Main campaign way, way too short? (Spoiler!)

[KiwisDoFly 0]

Wait wait wait... Is this it? Is the official ArmA campaign only has like six main missions?

On the pre-final mission, we got to the refugee camp and were told that it wasn't SLA that massacred the populace, but it was indeed the royal troops you were on the side of. Then the game kinda hints that you have a choice between helping the refugees or continuing to kill SLAs. In reality, the mission ends right after that cutscene so you never get to actually make the choice. Then you go onto the final mission and suddenly the royal troops turn on you and start shooting. Then you kill them and continue towards liberating other camps. When you do that, you get a cutscene saying that basically you've beaten the SLA's ass and now this will all be one kingdom. The End.

They never explain anything, like why would the royals attack you? or why the whole war started in the first place.

I've pretty much finished the entire campaign in about 8 hours.

[Heatseeker 0]

Thats a really huge spoiler but i couldnt help myself so... .

Doesnt make any sense anyway... Looks like there are no good guys other than the US forces present, ironic...

Have you played all the side missions?

[KiwisDoFly 0]

Not all of them, but some.

Yet I'm sure there is some kind of a glitch that prevents me from accessing the rest of the campaign. There are hints like for example how half of the vehicles in the game aren't even used for the campaign. I have yet to see the MH-6 be used in any mission, and the Hind is only been seen in one mission out of all of them. A lot of the troops and various boats aren't used too.

So there has to be more to it than that and I would atleast like some confirmation. Just a tiny hint, a shred of evidence as you will.

Maybe it's because I'm using the english patcher with a 1.01 version? I heard that you have to de-pbo the campaign - would this work?

[scubaman3D 0]

HA! I noticed the same thing as well...I was just on my way here to complain about it, in fact.

I thought for sure I missed something...its like they just skipped over this whole RACS troops turning on the Americans...you take out forces around the SLA capital and then its just "Congrats/END"

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

would be cool if a mod team would remake the campaign so that it's really kickass and stuff.

[mr2 0]

since i didn't rtfm carefully, i didn' know how to switch team and did the mission only with the initial squad (the squad being only me for the last steps...yes it took a while).

i was a bit disapointed as well, but i do see the red line: Also before the news coverage described the situation a bit different than it was from your own soldier perspective.

And i really like the Anti-War, not purely pro-one sided attitude BIS always introduce in their campaigns. This IS realistic!

Just imagine the situation to be real...Do you believe that any US government would admit that their ally betrayed them? That they fought a war for the wrong reasons?

The best paralell example of history is Vietnam: Was the regime, that supported by the US (Diệm and his Family...) democratically elected and worth being fought for? Nope! Did they do bad stuff? Absolutly sure (like other regimes supported by the US in Niceragua, Guatemala, Chile, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq (...). That doesnt make the north (in our case) look better. But i guess BIS did that for a reason. BIS games are not about heros to make a world better, but about soldiers who have to obay their superiors - who in the end don't wear uniforms, and maybe follow concepts that vary from what they tell to their people. Thanks to BIS for depicting the real world.

Anyway - i was anyway a bit disappointed, too, that the campaign did not last longer.

[scubaman3D 0]

^ That is not a parallel example, as the South Vietnamese army never attacked the US.

I can't imagine a case where something like this would happen - it makes no sense at all. Imagine during WWII, after the Allies liberate France that the French resistance begins to attack the Allies, unprovoked, from the rear and the Allies simply advance towards Germany, as if nothing had happened.

I like twist endings...as long as they MAKE SENSE.

[b1sh0p 0]

I don't believe there is anything after the mission you said.   And I don't believe it's left up in the air as much as you said.  If you pay attention, the story IS explained.   Here's some points.

On the pre-final mission,  we got to the refugee camp and were told that it wasn't SLA that massacred the populace, but it was indeed the royal troops you were on the side of. Then the game kinda hints that you have a choice between helping the refugees or continuing to kill SLAs. In reality, the mission ends right after that cutscene so you never get to actually make the choice.

The mission does end with you in a dilema.  You've just learned that it was the Royals that killed all those people and created all those mass graves.   Your buddy comes over and mentions his concerns, but your character says you can't deviate from the mission.   The best way to stop hostilities is to continue with the mission, and stop the SLA, regardless of what the Royals did.  

They never explain anything, like why would the royals attack you? or why the whole war started in the first place.

It's obvious why the royals attacked you.   They attack you in the mission after you've liberated the POW camp.   They've obviously been ordered to kill the US unit that found the camp.   It was an attempted coverup, that failed.  

And they do explain why the war started in the first place.   Near the start of the game, in one of the cutscenes, the Northern president is quoted as saying that he's moving to liberate the south from their opressors.   It turns out that he was right, and the US actually chose the wrong side in this war.  

Doesnt make any sense anyway... Looks like there are no good guys other than the US forces present, ironic...

Actually, the US isn't the good guy.   As stated above, the US chose the wrong side on this conflict.   The only real good guys in this campaign, are the Northerners that were trying to liberate south.  

