[ArmA] Operation Distant Strike by Mathias_eichinger

Review by Cheetah

Overview

The picture could use a border and doesn't show much of a connection with the mission content. Text is fine and gives a short introduction to the mission.

Intro

Enjoyable music is used to let you relax, the camera is a bit slow and the angles could have been better. Like the initial camera pointing at the destroyed tank, the camera is way too high. Don't like the flow of the camera, too slow and every scene has only one line of text. Feels like an editor driven cutscene.

Briefing

There is a weapon selection featuring a large collection of US weapons. The notes are of the standard diary type. A bit short, but they give you an idea of how the character thinks about his mission. Could have contained more information for the player to read. The plan is split into two pages. One is the normal page with the objectives, there are links pointing to the markers on the map. I miss an insertion marker, would have been better to add one. On the details page quite a lot of information is available for the player, like hiding in the cellar of the fuel station at the end of the mission.

Mission

You start close to the first objective which saves you some time, but makes the mission a lot shorter and takes away the tension of passing enemy patrols. The difficulty is low, guards are easy to take care off, waypoints show you where to go and objectives are quite easy to complete. I like the emplacement of the base and MG nests, as well as your insertion craft driving back to open sea. Didn't like the difficulty, could have been turned up a notch, with a few more patrols and effective reinforcements and found US ammo boxes on the beach somewhat strange. The second objective lacks a lot in terms of difficulty. There is only one fireteam guarding the most expensive equipement of the SLA, not too convincing. The best experience was going to the cellar to hide myself. On the way I encountered several patrols and a UAZ patrol which made my life hard and made sure that the LOAD option was used, it was the best part of the mission for me.

Outro(s)

Same quality as the intro, only the outro acts as a pretty good debriefing. I like the idea, don't like the camera work.

Special

Not much scripting involved in this mission, some of it is done with editor scripting and the Urban Patrol Script by Kronzky is the only external script. More could have been done with scripts/triggers to improve the gameplay, in terms of difficulty and general playability.

Overall

The mission is enjoyable to those who like a short night mission, or some action. There is enough of it if you don't play stealthy. If you do, the enemy is easy to beat. You shouldn't play this mission for the intro and the overview picture is lacking, but the author did a good job at providing a picture with the package. Although I would have liked to see more time spend on it, to make it useable. In short, enjoyable for lone wolfs and action fanatics - but lacks polishment, fine tuning and scripting.