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ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Review for PC

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Review for PC

All About Tactics

The ArmA series has been in the news a lot lately. There’s DayZ, an ArmA II mod that turns the game into a zombie apocalypse. There’s lots of hype about the forthcoming ArmA III, too. And then there’s the arrest of two ArmA developers on espionage charges in Greece, a situation that has led some to speculate that they photographed top-secret military equipment for use in their next game. (The developers say it’s just a misunderstanding, but the idea of Austin Powers: Secret Game Developer cracks me up.)

Flying in under the radar is ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic, a new expansion pack. (The Operation Arrowhead expansion is required to play.) It’s basically ArmA in all its glory. Fans will love it to death, but the rest of us will be left scratching our heads about what the heck the big deal is. After all, five minutes with this game will give you a laundry list of things you want to see fixed in ArmA III.

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Screenshot

To be fair, ArmA isn’t supposed to play like Call of Duty. Instead, the game drops you onto a huge, open map, puts some men under your command, supplies you with some interesting vehicles, and then leaves you alone to accomplish your directives. You need to give careful directions to your soldiers, from their formation to their directions for engagement. When a soldier dies, he’s gone. And when you die, it’s game over.

And some of the other problems here can be attributed to the fact that Bohemia Interactive is a small developer with a limited budget. The ArmA games are notorious for their bugs, and the graphics here are nothing special (though you can cure the horrific pop-in by changing the default settings). In fact, part of the fun of ArmA is that you can create your own missions and mods without the developers trying to shut you down.

But that’s not the full extent of the problem—in fact, it often seems like the developers went out of their way to make the game cumbersome. For example, you’d think your medic, being a medic and all, would try to heal wounded soldiers during lapses in combat. You might at least hope for some kind of prompt. Nope. You have to scroll through some confusing menus and specifically instruct him to do his job. You also can’t just push a single button and have your whole team hop in a vehicle; you need to get in yourself and separately order the rest of your team to follow. Then you have to make sure they all get in, because sometimes they don’t.

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Screenshot

Even the basic combat controls are needlessly frustrating. Whereas every other shooter on the planet manages to make do with a single button that handles crouching, going prone, and getting up again, ArmA uses three buttons, one for each task. Zooming in on a target is for some reason mapped to a different button than raising your scope, the default button doesn’t work well, and finding a convenient place on your keyboard to put the scope is a chore. And when you get shot at, you’d better be able to tell from the audio where the bullets are coming from, because there’s no on-screen indicator to make up for the sound effects’ imprecision. As often as not, either your squad will kill an enemy, or the enemy will pick off a member of your squad before you even figure out where the gunfire is coming from.

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Screenshot

Is this “realistic?” Not really, considering that autosaves are frequent and manual saves are unlimited (and considering that a real medic would think to ask, “Hey, want me to do something about that bullet wound?”). It’s just that instead of regenerating your health when you take damage, you have to go through the tedium of being patched up, and you have to re-load your game more often.

But enough grouching. Hopefully all that will be better in ArmA III. What does Army of the Czech Republic offer that’s new?

For starters, there’s a total of 15 new campaign and scenario missions that, for all their infuriating clunkiness, are actually pretty creative at times. The plot—presented without cutscenes or videos of any kind—is that while the civil war from the previous game is over, there is still unrest to pacify and war criminals to capture, and the task has been given to the Czech army. It’s nice to have a full map to roam instead of being funneled down a linear path, the vehicles are a blast despite their often awkward controls, and one mission even has you following a dog as it tracks down bad guys. Bohemia Interactive, for all its flaws, has delivered the goods that its hardcore fans are looking for, and it’s hard to blame them for that.

ArmA II: Army of the Czech Republic Screenshot

For players who prefer creating their own missions, playing mods, and exploring multiplayer, Army of the Czech Republic offers a whole slew of new resources. (You can get these for free with low-quality textures, via the DLC’s “lite version,” or pay for the expansion and get the high-quality goods.) Though the sun-soaked new areas you’ll explore are in fictional countries, you’ll see the equipment of the Czech army in all its real-life glory, complete with countless guns and vehicles. The Czech Republic was clearly chosen because Bohemia is located there—in a sense, the game is a tribute to the developers’ home country and its military.

If you found ArmA II insufferable, you’re not alone, and this expansion will do nothing to change your mind. You should wait until ArmA III and hope the gameplay has been streamlined without being dumbed down. But if you’re one of the ArmA faithful, Army of the Czech Republic manages to inject new life into a dated game with fresh missions and resources, and it’s an obvious buy.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.9 Graphics
They’re not particularly impressive. 2.0 Control
It feels like the developers tried to make them clunky. 2.8 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
They’re good, but not good enough to make up for the lack of an on-screen indicator of where gunshots come from. 3.8 Play Value
This one’s for the faithful, but it’s exactly what they want. 3.5 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Bolster the Arma sandbox with a range of authentic Czech Army units and vehicles, including the L-159 Alca, Pandur II, and Dingo infantry mobility vehicle.
  • Pick from a range of new weapons, including those developed with Česká zbrojovka a.s.: CZ 805 BREN, CZ Scorpion EVO III, and CZ 75 PHANTOM.
  • Deploy across fifteen new missions in the singleplayer campaign, scenarios, and procedural template gameplay modes.
  • Explore the two new summer-season terrains: Bystrica and Bukovina.

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