I can't imagine a case where something like this would happen - it makes no sense at all. Imagine during WWII, after the Allies liberate France that the French resistance begins to attack the Allies, unprovoked, from the rear and the Allies simply advance towards Germany, as if nothing had happened.

Like I said above, the Royal unit was ordered to kill the US unit in an attempted cover up. I'm reading between the lines here, but I think it's obvious that is what took place.

The reason they continued on like nothing had happened is like what was said above, when has the US military ever admitted they made a mistake? They chose the wrong side in this conflict, but they'll be damned if they'll admit it.

I really like the story BIS told in this campaign. Excellent twist.

[scubaman3D 0]

Its obviously not obvious if you have to "read between the lines" as you said.

Actually, it seems more like a weak attempt at making a politically charged statement using a video game, who's point is for people to have fun killing other simulated people...I see only irony here.

[mr2 0]

^ That is not a parallel example, as the South Vietnamese army never attacked the US.

I can't imagine a case where something like this would happen - it makes no sense at all. Imagine during WWII, after the Allies liberate France that the French resistance begins to attack the Allies, unprovoked, from the rear and the Allies simply advance towards Germany, as if nothing had happened.

I like twist endings...as long as they MAKE SENSE.

I didn't mean that it was exactly parallel, but implied that if the south vietnamese had killed (just 1) US squad, because they found out something bad - i doubnt we would know about it.

[Shadow NX 1]

Erm... i finished the Campaign yesterday ( wasnt in the mood to play much last days even if i had arma since a week ) and also felt like something is missing and they needed to finish the campaign cause the release was comming.

BUT if i didnt read it wrong the refugee said that the SLA indeed did the massacre BUT the RACS didnt cover these towns cause they wanted that too happen cause these citys were against the Royals.

So id think the RACS let it happen to

a, have a reason to cross the border themselfs and take the north capital

b, get rid of the towns that werent loyal or at least give the survivors a huge scare about what happens if they dont support the monarch.

But still it makes no sense that the RACS tries to kill you in the final mission, actually who will believe some refugees?

Just look at Chechnya for example...

Also even if they try to kill my unit then theres also plenty of other US units around that would be witnesses...

Afteral this really felt like a rushed end.

Best part of it was the soldiers talk in the off at the end about the soldier that Marian Quand interviewed in the first mission.

[KiwisDoFly 0]

I don't believe there is anything after the mission you said. And I don't believe it's left up in the air as much as you said. If you pay attention, the story IS explained. Here's some points.

Look, I love to defend ArmA and OFP for all their faults just as much as you, but the campaign is truly atrocious and shouldn't have been worthy of being released to the public. That's it. Period. There is no excuse, and no amount of "Oh but this is realistic!" can fix it.

At the end of the day, this is a game more than it is a simulator. Some people don't want to mess around with the editor and prefer pre-made missions. ArmA simply doesn't deliver on that front.

OFP did, and considering OFP's campaign was lightyears ahead of whatever piece of shite we have in ArmA, I'm really dissapointed with Bohemia right now.

Sure, bugs can be fixed, but the campaign can't. One of the reasons I looked forward to ArmA was because I hoped BIS could deliver the same level of quality campaign-wise as OFP and Resistance. They let me down.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game and don't consider that I wasted money on this game - infact I'm going to buy the english version as soon as it hits the stores (I own the downloadable German version right now).

It's just that one ugly little thing that will always hinder my enjoyment of the game.

[Deadfast 43]

OK, so I've finnished the campaign few minutes ago too.

There is definately something missing.

I've checked the missions folders and I've found sound record of the AAN speaker asking the reporter why the US forces stopped just in front of a capital and about details of a firefight between RACS and US.

I don't think that they'd bother with recording useless records ...

[mr2 0]

isnt it nice from BIS that they give us a reason to play the campaign again after a following patch?

[FCs 0]

it would be nice to have an official answer to this question

[Jigsaw 0]

Looks like I'm through either... and I can't believe it. Operation Flashpoint's Campaign was so much more entertaining, immersive and engaging than ArmA's. It also was quite a bit longer and had a bigger variety of missions.

Looks like ArmA is meant to be a mission building sand box package for the community with only a short "demo campaign" to show what can be done. I gotta say I am a bit disappointed. The abundance of script errors doesn't help much either.

I don't regret having bought it, but I sure expected an improvement over OpFlash in every respect and not a regression in the most important element: the game itself.

[Shadow NX 1]

isnt it nice from BIS that they give us a reason to play the campaign again after a following patch?

*slap*

Somehow i have my doubts that we ever see it finished, last i heard of the 505 Games version of ArmA was it would have a few new vehicles ( and wow it will feature all the vehicles ArmA ever needed.... NOT ) and a new SP mission but nothing was said about a fixed campaign.

Somehow i think BIS accepted the campaign as it is... guess its up to the mappers to finish it using the leftover unused data files that can be found in ArmA.

I guess some should open a lil mod with the target to finalize it... that or BIS proves me completely wrong

[Furax0 0]

I agree the arma campaign is poor to compare with ofp.

