Review | ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead

2009 saw the release of ARMA II which, with Operation Flashpoint – Dragon Rising, set a new standard in the army simulation shooter genre. And while not having the sort of commercial impact of a Modern Warfare 2, but then again what does, ARMA II carved out its own niche and fanbase in the crowded shooter market.

But the original game did let some players down with a less than consistent single player campaign and a somewhat limited online experience. Roll around 2010 and roll around the stand-alone semi-sequel, ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead.

The good news is that ARMA II – Operation Arrowhead improves in almost every way over the original. But, and there is a but, that still might not be enough for gamers that favour brute force and twitchy reactions over a complex and intricately created control system.

One of the first things to notice about Operation Arrowhead is the love that’s been put into creating the world and the inhabitants within it. The attention to detail is staggering, going into so much detail you can almost smell the gun oil and taste the sand as it whips across the desolate mountains. Providing you have a machine with enough grunt to run it, and it’s a hell of a lot of grunt, Arrowhead is a superb looking beast.

Players return to the fictional world of Takistan, the setting for the first game, as the unstable country becomes even more precarious and join the coalition forces lead by the US army to establish some sort of order in this chaotic land.

Fighting against your Russian-backed enemies, players will find themselves confronted with and using a vast array of state-of-the-art weapons and vehicles. The US armed forces are represented extraordinarily well, with an amazing range of ridiculous weapons to drool and kill over. Indeed the game almost goes so far to act as an active piece of propaganda for the US army, with a wondrous array of toys with which to wage the terrible art of war.

Operation Arrowhead takes some time to adjust to when compared to the looser and more straight-forward shooters in the market. While not having as steep a learning curb as Dragon Rising, Arrowhead is a subtle game where careful application of the right tactics is favoured over launching head-on into an enemy compound.

What made it even more difficult for this reviewer was playing it straight off the back of previewing the upcoming balls-to-the-wall shooter from Sega, Vanquish, which actively encourages players to throw caution to the wind recklessly. Not an easy adjustment to make…

Throw in a reasonably robust multiplayer experience, although be prepared for some rather interesting modes, including an exploration one (hint: don’t kill anyone) and mix with a mission editor and Operation Arrowhead is extremely good value and really only limited by your imagination.

While the game is excellent in most cases it still has a few details and bugs that take away from the overall experience and is probably a reflection that Bohemian Interactive, while managing to do an amazing job, doesn’t have the budget of an Infinity Ward.

The AI still suffers from a slight mental retarded edge as it can drive tanks like a Chinese motorway (but hey at least it’s consistent). And the sheer amount of horsepower and patience required to master the game at a decent framerate can be a little off-putting.

So ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead certainly isn’t for everyone, certainly not for inpatient gamers. But give it a chance and a few hours of your time and it can be magic. Detailed, in-depth, challenging and above all, rewarding. Operation Arrowhead is the perfect update to the ARMA II franchise and a great way to get into the series.      [8]