[Arma2] USMC Village Raid by Bahger

Review by Zipper5

Overview

A simple affair with a picture with a contrasting white border, the mission's name, and a description of the events that await the player. The picture looks a little bit squished, but it's not too noticeable.

Intro

No introduction cut scene was made for the mission. It would have been a nice inclusion to explain the story and make the player more interested, but it is not necessary.

Briefing

The briefing is very detailed with multiple sections containing all the information the player could want with such a mission. Some may view it as overkill for such a simple mission of getting in, destroying something, and getting out, but you cannot complain that you don't know what you need to do and what to expect after reading it. It has working tasks with links and no spelling or grammar mistakes, but I will say that for a mission such as this I do miss having a gear selection.

Mission

This mission starts slow, but builds up before slowing down again once the main part of the mission has been completed. Everything works how it should, and there are some fairly challenging parts in the mission especially after completing your first objective. You will lose some of your AI squad on this so long as you actually use them, it's simply inevitable. You yourself may find that you will get killed, but not so much that it makes the mission seem impossible or frustratingly hard.

Everything works how it should. The tasks complete appropriately, the parts not controlled by the player work fine, and there are radio messages displayed throughout to add some amount of character to the mission (though I do find it odd that the author used titleTexts for the radio rather than actual radio messages, but that is only a minor, nit-picky issue). The only issue that very, very occasionally shows itself is the helicopter may crash into surrounding forest and vegetation, but this is more to do with AI issues in the game, and it would be very hard for any mission maker to prevent this from happening without moving where it lands entirely, which could make it land somewhere that is realistically unethical.

Outro(s)

There is no outro for the mission which, like the intro, is a shame, but it is not a necessary inclusion. It's just always nice to have a bit of a back-story or something for the player to watch and be rewarded with.

Special

A small-scale, squad-sized operation that can at times be reminisent of the Operation Flashpoint campaigns and missions. Always a plus in my eyes.

Overall

A decent get in, blow it up, get out mission that works exactly how one would expect such a mission to do so offering the player a few minutes of fun and combat. While there are minor gripes that I have with the mission, it is a good first attempt for the author. Definitely give it a try if you are interested.