ARMA2: Operation Arrowhead SP Campaign Impressions

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I find the Operation Arrowhead Single Player Campaign both fun and frustrating. The anger comes from the AI and how badly it behaves at times.

I'm playing on Veteran but suspect I should have tried Regular to begin with but I'm stuck with it. I did turn off cross hairs and 3rd person but did enable unlimited saves and markers on the map. I need the markers to find my retarded brethren when they decide to get stuck on a rock or go for stroll through the desert.

Bohemia Interactive shouldn't bother with cutscenes. I dislike them in general to begin with but they are bad. The voice acting is generally pretty lame but the content is worse. The stories and especially the dialogue are usually quite painful. I hope they keep it to a bare minimum in future campaigns and simply tell the story with the missions.

In the first mission, 'Good Morning T-Stan' you are a grunt and help take over an airfield, it's pretty straightforward and a good introduction to the game. As a DayZ player I'm used to looting bodies and you can do so from your fallen comrades to get better weapons, grenades or whatever. I went up the air tower after the area was deemed 'clear' and killed a few enemies and found a GPS on an officer. It's kind of handy when you never know where your squad has taken off to.

The second part of this mission involves clearing a village with three other squad mates. You are not in control so cannot give orders and must do the best you can. Unfortunately at one point there is an enemy APC, your squad leader clearly warns you about it and marks it, either telling you or someone else to take it out. I tried sneaking up on it many, many reloads and was able to take out the gunner but for some reason your buddies line up in front of it and get mowed to pieces. If two out of the four of you die, the mission is a failure.

I tried another tactic, which was to take a rocket launcher off a dead body and shoot the APC. Again, the dead body was in direct line off fire so it's a matter of sprinting, grabbing the weapon then getting to cover. If you or your buddies didn't die in that time then you might have a monent or two to take it out if you can line it up after running so hard.

I reloaded that quite a few times. Then if you actually take out the APC, you have several other machine gunners and combatants to kill. So after many reloads and finally taking out the APC your AI buddies again don't mind lining up at the end of the street to get themselves mowed down and you start the whole thing over again. (I'd later on found out that you can change the difficulty to save at any time, default Veteran has limited saves).

The third part of that mission wasn't too bad. A time when the game shines, simple clearing of another village against infantry. Being slow and careful is mandatory. You can't really run and gun too much, or at all.

That first mission probably took me about forty reloads. That's a lot of frustration.

I have thoughts on my experience with the next two missions, 'Pathfinder' and 'Coltan Blues', one when you command three tanks and another where you try to rescue some hostages put I'll post that later. They too both suffer from the occasionally excruciatingly bad AI. When it works, it works great, when it doesn't, it's just stupid, yet I find myself coming back time and time again.

All in all, there is quite a bit of tension and things often go smoothly but are suddenly marred by of your brain dead AI buddies, to the point of tedium and almost anger and I'm normally a pretty laid back kind of guy. It's both incredibly fun and annoying at the same time. I understand that once I get the hang of it I'll be playing in co-op mode and won't have to deal with these issues but I'm stubborn and intend to finish this campaign. It does teach you a few things, how to use the Save System and how bad the AI can be at times. So far I've also been getting a lesson in a broad range of functions that this game offers, unfortunately it's because I have to re-load and repeat a lot of it so often.

I'm looking forward to finally getting online and playing the 'real' game eventually. Even though this sounds negative it's still one of my favorite finds in the last seven years or so. I've found making my own simple missions and playing them with a couple of people is actually addictive and fun. The AI functions great as an enemy but as a buddy it can be unpredictable. Great stuff if you have the patience and like a good military sim. There's many hours of fun to be had here. Most likely not in the single player campaign, I hope it gets better.

My main problem with OA campaign was that it's too piss easy, I completed it in 6 hours same day it came out and I play on Veteran. How can you even have such problems with it?

I still haven't played OA so I don't know if it's somehow different, but I don't really think the AI is that bad in Bohemia's games compared to pretty much any other tactical shooter or war game. It takes a while to learn how to cope with your squad mates' mental shortcomings (like refusing to shoot a tank from fifty meters instead of charging towards it like a moron with no sense of self-preservation) and more complex operations can involve a bit too much micromanaging, but usually your mates get the job done. As long as you keep things simple, choose the proper combat mode for every situation and tell them to return to formation every once in while, you should be fine most of the time. The AI is best suited for straightforward infantry warfare so more stealthy missions can be a bit more problematic.

