Right, beta test v1.40
Intro/outro/briefing
Same as before. I stand by my earlier comments about the russian base in the intro, the soviet politburo in moscow still makes me uneasy, apart from that everything's fine.
Mission
I played through it a couple of times. As I said before, this one's a real exemplar of the genre, if ofp missions can be said to genres.
The first time, I did what I'd wanted to try originally, that is, circling underneath the base on the coast side, reaching the rear of the base, blowing the back fence wide open and charging the resistance from an unexpected angle, cutting them down before they had a chance to figure out where the fire was coming from.
Well, the first part of this went according to plan. I like the fact that you can take down the sentries on the dock and if you do it fast enough the base is not alerted. I did so on the third attempt, and in the process I notice that the watch-tower guards actually climb their ladders once you set the alarm off- i didn't notice that before. It's a nice touch.
After this, however, the plan went awry. I planted my satchel charge alright, but a base patrol had circled round the side of the base to the west, spotted my proned troops, opened fire and killed one or two. Cue alarm bells. I was forced to detonate my explosives prematurely, and order my units to charge in. This is where it really went wrong. The AI, instead of milling about and panicking as I had hoped they would, left the front gate in a steady stream and headed straight for my hole in the wall. Unbelievable! Sheer weight of numbers began to tell, as every 3rd or fourth enemy was getting some shots in before he was killed. Even worse, one set of reinforcements began to arrive from the top of the hill. They had the advantage of being able to see right over the entire base and fire on us in a direct line. I decided to surrender at this point.
Retry, this time I resorted to my old method of attack, which I have brought down to a fine art. I was able to kill the road patrol without alerting the main body of troops, get my men into position at my leasure, spot and designate targets, then quickly and effectively take down the first wave of defenders. I then retreated back to my favourite west-facing ridge, ready to see off the inevitable first wave of reinforcements, which I did. One casualty.
I adjusted my position slighly after this to get maximum visibility for the second lot of reinforcements. They showed up in due course and were dealt to. Finally, I was left with killing the remainder of the base defenders (could have been yet another lot of reinforcements that had arrived, i don't know). One final casualty (and nearly me too) as we approched the base - two units were hiding in a bush sniping at us.
Mission completed on entering the base.
In conclusion, this time around was quite similar to last time, with the difference that the reinforcements were a little more staggered, and one or two enemy waypoint structures were a little different to what I remember. Without dePBOing the mission, I can't be sure. From my point of view, there was only a little improvement in this version, but I may have overlooked something; keep in mind I only played it twice this time. And of course, the mission is all but completed. It's an enjoyable mission to play. Almost there, keep it up :thumbsup: :cheers:
Topic: (Review Completed) [SP] Red Tide (Read 30554 times)