Right, I've played the first couple of missions..
I'd better point out that I'm using the ACE mod so it may have played out a little differently, no show stoppers though.
Overview: Nice picture, no complaints.
Intro:The camera work was simple, but not painful to watch which is fine by me. I didn't feel that it really told much of a story though. I just saw a bunch of wounded unarmed men. Should I have seen matey die at the beginning? I felt the last 20 or 30 seconds where the camera panned out before the the title dragged a bit as well
1) Comeback: No complaints about the briefing. The mission details and background all fit in for a first mission. Speaking of the background, I thought that the story (or part of it anyway) could quite nicely be told in the intro.
Mission: Getting to the landing spot was simple enough. Rather than going straight for the camp, I headed for the lighthouse. Spotted a couple of men coming down the track and sneakily shot them in the back.
After this I decided to do a quick recce of the 3 central buildings but saw the lights of the UAZ before getting there. I hid behind a bush and took out the driver with my pistol as he passed.
I headed to the camp and shot up everyone that I could see from about 100m from the gate. I moved up to the camp and mopped up a few very dopey guards which didn't react to my presence. Once in the gate I worked my way around the western fence taking out guards as I went. It didn't take me much longer to mop up everyone else.
I'd like to echo savedbygrace's suggestions of the AI auto equipping themselves and being able to kill the alarm.
All in all it was a simple mission for a one man army. The balance felt just right.
2)Escape:Briefing: I didn't see the point of echoing the mission background bit from the first mission. No complaints about the rest of it though.
Mission: To start with, I didn't see the point of the cutscene. I understand your reason, but please make it a bit more engaging.
I found the first few minutes very tough going. The combination of heavy cover, little room to maneuver and a the quick emergence of the reds ended up with me being killed quite quickly on the first few attempts.
Eventually I got going properly by hugging the coast and keeping my men down. I got lucky by destroying the UAZ with a GL and killed the few troops quite quickly after that. At this point the hip pilot coked up and hit the mountain. No complaints there!. After scavenging a machine gun a kept fairly close to the coast and slowly made my way to the forest. It was easier going along this section due to it being more open. With two mgs in the squad things worked out quite well. Once at the forest it was easy getting to the camp.
Two things struck me as strange in the mission. The first was the inclusion of the uaz in such a tight and inaccessible spot. True it could have been dropped off by helicopter, but for what practical reason? From the edge of the woods to where the mission starts its only about 500m or so. The second oddity was the pre set up camp at the end of the mission. I would imaging an ex SF guy would know better than to set up such a perfect ambush point!
I'll play the rest in the next few days and I'll let you know how I get on in due course.
bert