Theres no immersion, the scenario is poor as solo map in bf2.

im dissapointed. i did the campaign in 5 days.

it took on month for ofp and one more for ressitance.

Of course arma offer more posibilty than ofp.

But dam it the campaign is also important than multiplayer.

tthe great battle and tsunami map are bugged no way to end it. the same bug for ths both a trigger doesnt work u got only the message to wait and nothing happen.

i hope they will fix it soon and had few more missions in 505 release.

.

[Erich von Stahlhelm 0]

the arma campaign ist boring and confuse.

theres not really a story and it seems that the missioneditors were only halfhearted on their work! the should earn some kicks in their asses for that. sorry for this hard words, but thats what i feel when i think of the ArmA campaign.

[EiZei 0]

The official campaign has too many "here's a stryker and 8 dumb AI guys for you, now go kill some rusk^H^H^H^Hsahrani commie bastards at points a and b"-type of missions im afraid.

EDIT: Appropriately enough, the last line of spoken dialogue in the campaign was.. "Shit."

[Sc@tterbrain 0]

It would be nice to have any official answers.  Has anyone seen an official comment on ANY of the complaints?

I'm serious, I really want to read something from BIS about this.

I just want to hear it from the mouths of the creators and not some interpretation from forum members

The community is great, but I really want to read something "official."

[ebud 18]

I just finished the campaign last night. The last mission was a horrible way to end the campaign, especially with the team swapping. It ended so suddenly and with me even knowing why it ended. Then it's all over.

Half the missions seemed to end and I had no idea why they ended.

I have played a ton of campaigns for OFP, but this one just made me feel confused half the time. I'm lazy and never studied the map a lot before each mission, so I'll take the blame for that.

Overall I like the concept of the campaign and missions, but it just felt so loose. Missions end seemingly out of nowhere, so missions never end and in a few later missions I had more than a few script errors at the top of the screen.

I always thought that the OFP campaigns were a bit cheesy with the character development, but now after the ARMA campaign I really really miss that aspect. I just never felt like I was "into" the campaign at all. It felt so... empty.

Also why have a blog dedicated to one soldier's story then not push that concept hard in the campaign? Makes no sense.

The side mission ideas were very nice. I admit I end mission cheated a couple, but overall I liked that idea a lot.

BUT.

I hated the fact that some main missions forced you to go outside the infantry element. Air and vehicle missions IMHO should ONLY be for side missions. The main missions would have been much better if you had been Porter the entire time. Actually they may have been as much as I paid attention to them. I just felt so let down I just rushed through them to finish them

It still has so much potential to be a really nice campaign, it just felt rushed and the concepts were not pushed very far.

[kronzky 5]

I gave up on the campaign, as well as the stand-alone missions, after trying something like 3 of them.

They were just too pathetic...

There was no real immersion, no storyline that anybody would care about, and the depth and challenges of the missions were way below what any decent modder would've been able to put together.

AI is constantly cheating (by "magically" knowing your position whenever it's convenient for them), the "cutscenes" are the same interview/news desk over and over again, and the stand-alone missions don't even have pictures in their overview! (That would probably get you a score of 3 out of 10 of OFPEC...)

And don't even get me started on the BUGS in the missions. Constant script errors, end- or trigger-conditions aren't met, and you have to try restarting the mission a dozen times before the right things happen in the right order!

Compare that with what we got in CWR and Resistance, where you had a REAL story, with characters you cared about, unique mission challenges, and, best of all, missions that worked!

I LOVE the engine, and MP is fun when you get onto the right server, but BIS definitely dropped the ball when it came to creating campaigns/missions...

[sluggCDN 0]

Guys,

the campaign is what it is for the same reason why most of the people that pick up ArmA cannot play it on minimum settings with recommended hardware requirements satisfied. Unless of course one spends countless hours tinkering with settings, reinstalling video drivers etc.  ArmA is simply raw, unoptimized and full of bugs. The campaign isn't thought through and seems to be an after-thought with the main focus made on MP capabilities. Looking at the South Sahrani architecture wouldn't you say the buildings remind you of the BF2 "Battle of Karkand" map on a larger scale. The games is more like an ill-fated attempt to still some market shares from EA's BF2 in the online MP gaming genre.

Let's be honest unless you are a hard-core OFP fan you wouldn't pick this game up and just keep on giving it chance, after chance, after chance. You'd probably install it, view the "slideshow", reduce everything to "low-settings", go back to the "slideshow" (if you are very patient), quit out of it, look at the recommended sys. requirements, scratch your head, start feeling sorry about carelessly spending 40euro, and then forget about it all together as a paintful and idiotic experience by going back to playing BF2: Battle of Karkand. Do you get my drift?.. Playing a game shouldn't be this difficult - one should just install it and play it given the recommended system requirements are met by one's hardware PERIOD.

[Blackcat1340 0]

Hi there all, finished the campaign, didn't even know how or why because I hadn't even finished my part of the last mission, and I've got to say that I enjoyed the single mission made for OFP Abandoned Armies far more than this campaign and it was nearly as long.