OFP Vs Arma SP Campaign

[MBot 0]

I agree with the general tone of the thread, the campaign in ArmA is awful. After the excellent CWC and Resistance it was a huge disapointment. While I could respect the decision to portray a anonymous war without any in depth characters, the lack of atmosphere, imersion and most importantly mission quality has totaly broken the campaign. It is a pity as the initial setting is quite good, there has been much potential.

After playing the incredible CWC campaign ( or even the great demo mission ) I got such a fan of OFP that I kept looking for community missions, mods and buyed the Resistance addon later ( and ultimatly ArmA ). The campaign was what got me hooked.

If I was new to ArmA, I would have probably shelfed the game after the campaign and never get it out again. I spent some bucks for a couple of hours of medicore entertainment. Nothing bad about that, but that wouldn't have build any customer loyality. Fortunatly I started with OFP and know what is possible, but how many new players were turned away ?

Let's hope that BIS are working on a kick-ass addon with the real campaign.

[badvok 0]

Let's hope that BIS are working on a kick-ass addon with the real campaign.

Here, here. Perhaps once they've got the engine etc sorted that will happen.

[MK1 0]

i have to admit my disappointment as well. i was under the impression that our guy william porter was going to be the protagonist of the campaign and that BIS was using the blog as a preface for the story, and especially for the character.

and now that they didn't, all i can ask is why? why all the trouble? they could have revealed screenshots and features in many other ways instead.

ok, this is probably again one of the issues that we'll never get to know, so i won't end this with speculations, but instead i hope there is still more for us to come.

[DI7789 0]

I believe this thread is absolutely right, the Cold War Crisis was much better than this bag of **** that Bohemia has presented us with, but I would like to point out one HUGE difference between ArmA and OF:CWC, Bohemia worked with Codemasters, yes you heard me, Codemasters, on CWC but they were without their help on this one, if I had one thing to say, this is nothing but a resurrected OF with a bad storyline and better (not by much however) graphics.

CM made (and sold) the Red Hammer campaign... BIS made the resistance expantion..

If they didnt focus on a SP campaign this time its problably because time and resources had to be put on more important things, the engine .

Your statements lack credibility since you claim Arma has not much better graphics compared to OPF...

Hmm..I probably was a bit hasty there, but still, my computer has to play on the lowest graphics setting, so it is a bit of a letdown (PC World+Dell Computers=A Bad Day)

[Connors 0]

ArmA's campaign isn't the main part of the game and we still have room for a resistance like expansion

[cozza 24]

Well I do think the arma campaign could be better, It had wasnt as bad as most people say it is. If you just play throught the main mission without doing the aux missions, You can really see a good storyline and is really fun.

[nominesine 0]

In the beginning of this thread someone stated that the OFP Campaign had "heart, spirit and sould". I agree completely. I also believe that those elements were added by Codemasters (because that is what a publisher is suppose to add, before allowing a product to be released).

I'm aware of the fact that most people in here dislike Codemasters (I share that view, btw) but the finetuning of the campaign is one thing that worked better when the game was released by a more commercial producer.

But if I have to chose between a good campaign and a game that is open to suggestions from the moding community, I would chose the later. That's where BIS's strength lies - not in making campaigns.

[Fred DM 0]

In the beginning of this thread someone stated that the OFP Campaign had "heart, spirit and sould". I agree completely. I also believe that those elements were added by Codemasters (because that is what a publisher is suppose to add, before allowing a product to be released).

I'm aware of the fact that most people in here dislike Codemasters (I share that view, btw) but the finetuning of the campaign is one thing that worked better when the game was released by a more commercial producer.

But if I have to chose between a good campaign and a game that is open to suggestions from the moding community, I would chose the later. That's where BIS's strength lies - not in making campaigns.

why the negative attitude towards CM? apart from them using StarForce copy protection on some of their games, i can't think of any reason for disliking them.

anyhow, has anyone noticed that the upcoming US release by Atari is being advertised as having brand new, never before seen cutscenes? does that mean the campaign will be reworked for the US release in May?

[nichevo 2]

I agree!

I played the three OFP campaigns and enjoyed them all.

I liked the solid characters and storyline in the OFP campaigns, but I don't think ArmA's campaign is poor because it doesn't have these things. After all, a good collection of short stories can be as entertaining as a long novel. If it's well written.

I think the main flaw in ArmA's campaign is that it feels rushed -- it is very rough around the edges, it can be disjointed and confusing. Minor flaws like spotty translations, bad voice acting, glitches in missions, ill-explained story, confusing objectives, inconsitent details -- there are piles upon piles of these minor flaws and the campaign ends up looking very unpolished.

