America's Army:Rise of a Soldier Impressions

[Teal]

Fellas:

Jumped into this one last night while some of you were slugging it out in Flashpoint, having to stop to hear PK's screaming endorsement of it via Invite Message(still can't decide if it was euphoria or Labatt Blue that was driving the hollering ), and at the end of the night, I was...confused.

Confused because I wasn't sure what it was that was disconcerting to me. America's Army:Rise of a Soldier is a game of real progression-starting military life as a grunt who doesn't know s***, and theoretically training him ultimately to become a lethal Special Forces machine. It works well in theory, and, as I've found out now that I've made Corporal, works well in practice.

AA is a different type of game. Things that gamers take for granted in most other shooters (rock steady aiming, sniping with ease, using any weapon like a pro) have to be learned and earned in America's Army. When you first look down the barrel of your M16 in combat, it looks like what it would if Joe Blow picked one up and did the same-it's much harder to squeeze off an accurate shot than it looks, or than most games portray it. But as you raise your skill in marksmanship, your aim gets better. That is, until a grenade or mortar drops near your position.

That's when your aim goes to hell, as your breathing increases in labor, you get rattled, and you couldn't draw a bead on a barn. BUT as you increase your honor skill, you are able to get back in the fight more quickly. Your leadership skill will enable you to have men trust you as it rises. Your skill in perception helps you identify targets faster. But all this has to be earned, and it takes some time. I like that.

My problem from the outset was that I was trying to play this like Ghost Recon. But in that game, you start as a Ghost-you're a badass. Here, you're a Private. It should make a difference, and it does.

AA is a game that requires you to work as a team. In fact, if you get too far from your team for too long, you are declared AWOL and it's mission over, which is fine, because you'll be dead anyway in a few seconds. Everybody needs everybody else.

Online is not something I'm willing to comment on yet, because all I've been able to do is run around in a map or two. I was ready to write off Live play, and then we hit a map that changed that. It was very fun.
You are rewarded for solid play by ranking up and becoming team leader, or a specialist in online as well. Your offline rankings do not count, which is nice. Everyone starts out as a grunt. Your abilities increase with play, and you can eventually carry a SAW, sniper rifle, or be a grenadier.

Now that I'm beginning to understand what Ubisoft was after, I'm having more fun with it. If you like military shooters, and were wondering if it's for you, I'd recommend it. Online is still an unknown, but with more playtime I'll be able to comment on it more.

Anyway, recommended...

[ExtremeGamer]

My whole issue with this game is... it's free on the PC!

[Wrekcut1]

I posted this on another site and thought I would add it here.

I tried the game out last night. Single Player I absolutely loved. Teamwork galore here, you constantly have to cover each other, to the point where if you leave your group and start exploring off by yourself and get pretty far from them the mission will be over and you will fail. I really like and am impressed with the SP. The ranking, surprisingly to me, is done very well. You start off the game as a boot, brand new to the army and your skills on the battlefield show this. If you are getting suppressed by gunfire you will definitely have a hard time firing back, as your aim will be very wild due to the heavy breaths your are taking and the swaying of the gun. Your aim will be kind of poor at first, but you will be able to improve it. All the skills we take for granted in most of the games we play online, start out at a very low level in this game, but you will be able to upgrade them pretty easily just by playing.

For the Multiplayer aspect, the ranking up and skills are setup the exact same way, but you do have an online profile and an offline profile, so whatever you achieve offline will not carryover. When I first got online Ortho and I joined a random room and just tried to figure out what was going on. It turned out the map we first started with wasn't the best learning map and I was pretty disappointed with the MP and was really ready to go back and play the SP. We stayed in this room for a while, getting our asses handed to us until the host quit.

I was very disappointed so far with the game, but decided to try out some other rooms. This is where I started enjoying myself alot more. I joined room in that was playing a warehouse mission, one team was defending two weapon caches and the team needed to take pictures of both of them. This room wasn't so wide open and allowed me to actually experiment and figure out how everything worked without getting crushed by the enemy. In this room, the team I was on used teamwork pretty well. We broke off into teams of two and entered the warehouse from different sides and anytime we came across the lone patrol of the other team, the 1 person by himself on the other team almost had no chance against two of us. I liked that. It really encourages you to stay in teams.

I ended up staying in this room for quite a while and we ended up winning most of the rounds, because we were using constant communication with each other and covered all the points even when we were on defense. This is where the bug started to hit me. I was really starting to enjoy myself and didn't want to put it down. I ended up playing in quite a few different rooms last night and the common denominator was that the squad the played the best as a TEAM almost always won.

The way the rooms break down are on each map there are 8 open slots for each team and you have to pick the position you want to play as. Such as Squad leader, team leader, grenadier, rifleman, automatic rifleman, spec ops and so on. Your experience points come into play here. You can only pick a position that you have enough experience points to fill. Don't worry though, even if you don't have enough experience points to pick some of the higher groups and all the lower ones are filled you will still be able to play, when the game starts. It will put you in a position that noone chose(usually the higher experience needed ones) so alot of times you end up with better weapons because you get the higher ranked players slots.

I've got to end this now....this post is way too long. Overall I really like the game. The biggest downside I see is that there is no COOP online. After playing the SP that is something I really wanted to do, but after I got over that. The MP ended up being pretty good and is growing on me the more I play it. Before I quit playing last night, I got my rank up to "Specialist" and was able to play as the "Automatic Rifleman". I loved it. This was the first time I have ever enjoyed playing with a SAW. Great Great fun.

BTW the graphics looked good to me.

What I realized in the end is that my original dissapointment online was that, all I wanted to play was CO-OP online. Once I got over that and started taking it for what it was, I had a great time.

[pk500]

Teal:

It wasn't Labatt's Blue last night. It was pure euphoria, blended with a mix of Saranac Pale Ale and Black Velvet and Coke. (Separate drinks, of course).

AA sounds fun. I'll give it a rent if my local store gets it. But I'm so blown away by Flashpoint that I can't see myself buying another shooter for a couple of months or more.

Take care,
PK

[Teal]

Teal:

It wasn't Labatt's Blue last night. It was pure euphoria, blended with a mix of Saranac Pale Ale and Black Velvet and Coke. (Separate drinks, of course).

Take care,
PK

And I thought I knew how to make a Suicide...


I concur with Wrek's assessment completely. Read it this morning over at 0c and couldn't agree more. Sitting here taking the day off playing it more, and liking it more...

[Teal]

Here's one for realism I forgot to mention: Firing weapons. You have to 'feather' the trigger for best accuracy, just as in real life. If you jam on the trigger, you aren't going to hit squat. The triggers are analog, so deftly touching the fire trigger as you aim at a bogey is the best way to go. If you don't take it easy, you'll raise your sights at the last moment by pulling back on the trigger hard and overshoot the target.

Very cool...