ARMA II Operation Arrowhead

95

Most realistic war simulatior

Do you like Shooters with alot Realism and even fun! Then you should get Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead! This is the most realistic game as it can get. This game has endless abilities, play the campaign that take many hours, or make self an mission and play with hunderts AI's. Great big communtiy with a lot of mods and usermade content. Play as infantry and use air/land and sea vehicles, you can choose over hundreds of weapons, cars, tanks, airplanes, choppers. Or just download new models right away from the Community. FPS tactical war simulator with endless abilities.

94

ArmA 2: OA aims high, and then gladly exclaims, "TANGO DOWN!"

ArmA 2: OA, hereby referred to as A2:OA, is a tactical military simulator. It keeps you engaged with a plethora of vehicles and gadgets to use to accomplish your goals.

In Singleplayer, you follow through a series of carefully crafted objectives, proceeding slowly and surely. The A.I. isn't always perfect, but it's functional enough to give you the feel of being in a small squad of soldiers without breaking the immersion. You can give out orders via a menu accessible by "spacebar" selecting actions from a list. Though it can be clunky when every second counts, it's a lot more favorable than just hoping for the best and crossing your fingers. The missions are interesting, give you plenty opportunity to try out the really fun helicopters and tanks, and also get you adjusted to the way the game works.

Now's probably a good time to mention the bad news; you'll need a beast of a PC to run A2:OA, or just ArmA 2 smoothly. Protip: Turn down Post-Processing as soon as you get the chance, it makes everything very blurry, slows down response time and just makes a mess of most things.

Multiplayer; where A2:OA really shines, is the most fun of all. If you want, you can team up with the people in the top servers (the community has always been really helpful and friendly, so long as you are polite back!) or join squads with a friend and join up at base. Most of the gameplay here is done against enemy A.I., which is well adjusted to be aggressive and challenge your defenses, while still spreading wide enough to secure it's own borders. In most multiplayer servers, gameplay consists of missions to capture or gain intel on various towns, spread out in a MASSIVE area. With such a wide range, you'll want to head out in a HUMVEE or request a pickup from an authorized pilot at base, and make sure to bring backup!

85

I warn you...

...This is no Call Of Duty. You are thrust into a fictional conflict that mirrors the wars of the last 2 decades. This game is as realistic as it gets. The physics are fantastic and the graphics superb. The gameplay takes time to get into, and alot of people say after you hit your stride in X game you start having fun, and this is one of those games where this is true to a T. If you want a game that put you into the foot of a soldier who isnt as much a commando as a man fighting in a squad for freedom, then this game is exactly what you want.

80

As realistic as it can get...

ARMA II Operation Arrowhead by Bohemia Interactive is a great stand-alone expansion to the original ARMA II. With beautiful environments and immersive gameplay, this is as close as you can get to hitting realism without damaging the core gameplay experience.

Presentation

ARMA II Operation Arrowhead has stunning graphics which this time around, doesn't suffer from the poor optimisation as it's previous, ARMA II. This allows fans and players a much more trouble free experience. As previously, the poorly optimised ARMA II was unbareable to play even on a highly specification rig. However, do note that this game still requires at least a mid-range specification rig to fully appreciate the experience as the huge environments, sound effects and character models are highly detailed.

Gameplay

Gameplay wise this game is essentially the same as ARMA II but with different content and improvements like any other expansion. If you've not played ARMA II then what you're playing is a military simulation game, this is simply not like your typical arcade style first/third person shooter but instead is trying to be true to realism. The game doesn't fail to deliver.

As should be expected from a simulation game, ARMA II Operation Arrowhead offers a wide range of weapons and vehicles to play with and a vast amount of game modes from training to multiplayer much like the previous ARMA II so you have hours of content to play with.

While game modes such as singleplayer offer a solid experience. The area ARMA II excels at is Multiplayer, since the missions and game types you embark on are much more challenging. The multiplayer is vast enough that it offers co-operative missions and extras such as a conquest based game type where you are required to take over areas and dominate the opposing factions. All of this can simply be enjoyed with like minded strangers, friends and family.

With that said for any first time player, this game can be a frustrating experience as you'll often find yourself being clueless on what to do and where to go since the environments are massive and objectives not being so clear. This all leads to hours of frustration being wasted on missions which should have been easier to understand for new players. This game is simply very hard but once you've put in a few hours, the experience is spectacular.

Verdict

If you're a fan of ARMA II, you'll love this addition to what was already a solid game. For gamers who aren't familiar with the ARMA franchise will find this a great addition to start with as it offers the basis of ARMA II but with improvements and more content. Remember that the ARMA franchise is not like your typical run and gun shooter in which you can quit at any time.

This is a simulation game that represents reality as much as possible and should really be played with friends and family for a better experience. But before you embark on a mission, expect to put hours into a single game as it consumes a lot of your time and as warned, this game is seriously hardcore.

With ARMA III coming out in 2012, this is an essential game if you have any interest in playing this military simulation franchise. If you do appreciate simulation games, you won't be let down by ARMA II Operation Arrowhead from Bohemia Interactive.

66

Hmmm Not really great

ARMA2 itself is currently okay and bad at the same time. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone who is not a fan of the series. It hasn't really fixed a lot of bugs and requires a pretty good rig to ever have these "epic" moments of fire fights. And speaking of which, there are very few. Most fights require a lot of patience and skill. A big turn off to those looking for another call of duty/modern warfare experience. The expansion doesn't really add a lot besides new maps, etc, etc. Anyone familiar with games know what to expect. Don't expect bugs and such to be fixed though. Game is still pretty laggy. Multiplayer still lags as well. Big turn off. Sometimes you'll even load a game for 3 minutes only to get disconnected. This game is also not very newcomer friendly. Be advised if you ever play this!

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