[OFP] Red Tide by Student Pilot

Review by GuiltyRoachKillar

Overview

Rather simple, it tells you what you need to know and provides a good picture of the target.

Intro

It starts out with a black screen with red text telling us what the situation is. Brownie points on the text, which really improved the intro's appearance. Although, by the end of the intro, it felt long winded, yet held my interest throughout. The fact that the author made a long, yet attention-holding intro with no voice-overs and no custom music gets praise from me.

Briefing

Nicely done, not outstanding, but it tells you what you need to know. The objectives fit onto the first page and everything is concise. The Intel was a nice touch providing you with enemy situation reports to what the weather will be. The gear selection was a tactical decision. No snipers rifles to make this a turkey shoot, yet enough choices to make you think about what you bring along. Most of my squad was made up of veterans which made me happy, stupid AI can kill a mission. The map was nicely laid out and not crowded, while all links worked.

Mission

Capture and hold the base? Easy, right? Wrong. Every option is fraught with danger in this one so make sure you hold onto your men tight. This seemingly simple mission idea was made more complex by the fact that radio men (men with flags) were carrying radios and could alert the whole gang on central Everon that you were there. The results are a little scary if you don't shoot the radio carrier first.

The other pieces to the puzzle were the fact that you could take any way into the base. This includes hitting other targets first to weaken the reinforcements, creating diversions in one area, all the way to just plain hitting the base first and taking cover as behind the walls as the cavalry arrives to oust you from their island. There was also a feature I have not seen much, if ever, a surrender option that plays a cutscene and a lose end (of course!) that is an interesting addition to this mission. All in all, this is no cakewalk.

Outro(s)

A quick overview of the soviets taking over the base and more units coming in. Not fancy, but sums up the mission.

Special

Radio men running about calling comrades to kill you and a cool little surrender script for all those who say they will be taken alive and well.

Overall

(Review Date: Jul 2005) A well made, solid mission with a seemingly simple objective. However with all those little touches like the radiomen, custom flags for them, and surrendering made the mission stand out more. Although not very original in the idea department, it makes up for it in game play and tactics as you can set up your 12 men in convenient positions to further prolong your life and win the mission. In addition, the way Student Pilot lets us tackle this objective by any means makes this mission surprisingly replayable. My only real gripe is that it'd be better with custom sounds, but it is worthy download for your missions folder.