[ArmA] Quick Mission Pack by ColonelSandersLite

Review by Mathias_Eichinger

Overview

Nice pictures of soldiers or flowers, but they are lacking a border. One line of mission description.

Intro

An Intro is not present.

Briefing

The Briefing provides a good overview of the task ahead, the links are working. There is an extensive explanation of CQB combat and even a weapons selection is present. A special gimmick is the mission solution the author provided. But the whole affair is a bit sterile because there is no story and the player is fighting a faceless Generic Communist Enemy. Addendum: Comment by fellow staffer Denz: The briefings are sparse although they do contain tips on fighting close quarters battle and include a mission solution (which I'm really not sure belongs here, maybe the readme but not here). The OPFOR briefings do bring some real Communist flavour to them. There are some typos scattered throughout all of the briefings. Gear selection is good containing all of the weapons you would need for a mission of this type.

Mission

The mission starts in your home base, where the player has to board a truck with his squad, in order to reach Eponia. Close to Eponia it is necessary to disembark at a considerable distance to avoid getting shot like a sitting duck. From the distance, one can advance towards Eponia. Following the mission solution allows the player to come closest before contact. Once Eponia has been reached, intensive CQB firefights can be experienced that call for the use of cover and are fairly exciting. But these CQB are the main weakness of the mission as well, because the mission ends once the player is the only survivor. Naturally, losses in CQB are high, especially with ArmA AI, denying the player the possibility to outsmart enemy AI on his own and creating a unneeded dependency on own AI squadmates. This is the reason the reviewer could only complete one mission ("Communications breakdown C") once, despite multiple tries on each mission. Note that another MD staffer reports to have the same problems. Another deficiency is the inclusion of a "mission area", e.g. the mission ends automatically once you venture too far away from Eponia. Addendum - Comment by fellow staffer Denz: These missions do provide a real challenge and your progress better be slow and steady if you are going to see them through. You are very dependant on your AI squad members (not just for the teamswitch option), shame though that they are very unexperienced although this does suit the depiction of the OPFOR's conscript army. What these missions lack in story and substance, they do provide a good learning tool with regard to fire arcs and ensuring that you cover all the angles as you continue the assault on the town.

Outro(s)

An outro is missing.

Special

There is an extensive explanation of close quarters combat in the Briefing and a weapons selection. When opened in the editor, the missions show waypoints with a placement radius, ensuring some randomness of the mission.

Overall

An average "capture the city" mission with unnecessarily high frustration potential and without a story. It offers intensive firefights for the highly skilled player, but Beginners beware!