[ArmA] Perpetua by Bardosy

Review by Cheetah

Overviews

Every overview is filled with a picture of the corresponding mission and it tells you something of what's going to happen in the mission. The pictures don't have a border or shading. There is no text in the overviews, but as this is a campaign it's not seen as a priority.

Cinematics

In a campaign the cinematics have to be at least average to make for an interesting campaign. In Perpetua the missions are connected to each other by intros and outros. Each cinematic shows something which makes sense, like a debriefing or a briefing video for the next mission. Technically the cinematics are pretty good, there are no or minor errors in the camerawork. Everything goes smooth just as it should, the custom voices are well timed and add to the ambience of the cutscenes between missions. The artistic side of the camera work can be improved upon, right now most of the camerawork is a bit plain and without many special effects. Some camera angles could have been improved, or made a bit more spectacular. Right now most of the camera stuff feels a bit passive.

Briefings

The briefings all share the same layout, there is a general overview of the mission in the Plan section. In this overview, you can click Situation for a description of how the war is going. Every mission has the same build up of the briefing, which is something a campaign should have - consistency. In the notes section you can find the opinion of Jorge Gomez, the main character in Perpetua. In a lot of missions, you will be accompanied by a squad of nine men, all carrying the rank of a Sergeant and an expert skill level. The high skill level fits in, after all we're members of the Mount Corps, elite soldiers fighting for the King. As for the ranks, you are a Lieutenant in command of nine Sergeants which is unrealistic and should have been avoided. It is often better to go for a more realistic approach when trying to simulate a war. A small weapon selection is available at the start of each mission in the briefing. The weapon selection fits in with the mission and current situation of the player. In stealth missions you will find find a variaty of silent weapons and a G36, which opens up some possiblities. What was lacking from the selection were pistols, usefull in some situations.

Missions

Perpetua consists of eight missions of which the first is considered a prologue. Due to the many sound files included, eight missions, briefings and scripts the total file size is almost 13 megabytes. But this campaign sure is meaty, you will get a lot of playtime and a lot of good missions. Most of them are squad-based, only a few let you play on your own. There are a number of mission types in this campaign, assault - defense - stealth. The missions are well crafted, and thanks to thorough beta testing there are no bugs in the campaign. What I missed was a bit of variation in the missions, some random elements to improve the replayability of Perpetua. Now you can replay it for the gameplay offered in some missions, not for the randomness of events. The gameplay in most missions is decent, thanks to well placed enemies you will find yourself in difficult, but enjoyable situations. There are enough enemies to form a decent opposition, but not too many to make the campaign unplayable. It feels as the difficulty gradually increases as more missions are completed, well done. The technical aspect of the missions hasn't been overlooked, although is a bit lacking in some missions. A few missions feature an artillery script. What I missed were additional scripts, dialogs for the player to choose something, like the time of day he wants to attack a major objective or generally more options for optional objectives. However, in the mission Capriccio there is a nice detection script. Most scripts used in the missions are for the numerous conversations present in the campaign, all the voices are timed well. Objectives are triggered when they should be, helicopters land wherever and whenever they should - something which is hard to achieve. Sometimes I missed additional AI squads to help me out on objectives. The atmosphere could have been improved by adding more AI units which actually help the player.

Special

Campaigns should have a good story which sucks the player right into in and lets him go only when the campaign is finished. Perpetua has a story which opens a bit casual, with a conflict between the US an RACS on one side and the SLA on the other. Bardosy did a good job towards the end, adding a twist or two to the campaign, making it more interesting and less like other campaigns which feature the West vs East war. In some cutscenes or during the mission you can enjoy dialogues full of humor, sarcasm and irony. The non-English voice actors of the RACS add up to the atmosphere, by not having a perfect pronounciation of the English language, they present themselves as an unprofessional army.

Overall

Perpetua features a good story, enjoyable missions, cinematics and custom voices. It should keep you busy for 10 hours, which is a lot. Remember that the 13mb download gives you a total of eight addonfree missions to play. What does Perpetua lack? Additional scripts, for example to improve the AI, especially the friendly AI as they were a handicap in some missions. The cutscenes could use better camera angles and a few more action scenes. This campaign should be enjoyable for everyone who likes the Singleplayer Mode of Armed Assault and thanks to custom voices really comes to life and has a good atmosphere waiting for you.