(Sure, the OFP campaigns had minor flaws too, but they were few and far between.)

If this had been a fan-made campaign I would've deleted it after playing a handful of missions.

Like so many others, though, I'm still glad I have ArmA, mostly for multiplayer. It just seems like a waste that such a lackluster campaign was put on top of an otherwise excellent game engine/system.

[Xtreme Serb 0]

i feel that in almost every mission are have to commnd, i didnt like this where as in CWC u were a soldier who progressed up the ranks.

in RES you atleast got rewards for your command, such as u get a big cache of weapons for going about an idea correctly.

[the unknown 0]

ArmA Campaign? what ArmA campaign?

O you mean the collection of missions with out any storry or people in it where you need to play one mission before the other.

and as far for the best campaign CWC cause with Resistance I lost all my weapons and expert people halfway trough because of a bug.

[gotcha 6]

I wonder why you people dislike the campaign so much. It's true that the story isn't so much character-driven as before in OFP campaigns, but I think BIS just wanted to focus on the conflict itself, not on single characters. Well, I have to admit, that it didn't work so good this time, but the missions are nice, aren't they? I have played a dozen missions so far and they're normal BIS SP mission -quality in my opinion. And I've found no bugs so far, perhaps the 1.05 patch helped with it.

The campaign has a different style, which doesn't suck the player into the story so well but I kinda enjoyed the "AAN News"-sections, because they give a nice overview sight of the situation. And I also spotted Cpt. Armstrong there, which surely was a nice surprise, only if he was the same guy.

It's true that the campaign has a "mission pack"-feeling, but I'm pretty confident that BIS will make another, better campaign to "calm down" the fans.

Somebody said that if this was a fan-made campaign, he/she would have deleted it. Really? I've played only a few user-made campaigns in OFP that would have beaten this one, so I think it's going to be a long time before a ArmA -campaign as good as BIS one appears, after all.

Well, I have about 10 missions left to play so my opinion might change. If so, I'll post some new comments.

[Fred DM 0]

a lot of campaign missions are way too simple, too. very little work has gone into them. take the "Sanitize" mission for example. it's a simple 1 or 2 waypoint operation. there are no alternatives, nothing happens when your team is almost wiped out. further examples of way too simple mission setups include the chopper attack missions (there's a few of them), the transport helo mission, the sniper mission, and others.

there are almost no cinematics in the campaign missions. i'm talking about the actual missions here, not the TV news sequences. compare this to "Blood Sweat and Tears", which has a number of very atmospheric cutscenes.

i could go on, and i probably have in the past   . hell, you can go and play the fan-made Perpetua campaign and it has a better feel than the original one.

[jantenner 0]

i think i will never bother to play the arma stock campaign again.

the pmc campaign which was quite simple was far better imo.

whereas in ofp i replayed some campaign missions a few time. even years after finishing. ofp demo also hab a very good mission, which i played quite often.

[llama9000 0]

I've just finished the ArmA campaign for the first time... overall I feel it's average, and about half as long as expected. The campaign has never quite reached the fear factor in OFP (like the Everon retreat for instance). Only the "Dawn of Hope" mission came close to the near despair I experienced (All friendlies painted, used up my last M136 on the BMP before the harriers arrived... phew).

And then, just when I thought the game was at a turning point in the last mission I got to "The End"... should've been written as "The End...?" LOL... There's obviously plenty of story material to go on with.

I've played a bit with the editor, and I'm going to try the Perpetua campaign as well. Man, this game is begging for an expansion! I really do hope the next upgrade would bring us a new campaign Hell, I'd even be happy with episodic downloadable missions continuing where the campaign left off!

Anyway, thanks for a pleasant experience. I shall look forward to the mission editing... and the new campaigns, official or not

[bootleg soldier 2]

I actually feel quite sorry for the team who created the campaign because they must by now (well ages ago) realise that the campaign was a resounding flop and every time someone new buys the game they get battered on the head in here for it being crap (btw don't think that i'm defending it, it was crap and people have a right to say that at any time).

It'll get like a footballer not wanting to read the papers after a bad game  but the difference is footballers get to put it right the next week and usually get critised only once for one performance (unless a string of bad performances occur),

Which led me in a nutty, unrelated way to thinking (and wondering) why nothing has really happened on the mission front, i mean ok, one or two bug fixes that means the missions are playable, but why wasn't more content added sooner ie the cutscenes that are being promised in the American version, are they that amazing that the world has to see them all at once.

