Review by kuro
Overviews
This is the review of a very impressive Campaign. And it is even more impressive when you find that the author has done it alone!
Well, first to the pure facts: The campaign features a remarkable 15 Missions (much more than the normal "Home"-made campaigns).
Cinematics
Each mission has an intro and an outro.
Missions
All the missions are infantry based: you do not have to fly an airplane or steer a tank.
The whole story goes around two characters: A Reserve Soldier, who later joins the Resistance, called "Jack O'Neill" and the famous Major Gastovski, the specialist for black ops from the original campaign.
Now comes a detailed description of the missions (if you intend to play the campaign it is better not to read it because it contains some spoilers).
1. In the first cutscene you see Jack leaving his wife to go to an army reserve course. After you have left the base camp, your small group is suddenly in the middle of a Soviet invasion. All you can do is retreat.
2. The intro shows the Soviet invaders slaughtering civilians. In the next mission you are one of the defenders of a small village, you must hold it until the retreat is organized.
3. After that you move to the base camp. Finally some support arrives, the US is sending special forces but somebody has to guide them in: You!
4. After a mission without any combat you get the error message:
Missing addons uce_finnSniper, uce_rk76
(remark to the author; I do not think you actually used them, just kick them out of the mission file) but if you click OK it continues. Then as Gastovski you have to ambush an enemy convoy. It is a very nice feeling to play the old hero again. The mission itself is not so difficult (or Gastovski is so good). Remarkable is the night Para jump.
5. In a cut scene you are informed that the Soviets have successfully attacked Morton. Your team is part of the counter-offensive, the first attack in this war. After the air insertion, you move after your team leader to the enemy camp. You will get support from some of your tanks. After the mission you will get a hint, who is behind that attack.
6. The next task is to get to Laruns by chopper but this chopper is shot down and you are the lone survivor. If you make your way to Laruns you will find you that the town is occupied by Soviet troops. You will be arrested and face death by execution.
7. After your risky escape, you have to make it back to your own lines.
8. Then you have to defend the city of Montignac. After you have successful destroyed the attackers you will be promoted to sergeant and sent to 10. AT Training.
9. Therefore it is Gastovski's turn again: Place a bomb at the soviet HQ.
11. After you have carried out your stealth mission. You must destroy an armored convoy with mines and AT rockets.
12. Then comes time to attack the enemy and drive him into the sea.
13. After the success of a combined attack you are assigned to guard duty. When you defeat the intruding Spetznatz you can enjoy a heli flight.
14. After the liberation of two small villages you can give a final blow to the invaders with the 15. sniper rifle of Major Gastovski. In the final cutscene you will get the error message that a music track is missing.
Overall
(Review Date: Nov 2003) As I said in the beginning of this review, a very impressive Campaign. As it is AddOn- and (for practical purposes) bug-free, it is a must for every serious OFP Player. As criticisms, there are only small points (the three or four bugs I mentioned, but they do not stop the campaign).
I think if you are looking for a nice campaign to use ECP, you should give it a try. (Remark: I have tested it without ECP, but it should run without problems). I hope that the author fixes that four small bugs (should be a work of about 20 minutes), so I can give the revised version the next higher score.
Pros:
- Long and good story
- Intros and Outros
- AddOn Free
Cons:
- Small Bugs
- No Voice Samples
