Two squads were assaulting an enemy-held airport, before moving in to support a larger offensive, with multiple friendly and enemy units operating all around you. This was actually a bit like the old Operation Flashpoint, in a way! I was actually participating in something resembling a genuine military operation!

So, to get to my point; what were your experiences with Manhattan? Do you have any thoughts on it? Have I completely misunderstood the whole thing, or do you generally agree? I remember the Manhattan briefing telling my about SecOps, but I never experienced any. Is that maybe why it sucked? Was the player supposed to regularly be issued SecOps throughout the mission, thus breaking up the tedium, but a bug prevents me from getting any?

Please, do share your thoughts.

Edited by St!gar

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I like it for the realism it provides, it felt realistic although it seemed to rely on the 'boring' aspects of war which you mentioned. To be honest, I'm quite glad a game finally made a truly realistic mission without unrealistic fire fights going on all around the player.

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I found it to be an interesting mission.

Story #1: When I asked for a ride in the UH1Y we were heading out to Gorka and we got shot down by a missile (which I now assume came from the main encampment). The pilot managed to crash land the helicopter though and so after making sure the helicopter crew wasn't in danger continued on with the mission and went to Gorka where I had to make that choice. I then went to Novy Sobor and talked to the guy. Then I started driving back to the FOB and got ambushed and encountered friendly marines who helped fight back the enemy patrol.

Story #2: When I was awaiting the extraction hind the enemy base was insight on the hill and a T-72 began shelling my AAV. There were explosions all over the LZ and at one point a shell blew apart the shed I was hiding next to. I kept driving around in an attempt to make sure the tank didn't try to hit the hind.

Story #3: The side mission where the helicopter got shot down was activated. When I went to go try to find the crash site I realized it was about 2km off the coast and decided not to go after it. On my way back I ran into a really big mechanized chedaki patrol and was promptly killed.

Story #4: I was driving along a road to the North trying to find the base when I ran into a vehicle and a bunch of guys around it. It turns out it was not only the smugglers but also

Nikitin

who I then chased through the woods and shot in the leg.

Some of the mission did get annoying and I did run into a few bugs. My artillery support was taken away after a save. That helicopter task was given to me 2km offshore with no reasonable means of getting there.

For the most part though I enjoyed it. A few more enemy men wouldn't have hurt though.

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I used a hummer with machine gun

Drove to Whatsherface 'Daki sympathizer's home town. The arms smugglers were there in a white pickup which my gunner blew up.

The beewitch was not there so I drove to the airstrip near her boyfriends home town.

By chance there she was walking along the road at about 12:15

I got her in the hummer and drove to FOB stuck her in the chopper and dropped her at the suggested rendezvous.

A Hind came and picked her up all without enemy contact.

The rendezvous is not far from enemy officers tent near the forest but I blew that up earlier with artillery.

I think the main camander was in that camp as I now can not finish the manhattan - I think I blew the main NAPA officer up & it says you mus ID before killing him.

It also says I have not found all the sentry points but I have cleared the red zones.

Edited by gareththomasnz

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I liked Manhattan very much.

It makes you feel as part of a true recon team. If one avoids to cross dense forest areas in Armored Vehicles and instead leave the vehicle aside and approach the sentry points on foot, the firefights are great as well!

(Getting into the woods with APCs I think it is unrealistic and I do not do it. It spoils the feeling. No commander in his right mind would risk getting bogged down in a dense forest with no chances to spot AT at all.)

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I used a hummer with machine gun

Drove to Whatsherface 'Daki sympathizer's home town. The arms smugglers were there in a white pickup which my gunner blew up.

The beewitch was not there so I drove to the airstrip near her boyfriends home town.

By chance there she was walking along the road at about 12:15

I got her in the hummer and drove to FOB stuck her in the chopper and dropped her at the suggested rendezvous.

A Hind came and picked her up all without enemy contact.

The rendezvous is not far from enemy officers tent near the forest but I blew that up earlier with artillery.

I think the main camander was in that camp as I now can not finish the manhattan - I think I blew the main NAPA officer up & it says you mus ID before killing him.

It also says I have not found all the sentry points but I have cleared the red zones.

You can ID his body, I always did that way.

But never encountered crashed helo mission

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I like the mission as well!

Used the heli to get around!

The new UAV with the thermal imaging is fantastic!

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