From my point of view (i could be wrong please correct me)tarting up and improving the campaign and single missions  should be the easiest update to apply to this game as it's not essential that everyone has the same version (because it's SP) it's just a matter of getting the content out there for people to use.

BUT this argument only holds water on two accounts, one that there is a specific (in the job description) team dedicated to the mission making (not just everyone chipping in at the last minute) then it's a case of finishing the job at hand and not just start on the next campaign for any expansion that may come out as this one deserves to be of a higher quality.

Secondly if the mission makers have had to be reassigned to bug fixing    this is obviously more important and will get no argument from me.

I really think that the idea of the story and campaign could work it's just not actually a story at the moment and as a result not really a campaign, for me this is the worst part of the game, (the rest is great as i have told everyone i know) and i have only limited myself to a couple of rambling posts on the subject each time i have tried to get into the swing of the campaign.

I guess i'm just wanting BIS to be the best at mission making and not rely on the community, so many great ideas came out of OFP from some very talented people and i had hoped that this could be taken on board and used.

ArmA is my    at the moment and i don't want to do    to my   , i have faith and will continue to hold it.

Best regards

Bootleg

[Cormega 0]

you said it all

I agree, nothing I can add really! Hopefully OFP2 will be better!

[Fred DM 0]

you said it all

I agree, nothing I can add really! Hopefully OFP2 will be better!

or an add-on for ArmA. i have not yet gotten my money's worth out of ArmA so i really hope there will be an expansion with some good singleplayer content (new campaign, good single missions). i'd even lay down some money for a remake of the original campaign, but it would have to be faithful from the 1980s era weaponry to the uniforms and the dialogue. maybe add a few more things to it and call it "Deluxe" or "Director's Cut".

[=BFP=Cheetah 0]

There is the Cold War Rearmed MOD in progress which will bring back the OFP campaign as well as some weapons and stuff.

Keep in mind that there are numerous campaigns for ArmA. Even now, after 2 - 5 months there are some pretty good campaigns, remember that campaigns are time consuming to make. And it could be that the patch 1.06 (together with the US release) will have campaign improvements.

A good campaign is Perpetua by bardosy.

[Cormega 0]

OMG, I just read 5 pages of threads that all say the exact same thing!!

[Guest Ti0n3r]

The ArmA campaign is just horrible. I never felt involved. It all felt extremely anonymous and boring...

CWC and Resistance on the other hand, are two masterpieces. Thank god for CWR.

[KimTuomi 0]

In OFP, my evening and nights were really, really long! You know the feeling "I just quickly check out the NEXT mission... just FEW more minutes"...

In ArmA, I simply DO NOT WANT to play the campaign missions. Especially because of the really annoying bugs here and there. Also the AI seems to be "top-shot"; they just nail you from impossible distances and it seems that player never really can hide. This kills the fun of playing!

OFP: 10/10

ArmA: 3.5/10 (sympathy vote, due to great graphics and better engine)

I really hope we get a damn good expansion disc... like, uh let's say, uhmmm... Like RESISTANCE !

[Average Joe 0]

The Campaigns fake american accents crack me up beyond infinity, Is there not enough out-there to ya know...speak american!

[gregorygreghalstead 0]

I believe in all sense that we've been ripped off...They should have gotten this game out 2 years earlier with the Mission Editor and that alone for half the price so the community could create a better campaign, FDF's a great example.

I played the campaign with one or 2 missions reached the part of being sent to whack some SLA armour after the intial attack...with AT4 and a stachel charge? WTF

Quit and uninstalled the game, pulled out my OFP Goty and played tht instead..

CWC had just about everything right...immersion, realism, etc..it made me want to try a mission again and again when i failed but ARMA is just a plain ripoff...

The only time i'm reinstalling this game is if BIS fixes it to an acceptable level....

or when someone with half a decent brain and understands ths game decides to bring it back to it's original glory and wht it's players first loved it for with a great campaign,

CWC ReArmed is something I'm looking forward to.

With Regards and No Disrespect to anyone,

Halstead

[pukey123 0]

To all who are disappointed in ARMA Combat Operations: In 2008, Codemasters, the outlet for OFP, CWC, and not Atari, will be coming out with Operation Flashpoint 2. I am generally pleased with the new game, but am confident that when Codemasters/Bohemia Interactive issue the successor to CWC, you will be pleased. For your information. pukey