[OFP] Hornets Nest by Intruder

Review by Mike Beil

Overview

This overview is exactly what an overview should be. Brief, descriptive and has a working picture. Take note mission-makers. This is a great example.

Intro

The intro this mission displays is great. It shows a spy plane fly over an enemy encampment and take pictures. This is not only impressive, it is innovative! This cutscene has great camera views and made sense, most of all.

Briefing

Intruder hasn't ceased to amaze me! The briefing is laid out like an actually briefing, including Intel, Expected forces, Allies. What got me the most and clenched a 10 for the briefing score is that it has the pictures from the spy plane. They actually look like spy plane pictures too.

Intel!!! BIS didn't even get that detailed. Apart from one spacing error, this briefing is more than amazing. It actually looked real, Unlike some droning, boring briefings I have read. I can tell Intruder put time into this. My only two complaints:
   -Notes not very personal
   -Spacing prob.
But I really can't complain. Now, before playing this mission, I pray that it is as good as the Intro and Briefing.

Mission

You start out in a boat. There is a nice boat fight scene, not sure what that was about but it was entertaining.
You storm the beach. Now, beach storming has had a rep. in the OFP community of being crappy Normandy simulations. This one is actually good. Explosions every which way, actual voice chatter from Papa Bear (not new voices though). There is a problem however: There are big cool explosions, but it might bog down a low-end computer. I suggest at least 1GHz for this mission so far. Now this scene is hard, you lose 3/4 of your squad without control. So I run up the beach full of dead soviet and American bodies. I get a lot of atmosphere from that, it has a dark sad feel. Well, so here I am, me and my leader, storming a beach full of angry soldiers and tanks. I am really in a GF position here:
(Ask Alaskan what that means - dem0liti0ns@hotmail.com).

After I regain composure and finally reach the top of the beach, I have 1 guy left and more fighters from other squads aiding me. I am ducked behind an ammo box, bullets whizzing overhead. I am the guy who calls out for his "mommy" in the war movies. This is the first time I have really used grenades. They are extremely helpful in the beginning of this mission. I get the commands to “baby-sit” a town. When I think about it more, I am really impressed with the radio messages. While they might not be new, he must of put a lot of time into finding them. The fighting in the town is intense. Just when I think the mission is FUBAR, a squad of M2A2s (my heroes) come rolling in and bail out my sorry, injured, broken-down butt. Now an annoying part showed up. I didn't destroy the machine gun. So I have to run all the way back and destroy it, I really wish it would've told me I still need to do that instead of me waiting and passing it. So once that is destroyed I still hear gunfire in the town. I huff it over to the town. The town is a very neat deal. It is nicely organized with sandbags, Health tents, spare weapons and such. It really looks like a town that was conquered. So I hear tanks firing their HE rounds and soldiers getting killed. I find a guy and pop him 3; it says "Mission Complete".

It showed the statistics screen and I though that meant there would be no outro, Boy was I wrong.

Outro(s)

It showed an awesome cinematic outro with the Russians talking to their leader. They talk about what happened. He commands them to start a counter-attack against the new US airport. It cuts back to the American base and they talk about how dull it has been around the base. All of a sudden the alarm goes off and they think it's a drill. Bombs rain from the sky and it shows a great camera view of the bombers. I actually got excited from this scene. I am not sure if it was the great camera views, exciting plot or the church-like music. A grunt tells his commander to look towards the sea. You look through the binoculars several landing craft heading towards the beach from the distant ocean.
"Operation Cold Steele: Coming soon"
I can't wait!

Overall

(Review Date: Jan 2002) I have decided to give this mission a 9, a new OFPEC HQ record. This mission is truly amazing. Intruder has given me a mission with the quality that I thought only Devilchaser could make.

Ending Score: 9