In ArmA: Cold War Assault, you can be killed in one or two shots. With no minimap or radar, the only way to locate enemies is to pull out your map... and possibly die in the process. Prepare to drop dead from a headshot and literally not see it coming. You can save only once per mission. Basically, this game is uncompromisingly hardcore: even on "Cadet" difficulty, you'll fail your mission a lot. But this intensity makes the game feel realistic and rewarding. Nerve-wracking, but fun and potentially addicting. While the campaign is linear, with objectives that must be completed in order and little room for experimentation, it takes place in huge maps. The view distance is super impressive. When you're not fighting for your life (which is rare), you can enjoy the idyllic scenery. What's great is that outside of the campaign, these open-ended maps become your sandbox. You can create your own missions and situate them anywhere you want. Like that village over there? How about designing a scenario where one team defends it from an attacking force? Unfortunately, the game's not perfect. I highly recommend you install the unofficial patch, ArmA Resistance. Otherwise, you may face game-breaking bugs. For example, in one mission, your squad is supposed to get in a truck and drive to an evacuation point. But if your AI-controlled allies decide not to drive, they'll instead try to go there on foot, running across the map (but turning back halfway and running back to where you came from). This patch makes the missions and scripted events work properly.
The narrative of this game was cliched, the tropes uninspired. I did not enjoy playing through it.
I didn't enjoy this game because I couldn't relate to the characters, none of whom resemble me. In this sort of game—story-rich adventure or however you want to describe it—it's important that the characters be sympathetic so that you can find the narrative engaging and meaningful. House Party didn't do that for me.
With the ray tracing effects this is an interesting hybrid of antiquated 90s 3D modeling and next-gen dynamic shadows, lighting, and reflections. I was able to get 60 fps with a Ryzen 5700 and GeForce 3060. If you have an Nvidia RTX card, this game is a great way to put it to the test. The only downside for me was the game would often crash when saving/loading.
Though the upbeat music concept has wide appeal, this is no casual game. You have only 3 hit points, which are easily knocked off, and once you die you restart at the very beginning of the game. Your character's fragility eventually compels you to restart the level whenever you lose 0.5—1 HP early on, and over time this causes frustration.
This game has earned a reputation as being a classic CRPG, and I'm impressed by the vastness of the world and its settlements (e.g., The Hub). One flaw, though, is the game's inadequate proofreading: many a time I came across misspellings, missing/extra punctuation, and other typos in the game's text. Of course these errors do not hinder gameplay in any direct way, but they nevertheless make the game not as perfect or polished as it could be.
