"If you're sick of hacker-plagued games like Counterstrike and don't want to pay any cash, this could be the game for you"

Last summer, the US Army released a tactical online-only shooter for the PC, titled America's Army. It was plagued by glitches, but it was free, and many grew to like it. 7 patches later, the game has evolved into one of the most popular games in it's Genre.

There are 3 ways to get America's Army, first, if you have a good connection, you can download the huge full install. If you can find a US Army recruiter, you can pick up a disc from him/her, or you can order a disc off of the Internet. After creating an account at AmericasArmy.com, the first thing you get to do is......OFFLINE TRAINING, yay. You'll have pass a shooting range test, controls test, operations test, and a special weapons test before you can play the first online mission, which is actually a training mission using MILES. MILES is a laser firing system used in several AAO maps that emits beeps when fired upon by anothr MILES weapon. MILES games are loud, and you'll be glad to move on so you can stop listening to the annoying blips and beeps. As you get into the REAL missions, you'll probably favor some over others. The objectives can range from opening a locked door to escape from an enemy squad, to stopping terrorists from crossing a bridge. On any mission, you'll notice that no matter what side you choose, everyone on your team will look like US soldiers, and everyone on the enemy team will look like AK-47 clad terrorists. This can get to be a problem, because in this game, AK-47s do the exact same ammount of damage as the standard M-16s issued to your squad. This might not seem like a problem at first, because it's a challenge. In a packed game running the Bridge map, you'll have 2 teams of soldiers consisting of infantrymen with M-16s, 2 infantrymen with M203 grenade launchers on their M16s, 2 snipers, and 2 SAW gunners. A plethora of problems will come up because it often seems like the enemy's AK47 (M16 to them) took you out with few shots, while it can take you a full clip to take out one enemy with your M16. Another problem is the inaccurate combat effectiveness meter, when you're crouched, the meter will be slightly more full than if you were standing, and if you're crawling with your M16 Iron sights up, the meter will be full. The combat effectiveness meter is basically an Accuracy meter, but for some reason, you can be crouched in front of a door with Iron sights up, but an enemy can still come in and mow you down in seconds, without you doing any damage to him.
Compatibility can be a problem for PC users, as the game has pretty high requirements. Recently, the game was released for the Mac, but then again, there's not a whole lot of people who buy Macintosh computers to play games.
Visually, the game shines. The textures are vibrant and the lighting is incredible in some maps. The smoke grenade effects are nice too. And even on a 56K modem, the game doesn't lag much.
There are a few little nuiances in the game that might get on your nerves, the first being the chat system, which replaces the word ''camp'', with ''use tacics''. ''Hey GunMan14, climb up into the tower and use tactics!'', yeah, like he's really gonna know what the hell you just told him to do. Another problem is the people you're playing with. Often times, a new player can't ask how to put up supports on a sniper rifle without being called a ''n00b'' and being told to leave the game. Yet another problem, is the lack of missions, and a map editor. In all there's about 12 missions to play, some of them let you parachute* in at the start, while some don't. *= Did I mention that there's a seperate offline training scenario for Airborne training and Sniper Training?
America's Army is also STILL VERY HACKABLE as with any game, but the hacks often arent detected by official servers, and aimbots and hacking programs aren't hard to find through search engines.
Overall, America's Army : Operations may be far from perfect, but it sure is a bang for your buck. Wait? What? The game is free? EVEN BETTER! Far more tactical than any other PC game aronud.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/03, Updated 07/21/03