Arma 2/Harvest Red/Razor Two: Mission won't end

[KingM535i 1]

I have a problem with mission Razor Two. I know this mission has caused a lot of grief in the past, I have read a lot of posts and guides on the issues with it and how to complete it, but I seem to have a unique problem. I'm not going to risk the wrath of the moderators on my first post, so I'll put all of the description in a spoiler box.

Put simply, I cannot successfully complete the mission. If I catch Bardak, he just stops and stands still, he doesn't raise his hands and I've never seen the cut-scene of him being captured, though the "Capture Bardak" task shows as complete. I can go for him straight away or collect all the evidence first, it makes no difference and neither does the location where I catch him (he has managed to out run me once or twice, once by, after appearing out of nowhere, running up the sheer vertical side of the quarry wall!). If I get the "head off the car heading north" call, I airlift to the village he should drive through, but he's never turned up. The only way I currently have of completing the mission is to fail it, which I believe has negative consequences later in the campaign so I would like to avoid this.

I have Arma 2, OA, PMC + BAF amalgamated into Combined Operations. This was updated to the latest version (V.1.6295248) after first install before I started the Harvest Red campaign and I currently have no mods or add-ons. I have a good system and know how to set up the graphics to get a decently pretty but stable game (I fondly remember running (sort of) OFP on a middle of the road Pentium 2, where mistakes in the graphics menu caused a crash to desktop and had to be corrected in the .config file).

I have been trying this mission on and off for nearly two weeks now, I have tried it every way recommended and more. It's starting to feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

[KingM535i 1]

I found a way to end this mission with a successful outcome, but it's not ideal. Includes use of cheat code.

I Googled "Arma 2 cheats" and discovered that Arma 2 uses the same cheat codes as Arma 1. I restarted the mission, caught Bardak at the quarry and again after a lengthy footchase, in which I eventually had to shoot him in the leg to get him to stop, he just stood there, wouldn't raise his hands no matter how many shots I put past him and I got no cutscene. I had my medic heal him and I left him there while I collected the other three of the four items of evidence (Bardak himself is the fourth). Then I went back to Bardak. I used the cheat

hold left shift, tap the minus key on the keypad and type endmission

. This ended the mission with a successful outcome, but I only had three pieces of evidence. Apparently you are awarded the fourth piece of evidence while arresting Bardak in the cutscene, which should complete the "find evidence" task if you have the other three.

While this got me past the mission with a successful end, it's not an ideal way to do it. Given how consistent the problem is, there must be a fairly logical cause, but I have no idea what that is.

I also ran into a problem on the next mission...

On first play of the next mission, after boarding the Osprey, my guys are chatting and suddenly we all die. I restart, this time watching from outside while the Osprey takes off. The pilot seems to convert to "aeroplane" mode while too low, too slow and flying straight at the side of a massive hill. As soon as the Osprey has finished transforming into an aeroplane the pilot yanks back on the stick just in time to stall the aircraft into the trees on the side of the hill. I tried this three times before finally boarding the Osprey and using the

endmission

cheat to get past that one as well.

I find it very hard to believe that these could be problems with the scripted mission, particularly with the quality of the Arma series, how long the game has been out, how many patches there have been and that I can't find any other accounts of these specific problems. I'm wondering if I might have incorrectly patched the game or something along those lines.

[KingM535i 1]

I have finally completed Dogs of War, however, having got to the end I could not complete this mission either...

Having got close to the handover point, the game auto-saves, the cut-scene starts and ends and at the point where I think I'm supposed to be given control all the characters freeze. I can still run around but everything else is frozen in time. If I hit 'Esc' the menu is the cut-scene one. The 'Skip' option immediately vanishes and clicking any other options or hitting 'Esc' again results in the game reloading from the auto-save. Once again I had to...

use the 'endmission' cheat

... to end the mission, successfully completing it but leaving several objectives uncompleted which should have been (and I hate doing that).

Again, not having much luck finding any info on this one. Given the lack of response to my posts I'm guessing it must just be my game or computer. I'm trying to figure out if a duff patch could cause this or if a full re-install will fix it. Any input welcome.

[Kommiekat 11]

One of the problems with Arma 2 is the lack of effort that was put into the Campaign. You've got to look at it as a "Arma 2 showcase, look what you can do with our game in Editor" sort of thing.

As much as you and I take the Campaign seriously, you just can't.

The other big name gaming companies that have put out successful games like COD put time and effort into the game itself with no intentions of giving out an Editor to create SP missions. It's a whole different ball park.

My advice is to do what you can to get through the Camp, enjoy the ride, get it done and move on to what other better SP/MP and Camp missions folks have produced.

[KingM535i 1]

Sound advice. I've completed Harvest Red now and I have no intention of doing it again! I've moved onto Operation Arrowhead which seems to work much better. I hope the rest of the add-ons are as good. I'll move onto MP once I've got my moneys worth out of SP.

[iceman77 18]

Yeah, there haven't been a good official campaigns since ofp/resistance/redhammer. Arma1 and Arma2 campaigns are very poor. Like KommieKat said, it's the lack of effort and basically just a showcase of what the editor can do for making SP missions.

Why should they put any effort though, since the community will surely make good campaigns. I'd personally love an official campaign, that gave me the rush that resistance did.

[Alwarren 2767]

Personal opinion: I actually liked Harvest Red, the only thing that I could really criticize is the number of bugs in the campaign and the warfare missions at the end.

[kireta21 13]

Well, IMO Badlands wasn't bad, Dogs of War wouldn't be either if they didn't make it so freaking long. I was OK with taking almost empty villages for first hour or so, but for some reason Devs thought it will be bucket of fun to drag it through half of Chernarus.