Story?

[bluWAHL 10]

I'm wondering if if I should pre-order this game, and I was wondering about a few things:

1. How hard will it be for a person (like myself), who have never been in a helicopter and have no clue how to operate one, to play this? Is there a toggle between "easy" and realistic controls?

2. How is the story in this game? To me it seemed like you take the role as a "freelance" helicopter pilot, doing missions for various people. Doing cargodrops, military missions and other things. Will there be a progression in the story? Where you start low and build your "reputation" and can afford new and better helicopters. Or is it like Train Sim '12, where you basically have all these single skirmishes mashed together?

Thanks alot for any answer:)

[eddix99 10]

If I were you I would buy this game. If you're gaming tastes lie with titles such as modern warfare and you rarely venture out from this type of game then you may find things a bit challenging. What I mean is that if you demand instant gratification from your games then this title may not be for you.

However, as with the nature of all games it is overcoming the challenge that is the enjoyable part. You will get long term enjoyment out of a title like this.

Give it a whirl! (no pun intended)

PS I love MW as much as the next man. I was using it to illustrate a point.

[royaltyinexile 175]

How hard will it be for a person (like myself), who have never been in a helicopter and have no clue how to operate one, to play this?

There's a few things we've tried to do to support players such as yourself.

1. Difficulty

First off, there's the difficulty settings, so a player such as yourself should most likely select 'beginner'. This tones down a lot of the complicating factors associated with flying a helicopter, like the effect of the wind, or controlling your tail rotor. You can also use things like auto-hover to land, etc.

2. Tutorials

Secondly, there's our tutorials. These have been designed to first introduce you to what a helicopter is -- you'll be walking around it learning about what bits do what -- then get you up in the air, flying through a series of gates and the like, and finally moving onto thing like sling-loading and emergency landing.

If you want to read more about the tutorials, we made a blog post on the subject, and created a video too:

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How is the story in this game?

The story is all designed around civil helicopter gameplay. If you don't like the idea of flying helicopters - maybe the story won't be for you! ;)

3. Story

Particularly, the first few scenarios are designed to ease you in, and the tutorials are (optionally) integrated to the story too. There's as much support as we can put in, though it'd be naturally to face plant the chopper a good few times, I'd say.

Overall, the 'career' can be as linear as you like, just following the 10 or so 'core missions' -- or, you can build up your fleet of choppers and take on side contracts and optional missions (around 10 or so unique scenarios, some of which are completely dynamic), and take care of your helicopters' maintenance in your heliport (what we call the 'gameplay hub').

Below are some images from early design analysis, brushed up a little for a future blog post.

I hope that answers some of your questions. The fundamental point is - you will be flying helicopters. A lot. :cool:

You'll be given the information you need to learn how to fly and handle them, and a pretty decent range of things to do when you flying them, but at the end of the day, you'll be taking on helicopters! :o

Best,

RiE

[bluWAHL 10]

Thank you so much for a REALLY good answer!

I like other sim games, but I always feel that the story part is somewhat left out. But this really sounds like a game I could take a liking to, you have my pre-order:)

[zoog 18]

I have a question about the story, actually only about the introduction. But I'll spoiler it any way:

So who died in the helicopter crash in the introduction? Was it their dad? Or was it just a crash with injury, and the reason why the brother Joe can't fly any more? Are these things I ought to know while I'm at mission ~3, and did I overlook something? Or is it something that will be cleared up later?

[Mario-TDNL- 10]

The reason why Joe doesn't fly is because he was in the crash. You where dropped on the heliport, Joe takes off and for some reason crashed. I still dont know why he crashed.

[manzilla 1]

Thank you so much for a REALLY good answer!

I like other sim games, but I always feel that the story part is somewhat left out. But this really sounds like a game I could take a liking to, you have my pre-order:)

BIS games always aim for some sort of story. If you like sim games you'd probably like this and ArmA 2. Even if you aren't a fan of shooters, A2 is so much more than a shoot em up war game. I'd give this a try and A2OA. There's pretty good stories, the sandbox style is not constricting like most shooters and there's an element of strategy and tactics. The community is very strong as well. That's probably the best part about the game. There's tons of Mods and AddOns, SP/MP missions and campaigns and much more. You basically play the vanilla game for a few weeks and then enjoy what the community dreams up for years after.

I've been playing video games pretty much since day one and I've never really encountered anything like OFP thru TKOH. Nor have I continuously played a game series for so long.

BIS is a pretty damn good developer, bottom line. And their invovlement with the community is the strongest I've ever witnessed.

Alright enough of the fanboy crap from me. That's not my style.

[nodunit 397]

Gotta say, thus far it's been a refreshing story. The premise is built around a few guys simply trying to make their way in the world, with dialogue that sounds more like casual conversation than an 'epic tale'.

There are many similarities to OFP, some more subtle than others, early in we can see a diverse spectrum of emotions and personalities between characters and even some clashing of opinion and there are even references to past games woven into the narrative but not to the point that those who did not play the previous titles will be left in the dark, mentioning rather than latching on for a staple.

@Manzilla: Nothing wrong with being a fanboy of a developer who treats you like a customer rather than a cash cow.

[DarkMellie 10]

I love how it intertwines elements of ArmA 2.

The CEO of 'Vrana Corp' becomes interested in Larkin Aviation and eventually buys them out.. turns out Vrana Corp owns ION, the contracters from ArmA 2's PMC expansion.

Also love how Ms Carmichael comes on the scene and starts agreeing to contracts without telling the brothers what's involved... something doesn't feel right about her or her company and CEO.

The dialogue and story are both extremely well-written, although the voice acting is quite poor. There really isn't any other title like ToH and as an avid-simmer, I highly recommend it :)

Edited November 9, 2011 by RoyaltyinExile
Le Spoil de Er