Rate the first episode!

[OMAC 254]

Finally someone else who liked Operation Black Gauntlet! :cool:

Edited December 16, 2013 by OMAC

[[evo] dan 79]

Finally got around to playing it this weekend. I absolutely loved it, it was much better than OA and HR. I give it an 8/10.

It took me around 4-5 hours to complete this episode, which is a long time for todays games that also include MP. (Gears of war is the only thing I can think of atm). I died a few times, but it was nice to see that it was pretty much bug free (had the divers in the diving mission get stuck once, but a reload sorted it). Can't wait to play the next part of the campaign. Glad you guys didn't resort to putting warfare into it because that was the most annoying thing about HR. You guys also did a VERY good job at building the atmosphere around the whole situation and I did enjoy playing the small unit ops. Performance was really good which also helped me to enjoy the episode.

However, I did miss not having big unit/combined ops, but I guess that they will perhaps come with the other two episodes. Its probably my only gripe really, but I can live with it given the situation within the campaign.

[2nd ranger 282]

I don't really get it when people talk about how good or relatable the CWC characters were. They were pretty cartoonish and it's not like Armstrong had any kind of arc. His 'development' was that he got promoted. Gastovski was probably the most interesting. Resistance had a better story overall, and Troska was a fairly interesting protagonist.

Regardless of how good or bad the campaign was, I would say PMC had the most character development, because the main character seems to be having a mental breakdown as you progress. Unfortunately Frost is too much of an insufferable ass to be a relatable character. His overwrought dialogue and narration is dreadful and makes me cringe.

[OMAC 254]

Yep, Armstrong was kind of flat, Gastovski a little more interesting, but after 40 missions you have spent so much time with them that you are familiar with them and identify somehow with them. Campaign rating in terms of character development from best to worst IMO:

PMC* > Resistance > HR > CWC > OA > Survive > BAF > ACR

OA is better than Survive mainly as the latter is only 1/3 of East Wind campaign. East Wind will surely move up in the list with subsequent episodes.

(Note that ToH career has very good character development, and may even rate near the top of the list, but wasn't included as it is not a military game - but remember the military flashback missions - very cool :cool:)

* The guy with the overwrought Scottish or Welsh (?) accent was quite something - you could barely tell he was speaking English. :j: Did he have a speech impediment?

Edited December 18, 2013 by OMAC

[froggyluv 2130]

After setting the campaign down some months ago after getting pissy over a certain leaders indestructability, finally picked it up 3 days ago and just finished. Have to say, I really enjoyed it! Much better than I ever would have thought as the first mission just played out so steeped in mediocrity. The voice acting was for the most part, fantastic with notable performances for Miller and James. The pacing was strong, the bases lively and well placed and pretty much all the production quality well polished. Was happy to see a few AI actually placed at windows for once as well as a very basic house (cabin) clearing :D

Some of the tacical choices were a bit awry notably the need to attack from within the valley when high ground would have seemed the wiser choice. The last mission was a little shady with artillerry bombs that seemed to hunt the player all the while paratroopers dropping in ya -no worries, nothing Blastcore Physics can't beat with a bucket full of LOL as you watch AI after AI thrown thousands of meters in the air. Also, where in the hell where the civilians?!?

Also have to note that the enjoyablity factor was seriously magnified by the gracious modders namely:

BCombat

TPW

SoS

Babe Texture

VTS Weapon Rest

Blastcore

Blastcore physics

StHud

The 4th Wall

Weapon Switching While Moving

Adjustable Stances

All in all, surprisingly good fun, with a nice ending. Well Done 8.5

[chortles 263]

Incidentally, re: that last mission, Zipper5 weighed in on that over at Reddit:

I am curious as to how those frustrated by this artillery sequence play it, because all video evidence I find on YouTube has the player making his way through it just as intended: he's under artillery fire, and shells hit close by, but he's not going to be killed unless he stands still for long enough to let the artillery zero on him. It was heavily tweaked to ensure such an experience, but it still seems a small portion of players are suffering from it.

