"Future Depends on the DEVS!!"

This might be a long review, so I'm going to try to split it up into several sections to make it easier for browsing.

GAME PLAY-
The gameplay in americas army is great for a FPS, It's one of the most realistic games that I've ever played, and the army keeps striving to make it more and more realistic. The only game play problem I can see is evening out the levels. In other FPS I've played, such as tribes I & II, & Unreal. there was no argument that the levels were equal, b/c most of the time, they were basically the same on each side. But since this is realism, Defence and Assult start in different areas, which sometimes makes it very difficult for assult, or very difficult for defence.

ATTITUDE OF DEVS
The game developers (refered to as the DEVS by the AAO community) have this, Take it or Leave it attitude. And they don't like critism of their game. Suggestions are usually either ignored, or flammed on the forums. And the DEVS have this blatent Hitler-esk attitude. For example, the idea that this game is Free. It is free to us in the sence that we don't have to fork out $40 when we download the game, But the US government is paying very good money for them to develop this game. SO if you are paying taxes, you are paying for this game. The Developers need to lighten up a bit, I understand they're all military, and a relaxed attitude by someone in the military is an oxymoron. This game is being created for the public, so I suggest listening a little more when they make well thought out, sinceer suggestions.

CHEATERS

THis is a problem in any Multiplayer FPS(first person Shooter), but in this FPS, they have set up a set of guidelines to try and prevent cheaters. The only problem is, they won't tell anyone how to detect a cheater, they only say: ''if you think someone is cheating, report them''

The reporting process is absolutley ridiculous. Half the time it takes over 10 min to actually get to speak to someone (a server admin). And after you get to talk to them they usually say ''Ok I'll go check it out''. But the majority of the time that is it. Sometimes the person isn't cheating and they check it out, and nothing happens. But I have been on servers where I know for a fact a guy is cheating, I report them, they admin says ''I'll check it out, the guy continues to cheat and nothing ever happens''
At first the Admins starting banning and booting everyone that look suspicious. Now it seems like the guy has to practically fly through the map to get detected as a cheater.

Cheating in AAO is so common place now, and the DEVS act like it doesn't happen. If you mention cheats on a forum your thread is bound to get lock down. There is NO free flow of information about this game on the Army's Forum.

Most will find that is easy to Join the cheating population if you like the game, instead of trying to fight it.

The DEVS also refuse to tell anyone how THEY detect if someone is cheating. The reasoning is that if they told us then this would allow for cheaters to avoid being detected even more. From my experience with the gov't I believe that they don't have a way of detecting cheaters other than watching them, and making an educated guess if they're cheating or not. But they make the AAO community think that the cheating problem is being delt with.

They DEVS told the community a while ago that they were going to be intergrating a cheat detecting program into the code of the next patch. But that instead of spending their time doing this, they were going to be preparing for E3.

So instead of servicing the loyal community they alreay have, they are spending time trying to make their game look better at E3. Seems to me the DEVS have their priorities mixed up a bit. Instead of just patching out the cheats, they are allowing it to go on, as long as they feel like.

It's understandable that no matter what this will be a problem, but allowing it to go on unchecked has ruined the game for the past 3-4 months. While the DEVS spend time tweaking stuff like grenade throwing, and making new maps, and us playing are getting shot in the head at 300 yards by a guy with an M16, through fog and behind a tree.

Release some map making programs, require that all maps be approved by the DEV team, and start working on some REAL issues!

If this game has a future, it's up to the DEVS to make sure they adress the cheating issue head on, no double speak, no bs, just straight up! If not, this game will be plagued with cheats forever.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/03, Updated 05/21/03