OFP1.96, Vetmode, Bench 5896, no super ai
Readme:
Not so much the lack of one but a poorly organised zip folder. An immediate and worrying content where it appeared that the mission was supplied in both pbo, and non-pbo format. No sense in placing a stand alone overview in there which needed an unreadable paa file.
zip ->
readmes
mission.pbo
addons->
is the way this should be organised
Basicically, just niggles, because ultimately, everything that should have been included, was included, just messy.
BOTH readmes are professional, albeit with gramattica in the english one, but professional all the same.
Overview:
Irrelevant, noisy centred title when it is already part of the picture. Considering the precious real estate of an overview page, this centred title should not be there.
Picture:
Great picture, dreadful format. As far back as the Greeks, and separately the Persian empire, conducted surveys among their citizens on which geometric shapes most appealed. 'Squares' were universally rejected. This knowledge was passed on to us, along with the concept of zero and mathematical numbers by the Arabs. The reason for our 2:3 ratios for televisions, books, picture frames, windows, is because of our preference to rectangular dimensions that approximately equal the Phi (a formula for deriving a circle, not to be confused with Pi)
Put in plain speak, this picture is ugly.
text: rather difficult to read, but a great ending phrase.
Version number is missing
Intro:
Impressive. I adore intros that tell a story. This one builds the theme somewhere between well, and beautifully.
Immediately a nice take to 'please wait...' what a refreshing thing to see from the normally boring get ready.
typo
a Gais's mission=A Gais Mission.
It is instantly apparent that this mission will consume more than one review, there's a lot that is right, and a few too many things wrong.
The English Grammatica is understandably dreadful. This is not a criticism, it is a statement of fact that the author is aware of. It is only just readable as mission flow, this will get fixed and for this post I wont clutter it with the enormous amount of alterations required textwise.
This author has made a huge effort to Internationalise his mission. He has earned my respect.
Logo:
the GS logo is brilliant. Much MUCH more should have been done with it. It should be plastered in the overview AND the briefing.
I am cynical to leery to downright annoyed by promotional advertising, BUT, when it's going to be done, this folks, is a good way to do it. Grab this intro people and start learning how to improve your own Intros in the same way. This, is a campaign intro, not a mission intro.
Camera work: Impressive use of the up button, a refreshing change from a sideswipe-scan, nice.
There is too much stall, too staggery. A lot is being told here, it is a HUGE intro, and the flip to the next scene has not been done well. In fact, no thought has been put in here at all. Just a let's get-on-with-it switch to the next scene.
Music choice is excellent.
Storyline is excellent and well told.
Get rid of that IDIOTIC year date. Who are you to tell me when this all happened?
Scenes themselves, the camera work, is way above average. SOME scenes suffer from being pregnant and just waiting at the finish line.
Briefing:
Group:
there is none. This is not good(tm). I always like to see who we are and how smart or otherwise.
Gear and Selection:
well thought out.
BUG:
some of us are armed with handgun ammo and no handgun
BUG
missing bis_ whatever on mission start. This is because a handgun has been selected, but no addons[]= in the mission.sqm
Notes:
that GOD DAMN year date is CRAP!
Little hard on the English reader but nicely done. Missing target markers which make it a frustrating read.
Plan:
target markers are either missing (Petrovice) or don't work (intel report). It is 'ok' as a briefing goes, but is immediately confusing to not get the whole picture. (Petrovice eg)
Map:
Fine, but just a little confusing and noisy with the use of COC indicators.
Mission:
BUG
phantom cannot load bis_weapon_pack
Bor.
Confusing beyond credible. Noisy messages telling us to wait for something, other messages saying Eva is good to go. It is only the Eva codeword that gave me a clue not to stick around. This has nothing to do with poor english. The rush rush sequencing is bad.
Throughout, the messaging and radio traffic is so poorly thought thru, i wonder why you bothered. There is NO reason for all this noise simply because we land, there is GOOD reason, to get us into position first and let the player absorb what's being said and what's happening. This was lazy man's territory, very badly done for no senisble reason and no thought put behind how it 'feels' to play it. There was NO reason to artificially start Eva when it happened. Silly. The player needs situational awareness, needs to 'see' Bor (with hold fire) needs to grasp the attack content happening elsewhere, and THEN Eva.
The attack on the town was predictably dull. At no time, throughout the mission were any of the armour aggressive. They were there as eye candy only. All they needed was to blow them up, they made little attempt to attack us. Boring.
Although not quite so bad, most of the enemy ai were looking for contact lenses. In most instances (but not all) I simply walked up to them and shot from point blank range. They, and for that matter me, may as well not have bothered being there.
Again, a mess with the introduction of reinforcing bmp and, some idiot spetz chopper that landed on top of some sort of SA-75 thingo and let it's people out. Nothing inspiring, just a rather dull hunt the last loon. All of it happening at a ridiculous pace as if it didn't matter too much whether I was there, or not.
Confusing as hell additions to my troops in two sequences. Some arbitrary trigger, backed by radio traffic to have them added to me.
NOTHING wrong with the spetz chopper, the bmp, NOR the added troops, just a rushed mess of putting it all together. No rhyme, no reason, to what's all happening. You are willing the player to get on with it so YOU can introduce the fun bits, instead of the fun bits happening because the player is playing well. A mess.
Drove to St Sedlo, confused about Okinohrulo assuming it will have to be attacked, but having experienced the dumbness, the total stupidity of the enemy at Bor, I wasn't expecting much. Sure enough, more or less walked around and shot things that were crawling. A bmp minces up to us, does nothing and minces away. Same for T72 which doesn't respond, same for sniper that looks at us while we shoot him.
The counter attack may as well not have happened for the sorry efforts of the tanks. They did nothing except to be blown away.
Very familiar territory of using battle music because the mission is so dull, it's there to try, desperately, to make it interesting.
Unwarranted use of dead Nato guys at St Sedlo. God knows why they attacked before us. IF they had failed and we were called in, it would have made sense. But, considering the general rush of radio traffic (the eva trigger), the rush of adding in a spetz choppper, i reckon you just rushed them into this town before we got there. Hardly a spectacular visual. Would have been nice to see a firefight, a bit of action.
Outro:
MUCH slicker than the Intro. Camera work was far better in terms of moving from one scene to the next. Soon as I saw Ali Mag in the credits, knew why.
Both the Intro and the Outro are better than average, better than ok, they are immersive and need much more polish but not camera fixes, just some seamless integration between one to next.
Music throughout was excellent in choice and positioning (except battle music which is intolerable)
BUG cannot find addon bs_b2006
Overall:
A mess of instant action with enemy ai so dumbed down they may as well not be there. Breathless over use of eye candy without consideration of how it plays for the player.
But, the scene, the setting, the overall construct is better than most missions out there. Half the dissapointment comes from what should have been great was frustrating and poorly choregraphed. You have spent so much time designing this mission, you forgot to play it.
Rating:
A two. Which is defined as "playable but you wont enjoy it"
I should have enjoyed it, but the author forgot to play this mission for himself.
Topic: (Review Completed) [SP] Nightmare (Read 6654 times)
