Thinky stuff: Armed Assault 2, the behemoth to be

Armed Assault 2 is slated for a June 19th release worldwide.  For most, this game will be passed up on the shelf for other blockbusters also being released around that period.  Only a select few will actually either go out of their way to pick this up or be brave enough to give it a go.

Why?  

Armed Assault is like Microsoft's Flight Simulator.  For most, it is that game in the clouds that are meant for the hardcore guys whose idea of a good time is sitting in a ditch for two hours with a gun in their hands.  Or spending hours on end, setting up a flight and being a make-believe pilot.

It fulfills a niche market of gamers that like their military games hardcore, realistic and simulator-like.  Of what little time I spent with Armed Assault, I was researching on the Net and came across interesting communities made up of either ex-military, or military nuts who spend their weekends coming up with elaborate campaigns for its members, complete with pre-mission briefings, training, and then the actual execution.

For the rest of us, we instantaneously get cut down by enemy fire in the first five minutes of the game and turn it off, choosing to play the Call of Duties and Brothers in Arms of the world.  Games that pat you on the back and say, "It's alright, you're amazing at shooting games" instead of Armed Assault, which has no time for you "casual" gamers.  The keyboard controls alone were definetly more than just WASD, overwhelming, but showed the flexibility offered in real military combat.

Armed Assault 2 promises 4-man drop-in drop-out co-op, open-world combat, more vehicles to tinker around with, the ability for you to be an ordinary soldier al the way to commander with its RTS-lite elements where you command squads - a cross from what I've read, between Brothers in Arms and Company of Heroes.  But most importantly, a level editor that will blow anything else before out of the water.

Apparently it is drag and drop; with the click of a mouse, you'll instantly populate a flat terrain with villages, hills, swamps, cows, and tractors, and anything you'd care for.  Suddenly, making a campaign for your friends is a cinch.  None of that fiddly scripts-heavy stuff like in Neverwinter Nights 2.  

It could be too intense for those looking for a no-brainer experience.  

But at the same time, if you are like me, striving for gaming Nirvana, such a game as Armed Assault cannot be passed up.  It is that behemoth that will not be easily tamed, a beast of both beauty and punishment.  It'll probably give me as hard a time as the original one did, and I may find myself too weak to keep trying, but it is a game, if pulled-off right will change the face of military simulators forever.

Why do I say this?  Bohemia Interactive is giving a lot more in this game than the first one ever did, from the little details about intel needing to be gathered from civilians, to requiring translators for the US Army in a foreign country, to the obvious combat elements such as rate of fire and weight, etc.  It is that realistic game that we all say we want but no game developer has the guts to make, because it is just not a profitable end for a mass market.

But these Bohemia dudes are going that route.  They are going to build "that game", and it'll be talked for eons if they get it right.  Granted, Armed Assault was a buggy game vanilla, and it required a lot of patches, and community mods to be playable at the very least, but till this day, there are fully-grown men who are lost in imaginary worlds executing assaults or recons, and feeling nearly as much machoism as being in the real military can provide.

It is interesting to note that at the same time this game is in development, so to is Codemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.  Another military simulator that hopes to blow realism out of the water, and this will be a formidable rival what with Operation Flashpoint being the household name for military awesome.  When I have more information on this, I'll make comparisons, but for now, all eyes are on the underdog Armed Assault 2.

This is a game for the fans definetly.  But it is also a game for a new generation of gamers that show off their versatility in interest; the ones that may not be so into military simulators, but at least should give it a try and say, "Yes, this is how hardcore games can be, and I may suck at it, but at least I tried it.  It is as legendary as they say it is."

Because, I'd hate to see that such a behemoth remain in the dark, unnoticed by the world because it is not ready for such brilliance.  Oh, and did I mention the graphics is amazing?  Here's to hoping Bohemia first and foremost fulfills my expectation that this will be genius.