[ArmA] The Sahrani Run by Arkon

Review by Cheetah

Overview

An attractive overview picture is missing, probably to make room for a lot of text. The story is summarized and a warning is present, people who do not like long RPG style missions shouldn't play it.

Intro

The intro starts playing at the beginning of the mission. It is somewhat simple and not at the same level as the rest of the mission. There is a lack of music at the start of the intro, screenplay is too slow and little text is present to set the setting and atmosphere of the mission. Custom voices would've added a lot.

However, the intro does what it should and sets the beginning of the mission as you board the chopper you slowly gain control of your character. In short, average.

Briefing

Decently crafted briefing. Notes section is pretty detailed, few errors and working markers are present. However, the briefing lacks more details for such a long mission, it lacks a better weapon selection with handguns, grenades etc. It is perfectly possible to offer only one sniper rifle, but a weapon selection is more than primary weapons.

A mission name is missing in the top, therefore the top of the briefing displays the location of the missionfile. Something that could've been added rather easily - luckily it's only one of the few details that are missing. Another detail is the lack of a first objective upon the start of the mission.

A decent briefing, without too much extras or great finish.

Mission

NOTE: due to the mission's length it has been split into two parts.

Arkon and his friends promote The Sahrani Run as a long lasting, RPG styled mission and they are right in saying so. You will need multiple hours to bring this one to an end and when the end is brought on your screen you crossed most of Sahrani. There are many objectives to keep you busy, to get you more involved with the story. A substory that is somewhat tied in with the story spices things up a bit too.

As a Special Forces Sniper you will mostly move on your own, possible with a vehicle but often on foot. It is easy to keep track of the story, hints are used to provide information and have conversations with the various characters 'present. Such information is stored in your action menu and can be easily accessed when you need it, should you want to delete it - no problem there is an option for that.

At several locations in the map, large battle or dynamic evens are present. You decide when to engage, the outcome may have an influence on the further mission development. To keep you alive in this mission, health packs are found near field hospitals and sometimes handed to you by medics. They help greatly when a few blue beans have made their way into your body. To give the mission a better atmosphere, the number of enemies on your path in the countryside is limited. This helps in keeping you and the mission's atmosphere alive.

But, while unit emplacement is sporadically decent, often the number of patrols and their intelligence isn't nearly enough. Crossing the countryside is peanuts, evading patrols isn't much of an effort and racing past roadblocks with an UAZ is easy as well. Mostly you'll be using 4x speed as there are great distances to cover, without much happening between objectives. The author could've used these to build the atmosphere and to provide more interactions with the environment and civilians. There is a lack of cutscenes, there are no decent dialogues only simple hints displayed on the screen without custom voices. In RPG missions character building and atmosphere are greatly important, this mission lacks in that department. The only decent cutscene appears late in the second part of the mission and fails to really convince - it is too late in the mission to build the atmosphere.

The insertion for example is a long helicopter ride without a conversation between the helicopter crew and the player. Luckily the player might catch a smile on his face once the typical English texts appear on screen. Oh blimey!

It is not only long uneventful distances and missing cutscenes, but also the mission failing to show the consequences of taking a making choice. Also, the player can't have RPG style conversations with multiple options for his answer. This combined with custom voices would've added a lot to the mission.

The difficulty of the mission is good, it is not too hard nor to easy. One of the latter most important objectives on an island require a lot of sniper senses, if you choose to ignore these and go in rambo style you should be up for a hard fight. Realism isn't always present, patrols five minutes away radio that they take 30 minutes to arrive, rebels striking an SLA camp don't speak to the player near them, attacks consist mostly of identical units and M16s in ammo boxes in SLA territory aren't very convincing.

Finally, there are the bugs. Some are minor, like error messages without impact, spelling errors and unimportant objectives failing to tick off. Others are of greater impact, like the enemy failing to detect the player in a captured UAZ and generally the lack of civilians and their not so great behaviour. But, all of these are inferior to the loadgame bug. If you don't follow the guidelines in the readme or those shortly mentioned in the description part of this review, you might spoil your playing experience. Variables get ruined, objectives fail to complete and conversations don't take place. All these cause the playing experience to degrade by a lot and fast. Store your savegames and do so often. Unfortunately, there is no other solution then to follow this method, it may deduct from your playing experience. Be warned, follow guidelines.

Outro(s)

Consists of text concluding the mission. Although you get a feeling for the mission's end it is not completely satisfying.

Special

The mission offers a lot of playtime, it'll take you a few hours to complete the mission if you go for all the objectives. Optional objectives are present and make it so that the player has more freedom, well done. All in one, it has a campaign feeling to it which is fine.

Overall

The Sahrani Run is a mission with a lot of RPG elements, it offers a long playtime and has a long story to it. Anyone who likes freedom and long sometimes lone sniper missions should play this one.

However, the mission isn't what it could've been. It lacks in atmosphere, cutscenes and sometimes gameplay. The authors of this mission spend a great deal of time with the mission, the result is promising, but lacking in areas that are of great importance in a mission.

If it fits your genre preference, play this one as it will provide good playtime. The thing that bothers all is the nasty loadgame bug, follow instructions found in the readme to bring this one to a good end.

Maybe, this mission's idea would have been better off in a many-missions campaign structure. I would've liked to give it a higher score, but it feels not quite right, it's still a bit rough around the edges.