[ArmA] NavySeals by JffSieg

Review by Mathias_Eichinger

Overview

The Overview is lacking any text and mission title, the picture is grainy and has a white line in the middle of it. To top it off (Pun intended), there are elements of a hastily hand-scribbled "mission by" readable, but not the whole intended text. Because of the missing title, the mission is displayed as "NavySeals.intro".Bottom line: Horrible.

Intro

The music is really good, but the camera is static and the conversation is full of typos. The conversation itself was hard to follow because it was too fast. Voiceovers were not used.

Briefing

There is just the right amount of markers on the map, the briefing text is short and to the point, but there could be more detailed information. A weapons selection is lacking, something that is really missing on any SpecOps mission. Still the briefing has lots of typos, and the group selection consists of a group of recruits (as an elite team)!

Mission

The bombastic music in the beginning is a really good idea, although the technical quality of the music is lacking. There is a weapons selection available from the boat, but I still prepare one in the briefing, where the player has much more time and a more relaxed setting to choose his loadout. The weapons selection on the boat itself is non-functional, as a script restores the player's initial weapons once he hits the beach. Quite good, on the other hand, was the weapons selection in the ammo crates by the huts, it allows the player to reconsider his weapons choice. Said weapons selection is quite unrealistic to be available on enemy-held territory, but it fits the Hollywood-like approach to this mission. I advanced to the settlement, and once the alarm is triggered further good music is played. But apart from this feeling, there is not much of a challenge in this mission. The guards at the compound are quickly brought down, and the reinforcements are not difficult to conquer either. There is some sense of menace because you can hear a rumbling T72, but it never comes close, one can escape unchallenged to the helicopter evac point labelled "Blackhawk", but once there, nothing happens. The objective of extraction is missing in the briefing as well. Looks like the player has to hit "Black dog" on the Radio which is never mentioned in the Briefing. The result is not immediately obvious, because there are no radio messages between player and helicopter. But the helicopter arrives nonetheless, and after embarking the player`s squad lifts off with more of the bombastic music; after a few seconds of flight, the mission ends. The use of addons and the night setting for this mission can be disputed, because their otherwise attractive camo schemes are visible only in monochrome NVG green, and with the Navy Seals using stock ArmA weaponry only, they add nothing to replayability and variety.

Outro(s)

Some conversation is going on which is somewhat confusing, because leave is first granted and then denied immediately afterwards and is too fast as well. The Outro ends with some shots of the terrorists you just killed who the camera accurately and graphically displays, good effect for the outro.

Special

Really just the film-like music and the good idea of putting a second weapons choice (ammo crate) into the mission.

Overall

A very conventional mission regarding the general mission objectives, quite basically created with almost no scripting and many typos in the intro. One gets the impression that this mission was hastily thrown together and has not seen much attention. Download only if you like to look at different-camouflaged friendlies and shoot different bad guys using your NVG.