It wouldn't be fair to call Operation Arrowhead "just" an expansion. Respect-worthy statistics describing the new project prove that this is in fact a new game built on top of ARMA 2's engine. The plot is this time set in a fictional country similar to Afghanistan, where terrorists fight with several international organizations. The campaign and its plot won't have almost anything at all in common with previous ARMA.
Because the release date is closing in we got our hands on a press preview version. It still had a few quirks, but it gave us a strong suggestion as to what a war in a different place on Earth will look like, meaning a completely different environment that Chernorussian forests in the previous game. The first thing from Operation Arrowhead I tried was one of the campaign missions, where together with my team I set out to free captives from buildings inside a quarry...
The mission start was truly effective - we were transported to the place by small helicopters straight out of the Black Hawk Down movie (Little Bird ). I got a rifle with a telescopic sight so huge it filled nearly half of the screen. On top of that we were attacking from hills and the whole complex was right down bellow us. All we had to do was close in a bit and open fire with lethal precision on the enemy soldiers. They did react on the incoming fire by lying down, for example, however hiding behind some obstacles or even inside buildings didn't appeal to them.
After a rather easy base clean-up a next task came up. A civilian rushed out from one of the buildings and claimed that he was ordered by the enemy soldiers to rig the whole complex to explode. He gave me a deactivation code just before he disappeared in a valley. I thought that deactivating the bomb would be an easy task. However, at that time I didn't yet know that the detonator's display doesn't show standard Arabic numerals, but some weird gibberish.
Thankfully the numbers were quite easy to guess and I could move on to searching for the hostages. At that time another helicopter with a "clean-up" commando was already landing in a courtyard between the buildings and I got to hitch a ride to the other side of the valley where I was to defend a nearby town with an anti-aircraft cannon from an air raid. Overall a pretty busy day!
As is obvious from the part above Operation Arrowhead compared to the original campaign quite some action. I didn't hit a single dead spot playing the mission. I was also surprised by the logical puzzle mentioned before. Personally I the missions in the full game will look similar and the boring segments from the previous game won't have a comeback. It would really help.
The destruction system got an update as well, this time it is present with every building. Larger buildings can be "chewed up" from every side and only after a while the whole structure will collapse. Smaller houses on the other hand will collapse fully into a cloud of smoke after a single shot. The destruction of course can't match for example Bad Company 2, though only a few would expect that from a such a complex game.
The terrain is of course completely new, although it felt a bit weird to me in some places. Personally I expect a lot more desert from an environment similar to Afghanistan. Green vegetation could be seen a bit too often and it was rather weird when you had a huge bush or a ten meters high tree growing out of a dead dry ground. Even with low altitude helicopter flying the scenery didn't seem as varied as it was in the original ARMA. On the other hand I have to commend the buildings and I hope a part of the missions in the full game will take place in built-up areas.
Operation Arrowhead obviously offers a lot of new combat means, which once more look impressive. Most of you will be impressed by ground vehicles, presented by tanks, personal carriers and even motorbikes and quads. The eye of a real military enthusiast will be attracted by the air vehicles, including the the AH-64 Apache or MH-47 Chinook. Similar equipment can be found on the other side, where you get to meet up close the legendary T-55 tank or the amphibious BTR-60.
All of the war machines could be tested at military bases, where they were neatly parked next to each other. To be frank, I haven't seen such a great military parade for a long time. It was these combat vehicles that took the main part in the other two included missions that were included in the preview version, next to the editor and some smaller missions for each side of the conflict.
In the first mission I took control of an American tank, passing in between oil rigs decimating similarly dug-up enemies. As is the standard for ARMA, one direct hit meant the enemy is dealt with. I was allowed to choose if I want to get behind the wheel or rather command the crew and use the top machine gun. The other mission behind the controls of a helicopter at night was no less interesting. My task was to get past enemy anti-air defenses and destroy the assigned target.
In the full version you will also get the option to customize your weapons, quite similar to Modern Warfare 2, and a unique thermal vision. New hand weapons go hand-to-hand with that. Analyzing the AI behavior at this point is a bit so far a bit premature and I personally hope the developers will properly focus on this area.
Such focus should be also dedicated towards the HW requirements. With Core i5 750, Radeon 4890, 4 GB of RAM and Windows 7 64-bit I was struggling to get past 30-40 frames per second at medium details and parts where my frame rate could be counted on the fingers of one hand weren't that uncommon either. The HW requirements could obviously change in the several months left before release though.
Operation Arrowhead looks very good so far, as far as missions go. As usual, the models of vehicles are perfect and interesting are the small improvements such as the building destruction. Let alone the whole new terrain so big, it can be easily compared to what the original second ARMA offered.
The developers have to be on a lookout for artificial intelligence tweaks, HW requirements and the few small quirks I have met with in the preview version. Maybe in the end it will all work out and this ARMA 2 sequel will again seize the place amongst the top of realistic combat games.
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Originally Posted by da12thMonkey
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The setting sounds great, the optics look well on the first screenshots. I like it! I buy it!
