[OFP] Paratroopers by Chudley & Redemption

Review by Archangel Scream

Overview

Overview and pic works.

Intro

The Intro cutscene is light, short, and to the point.

Briefing

Briefing is fine and has an extra Intel report.

Mission

You take charge of a British Paratrooper squad, dropped over north-west Malden. Your first objective being to take a small village and secure it as a forward base for landing units at a later date. As soon as that firefight ends, a small Soviet armour group counter-attacks, with you following through with your paras to take a lightly fortified area up the road. Once completed, you then move onto a further position, where a tactically located checkpoint requires neutralising.

The mission itself is very cleanly scripted, and everything works precisely as it needs to. My worst niggle would probably be that there's no choice of weapons - but then you're using the STT scoped weapons, so you won't really be complaining anyway.

There's also a nice strategic element to this mission - once the first village is cleared you have enough time to set up your men for optimum defence as the Soviets strike back. Then after that, there is enough variety of terrain to offer a tactical approach to the second objective. The third objective demands a thoughtful attack, due to it's elevated position.

Overall

(Review Date: Apr 2002) All in all, there are no complaints here, simply aesthetic differences. The gameplay is nice - it's fun - and it involves enough to draw you in. Care, time, dedication, and plenty of thought have gone into it.

I was going to rate this conservatively at 8/10, simply because, although it has flare and nice touches, there are no real subtleties or complexities involved to draw the mission into more ambitious territory. However, it is one of the more accomplished infantry missions out there, so it deserves a score that reflects its relative position at OFPEC.