ArmA II Preview

A few weeks ago VideoGamer.com parachuted (flew) deep behind enemy lines (to Prague). There, at the HQ of Bohemia Interactive Studios, we spoke to CEO Marek Spanel and lead designer Ivan Buchta about the forthcoming military banquet that is ArmA 2.

VideoGamer.com: What are the important changes gamers are going to see in ArmA 2?

Marek Spanel: I think the most important thing in ArmA 2 is how much effort we put into the story. We re-did the story three times until it felt right to us, until it felt entertaining and exciting and deep, etcetera. The story of the first ArmA was really quickly cooked up - it wasn't something we had enough time to prepare. This was more like the original Operation Flashpoint, where we underwent the process of having a story, figuring out it wasn't perfect and then going through taking the bad things out and letting the good things remain. We hope that the story will be a much stronger asset this time.

Ivan Buchta: Also, a thing relating to the story is the whole style of the game... the graphics, the selection of units, the weapons. This has all been selected to play some kind of role in the story.

MS: These things are better taught throughout the game. Every single element is well taught so that it fits together. So this is a significant change, because with ArmA 1 it was just random, really. We made some units because we had to. There wasn't much passion from our side with the first ArmA, to be honest. This time it's different.

IB: It's like we're returning to Operation Flashpoint, and again we're trying to deliver a living world, you know? With a believable, authentic story.

MS: So this is one of the biggest parts [to it], but there are smaller aspects that are more evolutionary, that make the experience different. One is the AI. The AI in ArmA was still pretty close to what was in Operation Flashpoint. There were some techniques under the hood that brought major changes, but they weren't used much during gameplay. So this time we introduced a very complex simulation of suppression - which means the AI can use suppressing fire and provide cover for each other. The AI will also try to avoid being shot by suppressing fire from the other side. Players are now affected by incoming fire, so even if I'm hidden in cover, the effect of bullets coming so close to me will result in blurred in vision and shaking hands. It's subtle, but significant.

IB: Basically if you want to fight by the military text book, you can do that. You can lay smoke cover, use it to conceal your movement. When an enemy approaches you can suppress them, try to flank him. Like real life, the only way to kill someone without terrible losses is to pin him down and flank him...

MS: Really now, even when you're hitting a village with a few enemy troops, you'll have quite a long-lasting fire-fight. It's not that easy to kill people - when there are five enemies, you're in for a hell of a time. So that's the difference. It's more strategic, more tactical, with less units but, eventually, more intense combat. In the first ArmA we needed a lot of troops to create a really hard fight, because they usually just walked into an open space, fired and died. Now they can take cover and fire from behind corners - lean, fire, lean, fire.

VideoGamer.com: So it's sort of less but more, really?

MS: Yes! And in terms of difficulty...The difficulty in ArmA 1 was fairly extreme for a number of reasons, one of them being the missions that were fairly extremist, you against an army. That is not the case here. But there are a lot of improvements in terms of how the AI forces perceive the game world. They can't see through bushes, which was an imperfection in the last game. And there's the injury system, with first aid and battlefield clearance. You have a higher chance of survival thanks to your team-mates, who can save you.

VideoGamer.com: Given the level of detail in the simulation, it's interesting that you guys are placing so much value in your story. What does that add to the game, do you think?

MS: Well, I think one thing is a more philosophical aspect. We want the game to be more than just killing people and feeling like it's nothing strange. We want to leave the impression that war is a mess, war is terrible. It's chaos, it's unfair to everyone. We want to show it with all these aspects, and we feel this is important - because most of the soldiers in war zones don't fight. Most of the time they're just defensive. So of course we have to have more concentrated fighting in the game, because in a war people won't fight for four months and then suddenly half of them will be dead! And then for the next three months, they don't see any enemy at all! And then they are caught by a car with an explosive device. Maybe they survive, but that's how it is. It's shocking and it's terrible, and we want to show more than what games normally do.

IB: It's like the war is a multiplier for people's motivations and their characters. If you think about the most compelling stories of the last century, many of them are set during a war. Stories of people being saved by real heroes...

MS: The other thing about the campaign is that it's supposed to tell a story, but it's also kind of an introduction to the whole game. If you look at the campaign in Operation Flashpoint, it was kind of a tutorial. It didn't cover all the possibilities, but it was still like a very long tutorial. There's something similar here: we build a campaign because there is a lot to learn. You start as a subordinate soldier who simply has to follow orders and doesn't have much choice, but gradually the storyline takes you to situations that give you more and more responsibility until eventually you're like the high commander of the entire operation. But we explain why this happens, so it feels natural. It's not silly, you're promoted maybe once in the entire story... but we don't want to talk about that as it's kind of a spoiler!

VideoGamer.com: Hey, that's okay...

MS: But yeah, basically it's a tutorial leading up to ArmA Warfare, where you have entire responsibility over the conflict. But it takes a few missions to teach you the systems needed to be the proper commander. And even though the campaign is quite long, it's still really just scratching the surface in terms of what's in the game. You can try any combination of vehicles, any form of combat... and the replay value is extreme. As long as you have fun with it, you can play it!