[Arma2OA] Balota Highway by SaOk

Review by mathias_eichinger

Overview

The picture going with the overview is rather small, but not blurred. Just one line of text, including a version number. Not a splendid overview, but nothing bad either.

Intro

The intro contains custom music from a band I never heard before. This music accompanies long battle scenes with well chosen camera angles. Not much storytelling here, but pretty much on the aesthetic side.

Briefing

Very extensive briefing, detailing technical aspects like the control of HC groups and the ammo truck. Background information concerning the scenario is also present, and there is a nice weapons selection. All the markers are well laid out and never crowd the map.

Mission

This is a very long mission. The difficulty increases during the course of the mission, and in the end, the player has 6 completed objectives under his belt. After the first objective is completed, building defences using the construction truck is crucial to the mission success.Throughout the mission, it is advisable to make good use of the HC menu, but since reinforcements are provided at critical points during the mission, it is not dependent on the use of HC.

The whole mission can be characterised as a balance of offense and defense that keeps you on your toes because support only arrives in the most dire need. Immersion is fully present throughout the mission because of perfectly implemented voices and ambient life.

Outro(s)

The style of the outro reflects the one used in the intro... plenty of music to go with breathtaking battle scenes, but missing any dialogue or storytelling.

Special

Many things about this mission are special. Immediately noticeable is the use of custom music and custom loading screens during the cutscenes and before the mission.

The start of the mission offers you a selection of daytime and first aid. After this, the perfect voice acting cuts in and then the player is off to a roller coaster ride with almost non-stop action. Another specialty of this mission is the use of High Command, the possibility of laying mines and getting additional ammo from the ammo truck plus the necessity to construct a tactically sound defense at the airport.

Overall

A very breathtaking mission which shows great attention to detail and an impressive amount of work that has been put into this mission. It keeps you on your toes from start to finish.

Fans of more conventional ArmA2 missions should be cautious, however. The additional tasks of building a defence and managing other squads can put too much strain on the devoted squad-level tactician.