[jacknorrisuk 146]

I give it 7/10...

(For perspective I gave CWC 8/10 and Arma 2 campaign 8/10)

Pros:

Great game engine - infantry play is a pleasure

Great environment

Mostly great voice acting

Cons:

Main drawback: Superweird AI - it seems to me there is a poor balance of enemy soldiers daftly standing around waiting for their cue (are they poorly trained?), and then raising their weapon and sniping you like a god from half a mile away without even moving (are they super Samurai ninja SAS??)...? (Even on Regular)

Story and continuity is a little clunky - I think the action starts way too suddenly at the start, and I'm unsure about the frequent 'returning to base and having briefings' thing.

Story and wider context is alien to us - we need a few more clues as to what's going on! CWC, for example, was pretty obvious as we are all familiar with Cold War context. I don't know the real political situation going on here. I know that can be some kind of narrative arc, but I'd like something to think about in the meantime.

But all in all, I enjoyed it very much. I think my issues with it can mostly be ironed out, which would make it fantastic.

[froggyluv 2130]

Incidentally, re: that last mission, Zipper5 weighed in on that over at Reddit:

I just didn't find that to be the case. It seemed pretty obvious that the player was THE target as when going out to sea, the bombs followed... Had to lol after coming to the forums for help and grabbing the one clue I hadn't tried, heading for the sea as once I stepped back into the mission,with my newfound plan and sprinted for the coast...a bomb literally hit me on the head. The effect definitely made for a tense mission, bombs AND Spec Ops raining down with a real sense of urgency -just think random bombs spread over the area would have been better. So finally the 'screw my AI buddies, head for the coast' plan eventually worked but kinda had me sad as I wanted to fight to the finish with my binary buds. To be fair, I was running that mod list and perhaps the AI mod slowed the battle down for tactical purposes while all along the mission was calibrated to move at a certain pace..

Guess thats the tradeoff.

[chortles 263]

Hmmm... unfortunately the "least accept that we cannot influence their effects on the campaign" mod disclaimer (re: the campaign episodes) would seem to apply here, although it sounds like -- based on the details of Zipper5's post -- that otherwise the intended effect was achieved.

[froggyluv 2130]

Hmmm... unfortunately the "least accept that we cannot influence their effects on the campaign" mod disclaimer (re: the campaign episodes) would seem to apply here, although it sounds like -- based on the details of Zipper5's post -- that otherwise the intended effect was achieved.

Nah your right and I don't blame anyone for something a mod might cause. The effect of urgency was definitely there though the bombs targeting the player seems intended. Ah well, good campaign overall so far. Highly recommend people play that Tipping Point mission with both TPW FAll and Blastcore Explosion Physics -seeing guys get knocked down only to get up stunned as well as blown airborne in all directions was truly a 1st for Arma feeling epic on that warfront. Normandy's gonna be a blast...

[oryang 10]

A huge improvement over A2:OA. I gave it a 7, though I think it deserves an 8(lol) No bugs, and had an intriguing storyline for once. I do think that NATO/CTRG are WAY too overstrength. I mean, the AAF is supposed to be invading Stratis (sort of) but NATO wipes out every attack, every time. Shouldn't the AAF be a little bit more capable, and NATO suffer some decent attacks on Camp Maxwell, or at least have their missions compromised a bit more? But other than it being too easy, it was great!!

Thanks for the awesome work BI. Keep it up guys!!

[Zek 1]

Gave it a 7, it's good, some weird things (like the AAF shelling the camp and then magically stopping without sending a sweep force). The major problem I see is that some missions get complicated not because of the mission itself, but because of the AI and the terrain. Enemies shooting trough trees with pinpoint accuracy, friendly AI being completely slaughtered for a variety of reasons (stance cycles, not falling back when ordered, among other things). To me that ruins the immersion. Campaign itself is good so far.

[nicolasroger 11]

EDIT: NVM i was talking about the second episode!

