[ArmA] Tiptoe Boys Part II by Shark Attack

Review by Cheetah

Overview

There is no mission title in the overview, which is somewhat weird. The text could have been improved, right now, it lacks capitals and informative text. The image used is fine - and totally different from most overview pictures.

Intro

The camera movement is moderate - nothing bad - however, the camera moves are not well executed. You get a video briefing for your mission in the intro, which is pretty good. However, there is room for improvement. Voices would have added a lot to the intro - especially if it were a few voices showing the SLA soldiers having a conversation. Anything to make the intro more personal.

Briefing

Both the plan and notes section contain some typos and missing capitals. This makes the briefing look somewhat unpolished. The map shows the same stuff, with typos like "antena", more eye for detail would have helped the author in scoring more points for the briefing. It is clear what has to be done. The plan and objectives give you a clear idea of what has to be done and what the current situation is like. General Silva's picture is present in the briefing to help you identify him in the mission, a nice touch. However, the image could have been enhanced to make it a better picture - for example make it look old, give it a border and change the colors a bit. This is advanced stuff, but would help in scoring points. What I miss is an insertion marker, for those playing without GPS it is going to be somewhat difficult to determine their position. This is caused by the random points of insertion which add to the replayability. The same randomness is added with the objectives, by making them more dynamic and random, the mission should be a challenge the second time. Finally, the weapons selection is present and has all the weapons you could use in a mission like this.

Mission

Stealth is the way to go in this one if you want to make it out alive. A few official ArmA voices are being used to add to the atmosphere, as well as several scripts to make the mission feel more realistic. Examples are a first aid script, flares being fired upon detection and mines blowing when shot at. With the help of the radio, you'll be informed about changes in objective / completion of objectives. These radio messages have a voiceover which adds to the atmosphere, well done! However, in order to keep the filesize down in the future, don't use speech recorded in stereo. It only adds to the total size, cutting the filesize in half might be possible by converting to mono. Next up, the base layout. It is pretty good, however there were a lot of unmanned static guns and there was some lag on my PC upon getting a visual on the base. Infiltrating the base is easy once you know where to infiltrate from - getting the objectives done is harder. The difficulty of the mission feels natural, well done. There were a few minor things worth mentioning. Freeing the prisoner works, but why does he run away? Some MGs feel as if blind and a lot of static soldiers decrease the enjoyable atmosphere that you are trying to build in this mission.

Outro(s)

None. An outro gives a mission a decent ending. Right now, you're not sure what happens after you did all the objectives - players want to know how to story continues after the mission.

Special

There are several additional objectives for the player to tackle. Blowing up buildings and checking bodies for information is made interesting. Another special script running is the first aid script. It helps in keeping you alive!

Overall

If you are into SF missions and can resist some bugs, download and play this one! It has a loads of special scripts to make you enjoy the mission. However, the reason for this mission not getting a higher score is that it lacks polishing. There are too many typos, little bugs and a missing outro to give additional points.