Arma 2: Unforgiving

Having taken a break after the rigours of reviewing HOI3, I thought I would have a go at a very different type of wargame, Arma 2. (By the way, you have to enter your birth date before you can access the site, a check I seem to have passed...)

Here my first impressions:

• Looks great - I'm running it on the highest settings, with just a little slowdown in some areas where there are buildings. Can be fun just getting your squad to drive you around in the Hummer, while you enjoy the view.
• Steep learning curve, not helped by the (standard these days) hopeless manual - search the forum for advice (note that you have to register to be able to search).
• Some bugs - like many others, I couldn't 'trigger' the end of the first mission of the campaign, having to resort to going to the console (left-shift + numpad minus) and typing 'endmission'. Not good.
• Having said that, the restrictive objectives of that mission are mostly gone on the next mission, where you are given a free hand to look for a particular enemy - the game really takes off at this point.
  
• Lastly, and I can't emphasise this enough, the game is UNFORGIVING. If you expose yourself to the enemy YOU WILL BE KILLED, period. What is more, there is none of this running around for health packs - you might have time before you die to get another squad member to heal you, but probably not. And if you think that saving often is the answer, the game only gives you a limited number of save slots, so choose wisely.

I found the game so frustrating at first, with its steep learning curve and unforgiving nature, that I very nearly gave up and wiped it from my hard drive. I'm glad I persevered as, despite its faults, Arma 2 is clearly a great game, and a step-up in realism from the usual action shooters.