Edited January 23, 2014 by nicolasroger

[Alwarren 2765]

Incidentally, re: that last mission, Zipper5 weighed in on that over at Reddit:

Only that it doesn't play like that. I' see it happen that you get hit by the second or third artillery shell regardless of standing still or not, staying close to your squad mates or not. I don't know how things are done in that mission, but I also noticed that in the assault on mike-26, my mortar used to not hit anything at all, while in the latest updates, they mostly manage to hit at least two out of three targets.

Bottom line, if this is "real" artillery firing, it seems to be a bad idea. Using a fake artillery might have been better, because in the end, you don't WANT to kill the player there. You WANT him to succeed and only punish them for doing something stupid. As it is now, it's a gamble, nothing else.

I really also don't care about videos on YouTube. When I played it back then, I got through on the first attempt. But most people I talked to now say it's extremely frustrating, and I know these guys know how to play the game.

[best2nd 10]

It's a fake mortar. Shells spawn out of thin air.

[b00tsy 28]

I haven't finished the first episode yet, but played it for about 1.5/2 hours (got bored after that). The voice acting is nicely done, the locations they chose for it was good too. I do find it very 'on rails' and scripted so far, not really what you want from a big sandbox environment. So far I have been walking behind other dudes that have a pricise scripted (move 100 meters left yada..) trail from point A to B, I was really hoping for being able to choose my own path, overwatch from a hill before moving on instead of blindly and dumb following AI that walk into spawning AI. Spawning AI, why? The campaign is already devided up into dozens of small mini missions so why not use persistent AI, leave spawning AI to arcade games and online MP missions. In general up to now I find it focussed on the casual players, it feels like I am playing the campaign of BF3. Again, this is my opinion after just a few hours so maybe it will change when I play the rest of it. I liked the ArmA2 coampaign better so far.

6/10

[Mullitia 10]

Hi everyone, a total noob here.

Not touching on the realism (so this is a pure gaming perspective), I gave this a 7. I played on regular and liked the balance, i.e. it was neither labour-intensive nor was it a walk in a park, but offered a decent amount of challenge. It also provided a bare bones guide for novices like myself. There were a few triggering/scripting errors to be found, but reloading solved those. I already started the second episode, which seems to have more interesting missions though.

Regards.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Mullitia

[NeuroFunker 11]

after playing second ep, somehow, i liked first more, in therms athmosphere, scenery. I might even say, i liked it more, because of liniarity, you have point A and Point B, and there are not XYZ in between. The only mission in ep2 so far, i liked back to stratis one. It felt somehow stalker-a like so to say. Being with few people in totally infested full of enemies thight area/zone, felt really well. I don't feel that much under pressure on Altis at all. Lots of room to hide, escape. Even playing with mods like blastcore, jsrs, bcombat, doesn't impress me, as first ep. campaign did.

[chneemann 0]

I just finished the first part of the campaign.

Very nice work! I rated it with a 9, because I like campaigns where you loose at the beginning and fight back later on until you win.

Now I'm very curious about the 2nd part :-)

But I've one question.

I was surprised reading my nickname in the outtakes.

Don't really know why because it's been a some time since I was very active in this community.

But thanks ;-)

http://www.chneemann.de/Material/Bilder/Sonstiges/ArmA3_ST.jpg (120 kB)

[2nd ranger 282]

You may not be very active but you're a valued member of this community and we all appreciate everything you've done. Thanks again.

[OMAC 254]

I thought that the credit script read your A3 profile name and added it to the credits, no?

[NeuroFunker 11]

only who brought support edition if i remember right.

[zimms 22]

I think both of you are right. The profile name is shown at the end of the proper credits, and the supporter name is shown in this huge block of supporter names.

Player          name displayed 
Regular               1x
Supporter             2x

[dbhoward20 10]

I def think that it is fun. I have replayed it multiple times although sometimes I find myself just running all over the island for giggles XD. I can't wait to see what the expansions hold for us in the future!