Lets play PMC singleplayer [Spoilers]

[nkenny 1051]

May contain spoilers.

This is my playthrough of the PMC campaign.

Start

No real introduction is given as after a confused intro sequence I find myself in a vast ruined city. There is some radio chatter made by the fellow who played the main character in Arma2 (can't for the life of me remember his name or anyone on the team for that matter)-- the astoundingly uninteresting acting prevents me from caring about what he is trying to say. From this point on I'll call him 'force-recon-guy'.

Bohemia showcases ingame video briefing (shown as a a iphone like app) but because the video shows a pretty much static gamecharacter with no real animation/acting the effect is rather wasted. As I move toward the objective marker I'm rewarded with my first pleasant surprise. The ingame credits are rather cunningly drawn/overlayed the environment in an effect which looks quite professional without disrupting the 'feel' of the game.

I proceed with the mission. So far I've been had to reload twice due to stray mortar shells. Three times. I'm told to look for circling crows; a rather unlikely proposition given the cautious nature of crows (a rather intelligent bird) and the amount of explosions going on.

-k

Edited December 2, 2010 by NkEnNy

[Zipper5 74]

Keep in mind for next time that if you post under the official missions section you avoid the issue with spoilers. I'll move it for you. :)

Edit: Moved.

Edited December 2, 2010 by Zipper5
Moved thread

[nkenny 1051]

Thanks zipper.

So far I've been shot at by stray infantry men a couple of times. My teammate ignores all this with fearless abandon and walks center street cowboy style to our objective. My companion has sounded the all clear TWICE while we were still under fire. *sigh* Finally a helicopter provides extraction from the area and ends the mission.

Video Sequence--- 3 days earlier

A quick ride in a car clears up some of the setting/theme elements. Rather colourful language provokes a grin. Bohemia displays that they haven't learned one of the major tricks (employed by Operation Flashpoint, Half Life1-2, and CoD4: Modern Warfare1) of first person shooter storytelling. KEEP THE CHARACTER IN FIRST PERSON.

I understand that this is a continuation of the BAF stuff-- but I've yet to feel invested in the character. Lets go.

-k

---------- Post added at 07:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------

Mission1

So far the presentation of each mission has been excellent. The briefing is well written, to the point, and easy to understand. Signatures and other clipart is inserted effectively and tastefully. The same technique used to draw the credits is used to introduce teammembers again creating a unified and easy to understand interface.

The next mission is fairly straightforward. Defend an airfield. There are no other troops present. Intel must have been fairly bad as the airfield is attacked from all direction (including sniper support and an APC). Teammembers are as ever cold as ice and the firefight is over fairly smoothly. As an ironic sidenote the force recon guy announces halfway into the first engagement "do not shoot until fired upon"-- so he's got humour eh?

The enemy (despite being more numerous, attacking an unprepared enemy out in the open, and having a preformed plan) are readily dealt with. Perhaps the enemy ought to have brought in the mortars like on the intromission. No casualties on our side-- in fact so far ION inc operators seem almost invulnerable! :j:

-k

---------- Post added at 07:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:25 PM ----------

mission 2

Well that was quick.

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 PM ----------

Cutscene

With the situation at the industrial facility resolved its time to load up and move out. Into the batmobiles and blast off.

My reward is yet another cutscene which doesn't really add anything to the story nor help create an immersive (authentic/believable setting). I'm still not sure which of the characters is me nor why I should care. There is some shooting (and I guess its supposed to be exciting?) going on-- but I ain't getting any of it.

-k

---------- Post added at 08:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

Mission 3

Go to the capital city of Takistan Zargabad and secure your contact. How to recognize him? He is a muslim type character named Abdul. Errrr.. Anyhow the mission plays out as the team clears with meticulous attention a few city blocks of a ruined city. Random stray clumps of uniformed infantry and some semi-hidden marksmen are randomly scattered across the city. Their purpose and motivation for sticking about isn't really explained-- I guess they are kinda like zombies? Or perhaps the monsters hanging about WoW style quest-instances?

Game mechanics. After stumbling around the city I come across a roadblock. Force-recon-guy orders team sword to move up and deal with it. Great. Oh wait! suddenly I've got a backpack. I guess I'm the satchel guy? None of the other teammembers seem to care, but I didn't really get a specific order... oh well I am the protagonist after all...

IED explosives. Suddenly the cry goes out over the radio. IED IED!! Well secure with the idea that I'm the explosives guy of the outfit my heart starts pounding as I move towards the charge.... Or rather where I think it is... after running around the block a few times I find a buried RPG7 shell-- Slowly and cleverly I creep towards it. I'm DEMOLITIONS MAN after all! Boom. Mincemeat. Reload.

