Sunday, June 30, 2013

ARMA and ARMA II Review

Both ARMA and ARMA II belong to the worst game series I have ever played in my entire life. This blog post will be continuously updated to reflect my views on this series. For reference, the games I will be writing about include:
  1. ARMA: Combat Operations
    1. ARMA: Gold Edition on Steam
    2. ARMA: Cold War Assault
  2. ARMA II
    1. ARMA II: Army of the Czech Republic
  3. ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead
    1. ARMA II: British Armed Forces
    2. ARMA II: Private Military Company
  4. Arma II: DayZ Mod
I will not be writing about ARMA III because I do not own nor do I plan on buying it, however I highly suggest not buying it if it is anything like ARMA II.

So let's begin. The worst part of ARMA/II is the engine it runs off of. ARMA II "boasts the most realistic combat environment in the world. It models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects."

Well, if realism means that there is no way to jump in the game, only some pathetic vaulting, then it must be realistic.

Do you enjoy knowing the target of your demise so you can plot your revenge? Well too bad, ARMA/II only tells you that you were killed, not by who or what.

Want to see technical game information? Something along the lines of a developer console? Too bad, it doesn't have one.

DayZ
My greatest mistake in buying ARMA/II was buying it solely for the purpose of playing DayZ because of all the hype. I can unequivocally state that DayZ is worse than the worst Source engine or Unreal engine mod out there.
  1. DayZ has the worst hit registration. If you enjoy hitting or shooting something at point blank range only for them to miss, you'll enjoy DayZ.
  2. DayZ has the worst animations. It's like Left 4 Dead 2 if you put your rate at 1000.
  3. No seriously, I have to make a point to expand on my last point. The zombie animations are terrible. If you attack a zombie crawling or crouching, to attack you it will stand up in a split second and then return to its former position.
  4. Not every building is hollow, most are simply models. This makes scavenging a lot less fun.
  5. And when the buildings are hollowed out, they look like crap! Take the hospitals for example. What do you think of in regards to a hospital? A large lobby? At least a clinic? No, the hospital isn't even a whole floor it's like a grandiose bus stop.
  6. If you are driving an ATV and it happens to flip on its side, your character has no way to flip it back over.