Queen’s Gambit is the expansion pack for the popular combat simulator Arma: Armed Assault. The game offers more of the ultra realistic combat experience already seen in the first game produced by Bohemia Interactive Studios.
BI Studios helped to produce the classic game Operation Flashpoint and this definitely shows in Arma. At a glance Arma appears to be exactly the same, with a graphics overhaul. Fans of Op Flashpoint will immediately recognise the mouse scroll action menu, and the incredibly minimal hud. There have been many improvements however, such as 3d kicksights that shift as you move, and buildings that now can now be dynamically destroyed instead of folding like a cardboard box back in Op Flashpoint.
Graphically Arma is a stunning game, with great texture detail and postproccess effects. The game options can be scaled back for lower range PC’s that cannot handle the higher quality textures making this available on a wide range of systems. In addition the player can set their view distance anywhere between 500 and 10 km. It can be quite humbling sitting atop a massive hill gazing down at the surrounding landscape. There are a vast range of environments on the main island of Sahrani that covers over 400 sq. Km. These include dense pine forests, rolling sand dunes and urban cities. Instead of being segmented into separate levels the entire map is available at once giving a great sandbox style of gaming and allowing the player to visit all these locations without having to switch between maps. The range of environments however is seldom utilized in the single player mode with most missions taking place in only one setting.
The single player of Queen’s Gambit features two new campaigns. The first of these being Rahmadi Conflict. This takes place on a small neighbouring island to the mainland of Sahrani where the player assumes the role of a US Spec Ops squad helping the main force to capture the island and defeat the remaining Royal Arma Corps of Sahrani (RACS) communist forces. This takes place over 3 massive missions involving an epic battle between the RACS and US forces where the player’s actions are the pivotal point in deciding the outcome. The campaign starts out with a 5 man team being inserted by zodiac onto the beach that US units are standing by to attack. The task is to sneak past an entire platoon of men, a squad of T72 tanks, and plant satchel charges next to Shilkas that pose a threat to the US main forces boats.
One of the great features about the campaigns in Arma: Armed Assault was that you played a small role in most missions, being part of the overall battle instead of some incarnation of Rambo who could wipe out the entire opposing force single handed. In addition to this there were two side missions for every major mission that would give the player Spec Op assignments to eliminate strategic targets, making the overall major missions less challenging. This catered for all players of different gaming styles.
The abandoning of these multiple paths in the same mission for the Spec Op only style of missions in Queen’s Gambit was a major disappointment. As a combat simulator this game accurately depicts the precision and difficulty of modern combat and for this reason having difficult stealth missions at the start of a campaign seems a poor choice, as the player is instantly thrown into an incredibly difficult situation. This makes the game quite uninviting for players who are new to the game and I can’t see how anyone could be expected to complete this mission without extensive Arma experience of some sort of military training.
Ignoring that, there are some noticeable improvements in the mission design in Rahmadi Conflict. There is now the option to swap between group members during a mission. Having this new feature is essential because giving commands to AI squad members is more a matter of tricking them into doing the player’s bidding than actually giving them a direct command. The odds always seem skewed against friendly AI as well, with them charging headlong into enemies, who themselves will run a few circles before gunning the player’s squad down like lambs to the slaughter.
Commanding each squad member individually I set about planting all the necessary satchel charges around the Shilkas positioned right in the middle of large groups of troops. It became quickly obvious that unless I crawled around on my belly I would be quickly spotted and this target Shilka would start driving around erratically like a panicky sheep, making them totally impossible to blow up with an immobile satchel charge. Thankfully however, the game has the option to increase speed to x2 and x4 using the plus and minus keys. Despite this it still takes exceedingly long to sneak past the patrols, plant the satchels and sneak back into a bush out of the explosion range. With only one save point available in mission it takes a considerably long time to plant the satchels for two Shilkas and one of the T72’s. To my horror I also discovered that the single in game save point for each mission disappeares whenever you exit the mission to take a break.
Having passed through the eye of the needle I sent in the radio command to commence the attack and patiently waited for the attack boats to arrive. During this time for seemingly no reason one of my AI decided to detonate his satchel. This always happed with one of the squad members regardless of where the charge is planted, making keeping a low profile while awaiting the main attack force incredibly difficult. Speedily ordering the other squad members to detonate their charges hell erupted. My cover blown the enemy AI instantly started swarming down on my location, except for the soldiers positioned roughly 500m away that seemed completely oblivious to my existence until I moved closer to them.
The AI in Arma is the most challenging that I have ever encountered in a game. You have roughly one to two seconds after having your position discovered to shoot the enemy or get behind cover, otherwise they will certainly kill you. Arma offers no health system either, instead you can take somewhere between one and five shots depending on hit location and gun type. If hit in the arms you have your accuracy reduced, with noticeable wobble increase in your aim. When shot in the legs you may loose function of them and be forced to crawl around. These wounds can be healed by a medic, but if shot in the head or chest it is game over. This certainly offers the realistic experience that Arma aims to deliver, but can be incredibly frustrating when you are shot in the leg and then forced to crawl around at snails pace for the rest of a mission.
After several attempts of being gunned down by the enemy platoon located on this beach, I finally survived long enough for the main attack force to arrive! This however reminded me of some of the dreadful pathing issues that plague Arma. Around 15 US boats filled with squads of men approached, touting machine guns that laid waste to many of the enemy infantry on the beach lighting up the night’s sky. To my horror however they had no way of combating the remaining T72 tanks. Then making matters worse, when the boats reached about 5m from the shore they started spinning in circles and seemed unable to offload their squads containing AT soldiers to combat the tanks. Somewhat dumbstruck I tried this part of the mission several times only to have the same result.