Ahh.. Apparently the way to properly discharge/disable a IED is by shooting your rifle at it. Silly me. This is a shooting game after all.

Once the prerequisite number of city blocks are cleared its time for yet another cutscene...

Cutscene

Dramatics ensue. Mortar attack! Again the feeling that anytime anything exciting happens I'm not part of it. The ion-inc-boys get shot at for a bit which I guess is supposed to tie the story together with the first intromission. Now it doesn't explain how apparently Force-recon-guy teleports to fetch the helicopter which secured our ride-- I mean he was clearly there in the town with us-- yet also in the helicopter. Interesting.

---------- Post added at 08:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:21 PM ----------

Mission 4

The mission is to transport our clients to the province poetically named the "proving grounds". It starts out with a choice of some consequence. Either get out of the vehicle and wait about for force-recon-guy to sort things or fire a few rounds over the heads of American Troops.

As declaring war on the US seems like a silly plan I opted for the pussy solution namely getting out of the car. A few ingame seconds later things were sorted and the mission was on. We rode forward perhaps 200-300 meters past the last remnants of a city then a single shot rang out. The bullet penetrated my head and ended the mission.

Rather impressive getting a headshot on the gunner of a moving car.. Kinda deprotagonizing, but I guess that is the nature of war. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) my GF just got home with Tacos and beer so I had to leave off restarting the mission til later.

see ya.

-k

Edited December 2, 2010 by NkEnNy

[st!gar 3]

Gods, it just grinds my ass when people say "GF". It's "girlfriend", NkEnNy. Those eight extra letters really shouldn't be too much for you.

...So I'm guessing you didn't like the game, then?

[Zipper5 74]

Gods, it just grinds my ass when people say "GF". It's "girlfriend", NkEnNy. Those eight extra letters really shouldn't be too much for you.

Talk about nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking...

[JSj 12]

I did exactly the same thing with the IED:s at first. I mean, shooting at an IED doesn't seem too bright, and as Arma 2 does contain a function for disabling satchels and mines for instance (via the action menu), I really can't understand why the IED:s were implemented this way in this mission.

[moricky 210]

Because none of the protagonists is an engineer capable of disabling IEDs ;)

[JSj 12]

You know, at first I was going to reply: "Ok, good point. But then they should have stayed away from the IED, but I guess that would not have made for very exciting gameplay". Then I thought about it, and I changed my mind. It could have been done this way. How about this:

The first radio call about the IED could have been about a "possible IED". And your task as the player would then be to confirm this. To complete the task, you have to carefully approach (walking or crawling, it should explode if you run up to it) the suspected IED to get confirmation.

When you are close enough, the task gets completed. You confirm that it is an IED, call it in, and the reply over the radio is: "Ok, everybody stay away from the IED, I'm reporting it so that the military can send someone over to deal with it."

I think that would have been more realistic, more something that you'd do in a realistic simulator game rather than just shooting at it. It would also have emphasized that PMC is about a private security detail, not soldiers used to dealing with IED:s daily. And it would have been a nice change from the barricades that you just have to deal with more directly by blowing them up.

Edited December 4, 2010 by Johan S

[FUNKSTAR 10]

Or how about planting a charge on the IED and then blow it up, does not take skill to do that just (balls of steel).

Plus Frost was a Cpl in the Paras, but now he can fly heli's so what diffrence would have an engineer been!

[upredictable 10]

Or rather, once found the IED someone should say:

-"No time to call the cleanup."

Then Asano :

-"What can we do ?"

Then someone scream:

-" Shoot that shit "

-"Ramirez, shoot the IED!!!" ;)

[ravenholme 50]

Or how about planting a charge on the IED and then blow it up, does not take skill to do that just (balls of steel).

Plus Frost was a Cpl in the Paras, but now he can fly heli's so what diffrence would have an engineer been!

Sergeant. And, well, having learned to fly a helicopter is not that unrealistic, he makes it very clear that it was in a civilian capacity (And if you've got the money, why not?), disarming IEDs would be a bit of a stretch.

Also, the comment in Aviation (Which is a horrible mission from the point your tail rotor gets damaged onward, so.. many... reverts...) about "What the hell is it with me and helicopters?!" made me grin, especially since that was not far off where they got shot down in Crimson Lance (iirc)

[FUNKSTAR 10]

Ok then a sergeant in the Para's having flying lessons on civ street :D

YEAH REALY!

His money would have gone on the piss, or paid for his crapy SIA licence to become a PMC (Im getting too realistic here)

I have no bomb disposal training but I could very easily place a small lump of PE on a IED and attach a det cord, and then run for my life!

In game this could have been done simply by useing the det charges, or they could have made small charges just for this mission, and that would have made it more realistic. Where have you ever seen bomb disposal done by putting 5.56 through it!