Yeah, this aspect has got consistently worse with each game. Cold War Crisis was alright because it kept things simple and somewhat believeable. In Resistance you got some ridiculous moments but that wasn't a problem since the game was still pretty good. Arma was just a huge clusterfuck whereas Arma 2 had a few scripted, epic and emotional CoD moments that were pretty much the worst thing I've seen in my life. They should just go back to the more toned-down style of CWC and maybe include the news reports from Arma.

I don't know MetalKraze, having your AI repeatedly walk in front of an APC opening fire on them ending the mission. Having them walk, repeatedly into a machine gunner at the end of the street, ending the mission. Having two tanks that can't cross a ridge with a couple of tiny rocks, having to go back a kilometer, get in, drive it 50 meters and get out, repeat for the next tank, then get back in your own?

Or having those same tanks crashing into you and each other and suddenly driving over huge rocks and smashing down trees? It's been really flakey for me.

Or a good one, when you quick command most of the time to 'ALL, go to this location' it is the default, but 1 out of 20 times it defaults to 'disembark'. It's easier to reload than to go out and individually tell them all to get back in their fucking tanks.

I think it took me at least six hours just to get through all of that bullshit. Or how about the guy that keeps leaving that tank. One guy. And his legs are broken and always requesting a medic. You find him a few clicks away, and order him back in and later on he fucks off. Not sure if he's taking a piss or got shot and fell out but he doesn't like it inside tanks. I want to shoot him myself.

Anyways, that's 'Pathfinder'. Fun in other ways but extremely stupid in others, not sure you played the same game. I still enjoyed most of what I've played but man, those AI get really irritating sometimes.

Since you got me into all of this, take me on a mission sometime. I've got a clue now (or thought I did), would be nice to get some good co-op recommendations for missions or just show me how it's done. I'm usually on the Codex vent/steam. Or I'll get on UO TS, don't care.

You're the expert, show me how it's done, I'd like to try a few missions with you as this game has a lot to it and is actually really good.

There you go. I am learning how to deal with it. For example, it's best not to just sit in 'Commander Mode' of the tanks. Much better off to switch to driver and gunner as they're behaviour works most of the time but is sometimes unpredictable and it gets you killed in a second then you reload. I found sometimes it was easier just to get out of my tank, go to one of my AI tanks, drive it back to the road and they'd be fine. It drives me nuts sometimes though. So, part of this campaign/tutorial really does teach you the quirks of the AI.

This is my 'first impressions' of the OA campaign, not the game itself. Overall I think it's a blast but the SP isn't really where it's at. Let me know if you want to go on a few co-op missions.

I completed a few more missions. 'Coltan Blues' seemed kind of a straightforward rescue operation but was timed. Of course I didn't know that. You have to clear the mine, find the hostage and get the code and stop the place from blowing up. I learned it by trial and error and reloading. Plus I had trouble reading the faded out arabic numerals on the keypad. They tacked on a 'shoot four jets with the AA' at the end of it. It felt really out of place and scripted. Nothing worth replaying.

The next mission was 'Open Season'. You get to fly a chopper (AH-64 Apache) and since I'd made my own mission in the editor to practice flying a UH-1H to emulate the helicopter available in DayZ, I had my joystick setup and was familiar with the flying controls. I did have to learn how to spot targets for my gunner and shoot on my own but it was actually kind of fun. I did get blown out of the sky a few times and reloaded but eventually did clear a village take out a an enemy convoy and some AA.

Then I got hit badly but managed to crash land without killing myself. Instead of reloading, I got a new mission, to go rescue myself as I was taken captive by the enemy. (Is this C&C?)

So I went with the next one, 'From Hell'. This is actually my favourite so far. You get a Humvee and a Stryker with ten guys. The objective is to clear basically two villages and a military base and rescue the helicopter pilot being held hostage.

I did encounter some of the usual bullshit AI issues but am getting better at managing them. I find it easier just to drive them somewhere myself when I have to. For the most part they behaved well. I did reload quite a few times but not the insane amounts that I had to on the previous missions.

I often tried to use the vehicles to our advantage then would go out on foot. I didn't use a lot of trial-and-error this time, I was just very cautious and tried to take out a lot of the initial bad guys by myself. I had infrared scope and night vision goggles. Still my AI guys would still waste all their ammo on an APC or just refuse to move on occasion but seemed to act a lot smarter this time. I didn't notice them doing anything obviously suicidal.

