America’s Army – PC – Preview

As part of their
new media campaign, the U.S. Army has decided to get involved with creating a
team-based multiplayer combat game for the PC.  Being completely honest, I
didn’t think that this game would be any good when I heard about it.  Although,
after seeing it and learning about its features, I must say that it is more
realistic than all other first-person shooters to date and overall it should be
a great game for those interested in a true to life combat FPS.

 

The cool thing
about this title is that it’s truly authentic, as the U.S. Army has had direct
involvement in every single aspect of its creation.  To begin with, it follows
their actual training scenarios, and this single-player training must be
completed before gamers are able to take part in the primary online multiplayer
mode.  Also adding to the realism are the soldier animations, which are a result
of soldiers being motion captured while doing various movements and the
realistic damage system (it’s easier to die compared to other similar games). 
The soldiers in the game are truly life-like in almost all respects.

 

The Army also
helped in formulating the variety of missions, which include prisoner rescues,
escorting VIPs, destroying targets, and more.  These objectives must be
completed cooperatively as a team – it’s not possible to just go gung-ho and do
it individually.  Strangely though, both teams in the battles are actually U.S.
Army soldiers, which is a little weird.

 

The realism also
carries over to the gameplay in various ways.  For example, it’s not possible to
run at full speed and shoot at the same time, since actual soldiers cannot do
this.  Also, when targeting an enemy the crosshair isn’t as easy to control as
it is in other shooters.  Instead, breathing and subtle movements of the soldier
make it significantly harder to aim.  Further, it gets easier to aim depending
on whether you’re standing, crouching, or if the gun is setup on the tripod.

 

There are actually
rules of engagement that apply while playing this game as well.  So if you
receive too many ROE points by, for example, killing another member of your
team, you will be kicked off of the server and sent to the jail.

 

Gamers get to use
a wide variety of weapons, including assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols,
flash bombs, various grenades, and more.  Each of these guns is extremely
realistic in every possible way, from their sound to their distance
limitations.  Some guns actually jam up at times and jam clears must be
executed  Even the flash bomb has a very accurate effect on other players (or
yourself if you don’t throw it far enough), complete with a white screen and a
high pitch ringing in your ears.

 

America’s Army:
Operations uses the warfare engine and the environments are very impressive. 
There are both urban and outdoor settings, including a very unique woods level
that looks amazing.  It’s possible to damage most objects in these environments,
but I would like to see this concept taken to a further level so that buildings
could be blown up, or structurally damaged as they can be in real life.

 

Since this is an
online game it’s important that enough players can get in on the action at
once.  Although it’s only been tested as 8 vs. 8, they’re hoping for 16 vs. 16
capability in the final release, but even more would further add to the
experience.  Also, the ability to pilot vehicles wasn’t available in the beta
version, will very likely be implemented as well.  To make sure there are places
to play this game online, the Army will maintain 124 different servers dedicated
solely to this game.

 

At first glance,
America’s Army: Operations may be passed off as just another Half-Life type
game, but it’s actually far from being so.  It isn’t a typical FPS in that you
can’t simply run around shooting and win – it takes careful planning and
strategic combat tactics to complete objectives and/or defeat enemies.  Games
constantly try to simulate true battle scenarios, but with the direct U.S. Army
involvement I think this one will stand out from the crowd. 

 

The planned
release date is July or August of this year.

 

   
 

Pictures from
the Amerca’s Army booth at E3 2002