ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead

Two characteristics that may surprise you are his willingness to surrender, and his acute night-blindness. A Delta Force operative who has just returned from a nocturnal sabotage mission near Zargabad (Single Mission 4, Jackal) reported that he could crawl right up to the feet of enemy guards, and those guards would do no more than give him a long Paddington stare. If, however, he raised himself into a crouch, all hell broke loose.

"Sir, what's a 'Paddington stare'?"

Ask Captain Hibbert, our British liason officer.

"Sir, bearing in mind what Chernarus was like when we first landed, should I issue extra insect repellent to the men?"

There appear to be far fewer bugs this time. During the time I spent in-country I wasn't bitten once.

"Sir, earlier you described the premise of the campaign as 'rather unoriginal'. Would you to care to elaborate?"

I have two major beefs with Arrowhead. The first is the calibre of its storytelling. Give Bohemia Interactive a country to create or an assault rifle to replicate, and they'll do a splendid job. However, give them a tale to weave, and they're like newborn foals on an ice rink. There's nothing inherently wrong in drawing on recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan for a plot, but drawing on them so nakedly, and with so little flair or imagination, is inexcusable.

The paper-thin characters are half the problem. I think I could get a little more excited about the fun but familiar campaign outings if I was undertaking them in the guise of someone who didn't come out with phrases like "Taking heat from some pissed-off Takis? Just how I like it, Sir!" or, "You want us to stop a bomb raid with bare hands and Takistani scrap metal?" at regular intervals.

Bohemia, just for a change, how about giving us a character with a little flesh on his bones. Someone with doubts, fears, or worries at home. A soldier with a chip on his shoulder or a crazed or incompetent CO could have been fascinating. A really brave developer would have given us a protagonist with a slight case of PTSD or made him the conflicted child of Takistani immigrants to the US. Far too often, the Czechs' interest in realism seem to stops at the armoury door.

"And your second beef?"

Feeble framerates. Takistan's towns and villages are liberally sprinkled with hollow buildings. While these interiors ensure great FIBUA action, they can seriously degrade performance, especially when accompanied with large numbers of units. Is it the additional polygons or the extra path-finding and line-of-sight-checking load? I'm not sure. Can the situation be improved?

I sincerely hope so, otherwise a lot of Arrowhead users are going to be forced to fight their way through the beautiful streets of Zargabad with minimal texture, detail, and view distance settings.

"Sir, shouldn't we be... um... invading Takistan?"