Review: America's Army 3

I do my bit to defend world peace. By enlisting in the army! That's right, the US Army - the most hardcore and elite fighting force in the world.

But I didn't want to, you know, break a sweat, so I downloaded America's Army 3 instead. Read of my adventures BELOW THE CUT!

(That's right folks, I figured out how to do cutty cuts. LiveJournal thinks only they are privy to such powerful technology, but with some tech know-how, even Blogspot can have WMDs. Also, notice the changes to the layout).

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You won't find this game on anyone's top 2009 list, but why does it still please some people?

It's like that other hardcore military sim - Armed Assault 2. Mainstream folk stay away from it because its highly buggy, has wonky animations and a cumbersome interface. But masochistic gamers who love realism and dying often, and shooting that is not as simple as pointing the cross-hair over the enemy and squeezing the trigger, finds the game rather epic.

America's Army 3 is for that kind of people. Maybe you're one of them. But the rest of us would be scratching our heads, bored stiff, or just plain pissed at the way the game handles "gameplay".


America's Army 3, for those who still don't have a clue what it's about, is a military sim FPS, that's a cross between Counter-Strike in its multiplayer stylings, and Armed Assault 2 for realism. It's also a propaganda tool for the US Army to show curious kids what the army is like, and maybe even recruit a few in the process. And its entirely free.

It's got two game modes. A training simulator that's supposed to be exactly like what new army recruits go through, from the obstacle course, to live fire training exercises. Except instead of getting us into shape, it's just a matter of WASD-ing through bits of wood placed strategically in our path, and clicking a mouse button to pretend-shoot at some pretend-targets. And pretend-healing people is just holding spacebar till they are healed. I say this ever so cynically because as "realistic" as they try to make it, there's still this dumb realization that we are just "pretending" to be all military training-like.

And the graphics are horrible. Although it's supposedly rendered in the Unreal 3 engine, it is nowhere near the graphic fidelity of UT, Bioshock, Gears of War, or the likes. It looks more like Call of Duty 1 and 2, and not 4 or 5. Well, I really had no clue what to expect from the "US Army" as a video games developer, but obviously this is not their forte.


The game also can't handle resolutions higher than 16:9, 1280x800! Which means it couldn't do my PC's 1365x768 16:10 res; making the screen a square with black bands on either side. And even then, it was still horribly blown up and pixelated. I have a pet peeve with video games in this day and age that still have problems handling resolutions - games like Prototype (which I destroyed in my review, might I add). So minus a point for America's Army 3.

Controls are standard WASD but the animations feel clunky, and the movement stilted. Also, this is nitpicking, but I like my rag-doll physics to look real cool when I kill somebody, but it doesn't look good at all in AA3. When people get shot, they curl up in fetal position, slowly expiring until someone rescues them or puts a bullet in their head. There are plenty of ways that could've been done better - they only had to look at Left 4 Dead for inspiration. Plus, America's Army 2 had better rag-doll physics and people died floppily. That was pretty fun to watch. This new way of dying isn't fun at all.

But the main gripe I had with the game is its hit detection system. Many agree with me that despite having an enemy right in their sights, they still can't seem to hit the bugger. AA3's loyalists will say it's because of the game's realistic bullet trajectory system, meaning it's not so easy to hit an enemy, you have to aim above their head slightly, blah blah.


When you do make a kill however, it feels highly rewarding, but only because you spent the last five hours having not killed anybody. Also, when you do kill someone, they don't tell you! If you shot an enemy a kilometer away, you can't really tell if they died or not, and it's only after the round ends can you see if you killed anybody.

Combine that with the hit-detection issue, after the round ends, I'm sure expletives will be flying from your mouth because you thought you killed that guy, but in actual fact, the game says you hadn't. After awhile, it's extremely frustrating even for the most patient of gamers.

Sure, some of you may say I'm really spoilt thanks to the super unrealistic nature of Modern Warfare 2, which is basically a bunch of hamsters scurrying about maps shooting each other in the face. Running and gunning with weapons which would otherwise be impossible in real life due to recoil and weight.

And yet, America's Army 3 still has quite a few dedicated servers running which are pretty well populated with enthusiasts. So maybe I'm being unfair to the game, or I'm just a pretty bad shot. But this bad business doesn't stop here.


The game's developers promised an experience system akin to Modern Warfare 2's, with weapon upgrades, unlocks, and generally lots of goodies for the dedicated player. But for the duration I played, I hardly saw any progress in my character development. And there are definitely bits and pieces still missing.

New training sections are in perpetual "coming soon", and there are weapon modules still to be implemented. Right now, the game is pretty bare bones. Everyone has to use an M16 rifle or heavy machine gun, whether you like it or not. There are no attachments other than different scopes/sights either. And how come no one carries a sidearm? Modern Warfare 2 really looks like gun porn in comparison.

Word has it that a few of the development crew for the game had been laid off after its release, so maybe that has something to do with the incomplete product.

But hey, it's free!


And I guess, you can't really complain when its free, and it doesn't do all things badly. The game certainly achieves teamwork or the feeling of being in a squad better than other military sims. You stick together because going solo is pretty dangerous, and others can come to your aid if you go down. But looking past its poor graphics and just plain wonkiness, the game only has its seemingly "hardcore" nature to go on. It was just very disappointing considering I thoroughly enjoyed America's Army 2 back in its day. Despite the apparent graphical update, this game is by far a poor shadow of its prequel.

So if you're really looking for a hardcore military sim, there's always the better polished Operation Flashpoint 2, or the more complete and varied Armed Assault 2. And for everyone else, there's always Modern Warfare 2.