I guess one nitpick would be that I have the thermal and the NVG's, yet I can barely see a little bit of white through the forest and both my friendly and enemy AI's are having a wonderful firefight like they're in the middle of the desert.

That only happened on one particular hill when I thought I was being clever. Regardless, the mission worked out well. Instead of reloading when taking heavy casualties I'd press on. I eventually completed all tasks and the mission successfully and had a lot of fun doing it, I might be getting better at this. Unfortunately, I only had three guys left out of my initial ten. Still, better than all dead.

I have a feeling I'm doing this wrong, as just that last mission took me at least three hours to finish. Maybe I was overly cautious and maybe I'm just not that efficient at controlling my squad yet but all in all the best one yet. I think this one would be worth playing in co-op with a few other people.

Next stop: Zargabad.

No mission ended for me because too many of my teammates died. In fact until this thread I didn't know there was a condition like that. As I've said I found OA campaign way too easy. Like a road-trip movie where you are just sight-seeing.

I'm not sure how you even managed to fail mission 1. It can't be failed. It's so easy it just can't.

Pretty nice. I never failed that mission so I didn't know there's another one.

Yes, we know you are a God among Gamers, Kraze. Some of us just have to muddle through the buggy AI and do the best we can. I've watched playthroughs on the first mission and some people don't even get an APC, or it's destroyed by an advanced squad. I'll video tape some of my missions and you can give me an AAR.

Trash, I find the enemy AI pretty good for the most part, it's challenging to say the least or maybe I just can't see how bad it is from the other side. Trying to manage convoys in ground vehicles by yourself seems to be a chore. The infantry themselves seem to behave well, most of the time. Anyways, I'm just trying to struggle through this so when I get online with a squad I'll at least have a clue about what I'm doing. I'll post some video soon.

Regardless, I'm enjoying it. The previous mission "From Hell" was a good time, at least I wasn't getting pissed off at the developers. The current one on the other hand is getting irritating....

I'm not exactly sure you know what bugs mean. AI not behaving like human is not a bug.

Welcome to the unscripted sandbox - guess you just got "lucky". I've played through that mission several times, vanilla and with mods. APC is always taken care of by AI or didn't come due to most likely getting blown up by one of the tanks..

Also Trash never played ArmA2, he just tries to get back at me for shitting on his popamole games.

The AI is amazing once you consider what's going on. But it is truly fucked at times. I think my problem is that I chose 'Veteran' for the campaign. In the current case I added a couple of things, don't remember what, don't care. Here is me trying to finish this level for the ten millionth time. I had replayed this about thirty times and still can't finish it. I did clear it once but there were no hostages. Then I failed the 'Aziz is escaping in the APC' and the game ended. This is another example of how frustrating it is. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I can't remember the last time a game pissed me off so much but I kept coming back for more. Over five hours I tell you. I'd like to see how it's supposed to be done. Like a video.

The AI in ArmA is almost non-existent. They have no situational awareness, no concept of cover, house, wall, tree, tank, door, grass, etc. They just run around like headless chicken, crouching and proning and standing up at completely random intervals and staring at walls. Their POV ignores grass and they regularly wallhack through entire towns and even hills. So next time your squad starts firing at enemies you have no idea are there that's why.

They all have the same AI too. Snipers act exactly the same as grenadiers.

The AI has no concept of self-preservation. I.e. if they see a tank they'll start firing their AR at it ... which actually works because ArmA's armor modelling is laughable - it's basically just hit points. You can't put a million AT weapons at their feet, they'll never pick it up.

The command structure is squad leader -> squad member and that's it. Squad coordination is non-existent. Squad leaders don't report to anyone and can't ask for support or anything like that.

Also lol @ calling ArmA unscripted.

Creamy you should order your gunner to observe specific positions you consider a danger as you pass them. You need to select your gunner then press and hold ALT and click where you want him to look. He will then turn the turret there.

You are also saving hostages in a completely wrong way. Your biggest mistake is that you enter the building where you know enemies are without thinking. There's a high wall around the mosque which you ignored for some reason. That's a first.

Second it must not be "crawling inside bit by bit". You must rush inside shooting shit up. Usually a good idea is to throw a smoke grenade inside. Sure you won't see shit too, but at least that will pit you against 1 enemy at once at most, not against the whole ambush (they are usually on the roof outside near the hostages). But then again - entering the mosque should be the last resort or when you are absolutely sure you can't hit anyone else from outside.

