America's Army

America's Army was a game made by the Army with your tax dollars as a blatant attempt to get game fanatics into the army. While this did require Tax Dollars, its free, so I suppose some of the cost out of your pocket is saved. Anyway, its obvious this game was made in order to get shooter fans into the army, and this is my review.

First of all, getting this game is kinda a pain in the ass. While I'm used to long download times on things like Bit Torrent, this forces you to wait at least 20 minutes on Cable internet for a d*** download. That's not a big issue: the issue is that you have to sign up in a long process to get an account for this game. However, its no worse than a free MMO, so whatever.

When you boot up this game, you can go through a training thingamajig. Because I'm a true gamer, I decided to go through all this for you. The first levels are simple: shoot this target, crawl under this barbed wire, etc. The other challenges are a little different.

There are four other specific groups to train under: Marksman, Paratrooper, Medic, and Special Forces. Sounds simple? You'd think so. To get Marksman, you... wait. It didnt even give me the option. "Unavailable". Talk about a "Complete" game. For Paratrooper, you do two drops, one from a tower, one from a plane. While the tower one is laughably easy, it took me about a million times to get the plane drop, because the game apparently hates control, and won't let you steer your parachute very well, if at all.

The medic catagory is so horrible, it needs its own paragraph. What do you think this involves?
A. Practicing which buttons to push to heal your allies
B. Listening to a 30 minute diatribe on clearing airways
C. Reading a stupid manual.



Got your guess? Its B. I got SO BORED, that I left my PC, got some food, ate it, came back, and "Detective dips***", my instructor, was STILL talking. Then, I made my character stand up (Detective dips*** told me to sit down, I ignored him), jumped on the table, and promptly got kicked out of the level. Talk about boring. If you can sit through this, god help you.

The Special Forces catagory should be filled with fun tests like the opening parts of Splinter Cell, right?

Wrong again. First off, you talk with 8 members of some fake SF team who tell you their positions, right after they speak it to you in the foreign language of their choice (To prove they can, I assume). Then, they spend 5 minutes telling you about their job.

THEN, you go into a building and get talked to about identifying different tanks, choppers, and planes. More fun! You sit and listen to a guy talk about how the propellers work on a chopper. While this sounds like fun, it seems like the developers spent a special amount of time making sure it was as boring as possible. Who the hell cares about the difference in wheels of a d***ed tank?

The game itself isnt half bad, once you get past the stupid stuff. The game itself feels like a very clunky Counter Stike without the whimsy and polish- and without any good players. The servers are full of people running around firing off bullets and being general idiots. To prove, the first round I played, I was better than EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE SERVER. Every round, I'd be appointed squad commander. If anyone's ever played any shooter game with me, you know that I SUCK at shooters! It just makes no sense.



The weapons are absolute s***. You'd think of all things in this game, that the army would have a good portion of this game devoted to cool weapons. However, you get stuck with the M16A1 more often than not, and when you're not using that, you're probably using a s***ty shotgun or the M16A1... with a scope. Of course, the scope doesnt help much, because all of the weapons are super-innacurate.

The game controls are horribly set out. Instead of being like a normal game and setting it up so normal shooter fans can play it, they opt to use a new keyset. I might end up setting up the keys to a different setting- anyone who sets CTRL to be a second fire button is a FREAKING IDIOT. Anyone who doesnt allow scroll mouse control for the weapons is a FREAKING IDIOT. Anyone who sets it up where you have to double tap then hold W to run s a FREAKING IDIOT. Anyone who sets it up where the scope is X and right click changes mode... for a sniper rifle is AN IDIOT. Get the idea?

However, in its plus, the graphics are awesome. If I was playing this on a better computer (I'm on an old Gateway until my new PC comes in), I'd really be able to say this. However, any screenshot glance at this game will prove it looks really really good. Maybe not Half Life 2 or Doom 3 quality, but rather a Rainbow 6 meets SWAT 4 quality. Impressive for a free game. Oh yeah, its not, my taxes went to it.

Overall, this game sucks. While it would be a great addition to any "budget gamer" depository, this is NO WAY a replacement for a decent game like CS:Source. This would be a perfect game for you guys who spent too much on a good computer but have no cash, or you guys who have a s*** computer and NO cash (It scales down somewhat well). Plus, its another thing to add to your Game Spy Arcade/XFire list, but never a real replacement.

2 star(s) out of 5

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