Arma: Armed Assault is the spiritual successor to Bohemia Interactive's Flashpoint game, which changed the name due to legal issues with BI's previous publisher - Codemasters. Name aside, Arma plays and feels much like OFP, with the same radio commands, the same clunky movement animations, and even the same AI features. To me, the similarity is more of an advantage since the game can be notoriously complex and non-user-friendly. Strangely enough, I didn't experience a lot of bugs, except for the AI... Like honestly, the friendly AI is braindead to the point of it being easier to Switch teams and do everything yourself instead of waiting for these idiots to respond. At the same time, the enemies can magically spot and kill you from across the map or not notice you within two meters - it's infuriating. Storywise, the game offers some variability, letting you play the missions in the order you choose, which will influence the plot and the difficulty of some objectives. It is a welcome change to the standard formula, but the story and characters are nowhere near as interesting as in Operation Flashpoint. For the story, I suggest Queen's Gambit, which is shorter and much more exciting and memorable than the main plot. The music is generic, and the voiceovers are fine, I guess, but the acting doesn't carry the weight of the story, so it doesn't look believable. Overall, this game deserves some love, even though the multiplayer is long dead, but the maps are great, the gameplay feels familiar, and the sense of freedom it provides is incredible. It's a slow burner, but if you have the patience, it is worth your time and money!
Arma: Cold War Assault is the re-released version of Operation Flashpoint originally developed by Bohemia Interactive back in 2001. It is an oldie but a goodie. From a 2023 standpoint, some of the game's mechanics look dated, but overall, Arma CWA has stood the test of time. The graphics are dated, but you stop caring after a couple of hours. What is harder to oversee is the clunkiness, the bugs, and the optimization issues, of which still plenty remain. For example, I found it impossible to run the game on its Highest settings on a 20- series RTX card and a 9th Gen Intel i7 CPU with 16Gb of RAM and an SSD some 24 years post-release! Some missions were outright broken and couldn't be finished without changing the settings because the game kept crashing (i.e., Maverick). At least it natively supports wider screen resolutions, which is a godsend. The FOV didn't bother me, but I think you can change that either in the game menu or with a command line. The physics engine is goofy and broken sometimes, but not to the point that it's distracting. Overall, Arma: Cold War Assault remains highly playable and addictive from start to finish, with a fantastic sense of freedom and a tactical approach to combat. The AI is stupid, but the friendly units can be very useful if used properly. The voice acting is solid across the board, and the radio commands are legendary at this point, so there is no reason not to use them. The game seemed crushingly difficult back in the day, and there is still a learning curve to it, but you can get good fairly quickly and enjoy the sandbox. By the way, if the game is too slow, with "+," you can enjoy it 2x or 4x faster;)
