America's Army

"Frills? Check. Fun? Check. Fragfest? No. This game is almost perfect"

Your tax dollars have done their job.
This game is everything but a fragfest, you have to work with your squadron and lead tactful assaults, this game has everything.. You can be a sniper, grenadier, soldier... anything that the army uses. You lead invasions, cutting off the head off the snake before it can strike. A slower paced version of Counterstrike, and a less tedious version of Rainbow Six. This game has every element to become the best shooter ever.

Description
This is a tactical first person shooter put out by the U.S. government in order to educate and promote army tactics. The game is free and can be obtained at www.AmericasArmy.com
The game puts you in Basic Training, where you can accomplish certain goals to go straight into action, or go to paratrooper or sniper school. Further installments will include Medical School to become a medic.

Sound: 10/10
Being as the game is directly from the army, they alread know all the commands and sounds for real life combat. They hear grenades explode and bullets whiz by their heads. They have recorded everything realistically down to the Radio Communication presets by a real Drill Seargent. Each team's guns even have a distinctive noise, and with practice you can operate with a perfect balance of sight and hearing.

Visuals: 9
In comparison to it's largest competitor, CounterStrike, the AA visuals blow it's opponent away. The character models are true to their real life correspondents, and each gun looks as it would in person. The animation is smooth, there are only two problems, opponents can be hard to distinguish from allies, and the “no backpack” trait for enemies can be hard to stop from the front, and friendly fire can and probably will occur because of this. As for setting, the visuals completely distinguish every mood. There’s a thick mist hanging over a bridge, and flipped over cots have their shadows flickering on the wall. camouflage looks real, and blends in to some environments.

Controls: 10
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The standard WASD keyboard and mouselook combination controls are already tested and true, but there is still innovation to the game. Everything is centralized around the left hand: weapon selection, movement, stance... the most important are closer. Fortunately the “Q” key is not used, so you can program it to what you want. There are keys that put you in the crouching and prone (laying down) positions, and there are a list of pre rendered army commands that allow you to communicated via radio with fewer key strokes, allowing you to communicate and concentrate; this is a huge plus in FPS (first person shooters) where you are always moving and must always be aware of your surroundings. The best function is a key set to automatically radio in on your exact position. This allows you to always know where your team mates are and also allows you to call for backup more easily.

Variety: 8
The largest flaw in the entire game is the lack of more options for class system in the game, and the small number of extremely good maps. With a lack of a map editing too, no fans of the game can create levels of their own to tear up. The lack of medics up until version 1.8 is also a con to deal with.

Rent or Buy?: N/A
The best part of this game is... It’s free. It’s completely playable, and not a demo. The game can be obtained from www.americasarmy.com and was put out by the US Government as an information source for the Army. Even if you only have a 56k connection, I highly recommend you download this game. It’s worth 19 hours.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/03, Updated 05/25/03