Game rating: ARMA2

[RedRaven]

Game title
ARMA2

Category	Rating	Comments
Story line	7	Imagine the cold war never ended.  Imagine your part of an elite unit. There you go, a simple premise done well. However if your looking for another CoD / BBC run and gun 6 hour testosterone fix it is unlikely to impress.  If you after a hard-core, true-to-life military simulator then look no more. The ability to mod & script this game are beyond any other mod-able game title I've seen. From simple audio and graphic tweaks that improve weapon and vehicle sounds or re-texture packs and additional weapon and vehicles all the way through to massive open environments, faction/nation specific forces, user created scenarios (single missions, full campaigns and open ended random missions). All of this with plenty of choice for both single and multi-player sides of the game.  All of that essentially enables you to create your own game story line if you wish.
Graphics	9	It all depends on your system capabilities and in game graphic settings, on a little above minimum requirements I would rate it at 7. Then you can start to optimise things. Getting the right balance between graphic settings and performance took a while, and with the aid of a couple of simple mods I achieved very good results. Taking it to a score of 9.  As it based on reality the Troops, weapons and vehicles are all exact replicas of their real life counter part. An AK47 looks like an AK47. The environments are well done and to some degree destructible although with simpler graphics. The shear scope and range of the environments is equally impressive, not only can you see a building several kilometres away you can shoot at and destroy it ! (providing you have a big enough gun that is)  The user created content available in mods is outstanding, there are some talented people out there adding to the games graphical quality and variety. And its all FREE.
Sound	5	The sounds for weapons and vehicle are excellent score 7.  However the voice action is a little dull, and there is little in way of battle field atmosphere so only score 3.  Overall only a 5.
Game play	10	Firstly there is the campaign story and on-line mutli-player side which is all pretty standard.  Second up is the Armoury. An open testing ground where you can try out equipment and unlock new equipment by completing various challenges.  Third is a huge choice of single and multi mission packs and full campaigns available with mods.  All of that with a full set of controls for Infantry, Vehicle and Aircraft and an unforgiving and often fatal sense of realism. You will get shot, one shot can and will kill you, if it does not kill its not long before you bleed out. ARMA2 is not a run and gun FPS, its a military / warfare simulator and simulated bullets can kill as effectively as real ones.    A very impressing feature of this title is the variety of ways in which it can be played. As well as the First person perspective in some scenarios or in user created content you can also play in the position of an overall commander where you control units of infantry, armour and support elements as symbols on a map. A more tactical aspect of warfare.  But wait, there is more -  You can switch between FPS and battle field commander aspects at will, and into any position you choose from your assets in the field. Imagine planning your assault on an enemy outpost with a couple of infantry units supported by a few tanks and a helicopter gunship. You can advance you forces on the map then become a tank gunner to begin the attack, jumping back to the map to order you troops, then as a sniper to deal with the enemy AA gunner then into the gunship for an air support attack.  All of that does require mods and a little scripting but it is simple enough so that it can be done with out a degree in computer programming from MIT.
Replay value	8	Due to the vast addition content freely available this game can be played over and over in many different ways.

Final thoughts
 I love this game for so many different reasons, most of which are mentioned above. It is certainly more of a thinking man's military game. The additional content and relative ease of making your own user created content along with a huge and friendly web community only add to its appeal.

 A stand alone expansion - Operation Arrowhead is also now available, looking forward to trying that out at some point and posting review.

[Art Blade]

interesting rating. :)

I'm glad that you like the game and apparently never had problems - I recall a lot of troubles and mission glitches and silly AI behaviour, never finished the main mission for those reasons.

[PZ]

Nice read, Red  :-X

I agree completely about the sounds in the game - the sentences sounded like each word was spoken by a different person.  It made a sentence sound like it was concocted as a ransom note - much like people formerly pasted words out of a magazine - definitely the cheesiest voice acting I have ever encountered.

I too never completed the main mission story line, but I had a blast modding the game, including adding large maps (Sahrani and Porto) from ArmA