You need to ask yourself a question "will I do this in reality?" before you try to do anything in this game bro. Then it suddenly will become much less frustrating.

Events are timed in this mission. You can succeed at only one objective and you need to move really fast. There's like 20-30 min window in which you can get to hostages in time. Did you check the roof btw? Oh and you also need to take out 3 SCUDs bro. All within that 20-30 min timeframe. Good luck.

Hey, thanks for the tips, all good stuff.

I believe I cleared the walls around the Mosque but it was late and after repeating the same thing over and over you start to get impatient and make mistakes. Will definitely try that gunner trick. Nope, never checked the roof. Also going to try using a different gun, and rushing. I'll post a video when I complete the mission.

Well that explains why you never found them. Hostages are on a roof.

Note that rushing in requires some fast reflexes and precision too. Do everything you can outside to look inside (use walls) before you go in. Try grabbing some short (compared to your big clunky MG, ffs why did they give you that in a CQB mission?) assault rifle before doing that. There should be AK-47s on dead bodies and 7.62mm is what you really need since it has an awesome stopping power. FN Fal is also an awesome infantry killer (also 7.62 iirc) but it has a huge kickback.

Can the AI in ARMA cross a bridge yet?

For a long time now.

Then get it and play it? When you sucked on BF3 cock you didn't seem to mind it having shit campaign and being full of bugs which it still is.

What does it have to do with fanboyism? You read some reviews saying that 1.0 release was buggy and the Harvest Red campaign is shit (which I, a "fanboy" was saying all the time) and now keep repeating this even 3 years later.

Also compared to ArmA2 OFP has shit gameplay. What's the decline man? Better movement? Better damage and wounding system? High command that lets you command squads, not just soldiers? Better scripting allowing for missions not possible before in the series, which includes, yes, DayZ, better AI - which while being very far from being human is the best we have compared to every other shooter?

Evolution is decline?

I'm losing my mind, I've spent two days on this and it's not fun anymore. I've read a walkthrough but can't find a single video showing how someone gets through this mission on Veteran. Should I put it on faggot level? Will that even help? If anyone can show me how to do it I'll be happy. This should be a run from the beginning to the first objective but even save scumming doesn't work. I've got hours of video before and after. Not into it anymore.

I'd like to see a video of the mighty skyway doing this. Or anyone. Because I'm doing it wrong. Are the hostages a red herring? Any way that I try this mission I fail if trying to get the hostages. Am I not playing the script properly? Should I just get Aziz?

Pissed off. For the second night in a row. Video will take awhile to upload. Please give me an AAR from those that know how to play this game. I'd love to see a video walkthrough of this mission, well, here is mine.

I'm thinking that I'm not worthy of this game. I can only do so much trial and error. Leave the military to guns and the COD fags to Doom3 and all that.

Somebody show me a video of going from the beginning to rescuing the hostages. I want to see that.

Your mistake is that you're trying to play ArmA 2.

ArmA 2 isn't meant to be played - the campaign is merely a red herring so that the product can be sold as a game. The only correct way to make use of ArmA 2 is to load an empty map, put in some vehicles and weapon crates and masturbate to the detailed meshes and shaders.

No shit. This is heavily scripted. I've wasted a lot of beer and smokes on this in frustration, there is no pay-off and I'm basically angry. This is not fun. It's fun when you finally make it through a challenging level. It's not fun when you figure out it's all bullshit.

Skyway said he did the whole campaign in six hours and was a walk in the park.

I want to see a shitty 360p video of him rescuing these hostages. Not the whole mission, not the whole campaign, just getting the first stage of this done.

Put me in my place.

I feel like I've wasted two days of my life. In anger.

Just one of many:

AI has problems sure, but it does not walk through walls. While we are at it name me a game with a better AI and tell me why even more retarded AI doesn't seem to bother you in all other shooters.

WASD is too hard for you?

I thought I was a fan?

Dude honestly I don't know how can you have problems in that mosque. AI is basically forced to sit there and face one direction like some scripted dumb shit (oh Trash it will fuel your rage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTnA6AglNi8&feature=youtu.be

Well fuck. Thanks for showing me, at least I know it's just me being a retard. And you made it look easy, not sure which pisses me off more. I will try again later.

MetalCraze is a pretty good driver, watching your Dirt vidz.