Finally in a bid to save my comrades, I moved across the beach and found an RPG on one of the dead RACS soldiers. In Arma the player can pick up any piece of equipment from dead soldiers or ammo crates. Each player has limited inventory space with provisions for a main weapon, an explosive weapon, ammo and a side arm. This is one of the game’s great strengths, as if offers the player complete control in how they go about accomplishing objectives and makes the play very open ended.
Having acquired an RPG I managed to destroy the last T72 just in time to watch it kill the last of the US main forces attack boats. With only a few enemy infantry remaining on the beach I quickly mopped them up with what was left of my Spec Op squad and the first mission was finished! Having taken out the better part of a platoon, 3 T72’s and couple of Shilkas with only 5 men this certainly provided the “massive missions” experience that had been promised in this campaign.
The other two missions in Rahmadi Conflict consist of similar styles of gameplay with various objectives that required fighting through entire armies while your main force watches. I have to admit though, that after finishing this, I was left with a great feeling of accomplishment, having pushed through seemingly impossible odds. This certainly offers the most challenging single player experience that I have ever seen in a game.
Exhausted after spending several hours to finish this “true ending” to Arma: Armed Assault I set about the other campaign included with the Queen’s Gambit expansion, Royal Flush. Here the player assumes the role of Kurt Lambowski, a bright eyed young fella who is part of a mercenary group hired by the Queen of Saharni to help silently quench a rebel resistance.
For the most part these missions involve working with a small group of men to eliminate small enemy bases. They are far easier than the missions in the Rahmadi Conflict campaign and also offer handy tool tips during the missions. These can often pop up at inopportune times, for instance just after shooting one member of a two man patrol squad. The majority of the missions also seem to revolve around night time. This is a good thing because otherwise the player has very little chance of sneaking up on the enemy.
Arma offers an incredibly realistic night vision system. Unlike many first person shooters you cannot see past about two meters without night vision on, and surrounding light sources dynamically affect the way night vision works. For instance when looking into an area with a street light, the surrounding unlit areas become much darker, or after firing a machine gun for an extended period of time the muzzle flash dulls the effectiveness of your night vision.
Royal Flush offers a lot more choices in how you conduct your missions than Rahmadi Conflict in terms of approach angles to target areas, and selecting wether you operate as a part of a unit or go in lone wolf. This open ended style of mission can however become very confusing and you can sometimes end up going in the completely wrong direction, only to be shot in the back. Being a combat simulator however this is suiting as it provides a more realistic experience.
The thing that really infuriated me during the Royal Flush campaign though was the terrible voice acting. Being a linear story with character driven plot, this would seem to be an essential feature, but at times the characters sounded like a bad version of Microsoft Sam or as if they were reading off the script for the first time in a very uncomfortable fashion. This was surprising because the soundtrack for this game was top notch, with many great orchestral tunes and some great guitar riffs. In addition the characters have about a much depth as a piece of cardboard making it very hard to empathize with them during the campaign.
This was probably for the best, as when one of your team members die he is no longer there for any subsequent missions, except for the squad leader who must survive for you to pass the first mission. I ended up doing the first part of the campaign about 10 times because, without fail, my squad leader would go charging headlong into the resistance forces with some sort of death wish. The first mission itself is incredibly confusing with you finding yourself sitting in the middle of the open, completely surrounded with enemies coming from all directions. The only team member that I actually managed to keep alive throughout the campaign was the old man river character, who seemed to survive soley for the fact that he never actually shot at anyone. When a team member is lost their spot is filled by an obligatory friendly soldier, who seems to display exactly the same skill level. This gives little incentive to keep any team member alive. Once again however this suits the style of realistic combat simulation as opposed to the typical first person shooter where all allies are bullet proof.
Many new features are seen in this campaign, such as the technicals (civilian vehicles with mounted machine guns). These prove infuriating as the gun only has a 90˚ arc of use in front of the vehicle. I found myself constantly having to stop my AI dead in front of enemy positions to prevent them driving through before I had killed everyone because once you sped past them you would just get shot in the back. Another of the new features is the arms dealer who becomes available between certain missions. This allows you to buy and sell weapons and ammo. I particularly appreciated this feature as half of the guns in Arma are incredibly hard to use, and it allows the player to choose the manner in which they want to play the game, be it sniper or close quarters.
An appealing feature of Arma is the dynamic bullet trajectory. This takes into account the parabola shaped path that bullets travel over distances due to the effect of gravity. For instance, when using the M21 sniper rifle you may have to aim several notches higher than the targe to ensure that the bullet hits them over large ranges. This makes sniping a very dynamic and interesting part of the game. In combination with the large view distances, players can make shots at up to 2km. This seldom works on moving targets, as the bullet trajectory also takes into account the travel time of the bullet, necessitating leading your aim. Each bullet has its own individual trajectory pattern and even within guns there are varying ammo classes. The game offers the option to use supersonic or subsonic ammunition. The difference being that when subsonic bullets fly past enemies they do not hear the characteristic snap sound, making it harder for them to pinpoint their location. This comes at cost however, as subsonic ammunition inflicts less damage. The attention to detail in weapons shows just how far Bohemia Interactive has gone to bring players the realistic combat experience.