ArmA: Queen's Gambit

Title: ArmA: Queen's Gambit
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: September 28, 2007
Date Played: March 2012
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
Right after finishing up ArmA's main campaign I installed and jumped into the expansion pack "Queen's Gambit", which actually consists of two separate campaigns Royal Flush, and Rahmadi Conflict.

I started off with the Royal Flush campaign. It is about 1/4 of the length of ArmA's campaign, and oh my is acting bad. I think that the cut-scenes do a huge disservice to this game. The NPCs sound absolutely terrible, its like they grabbed a random guy off the street, handed him a piece of paper and told him to read some lines into the mic. Every conversation is monotone with random moments of excitement which do not match the words or the action at all. Acting aside though Royal Flush features a pretty well done campaign that I actually found a bit more enjoyable than ArmA's campaign. It is clear that Bohemia Interactive (developer) was trying to improve the game. A bandage mechanic was added where you are able to bandage yourself at any point, its quite handy and is preferred to crawling to the next objective for 2 hours because your legs have been shot off.

Another welcome change is persistence. And if you know me, you know that I love persistence in video games. In Royal Flush you get to keep your squad mates, and whatever weapons you are carrying from the mission to mission all the way to the end.  This mechanic is supplemented by three mini missions where you can (optionally) meet up with a dealer and purchase new weapons. I found the dealer mechanic to be a bit gimmicky as it was much easier (and cheaper) to simply pick up the weapons off my enemies; however weapon and squad persistence is very much welcomed.

Sneaking Up on Some Rebels

The campaign is much more focused than that of ArmA. Instead of jumping from role to role you play as the same soldier through the whole thing working on one main goal. Towards the end you are even given a moral choice of whether or not you want to potentially spark a huge international scandal, but at the same time make sure your buddy is safe, or follow his orders and not look out for him. I chose to look out for my buddy even if it meant trouble, so I am not sure what  the other option would do. Potentially a second ending?

Overall Royal Flush is pretty good, even though it is spotted with some really weird hardcore/metal hybrid music, which I hate to admit doesn't really fit the simulation vibe of ArmA. I think Royal Flush made a few steps in the right direction with its missions; however scripting bugs nearly ruined my enjoyment of it. It is clear that Bohemia Interactive was trying to make a more streamlined, and focused campaign by utilizing a ton of scripting, but it doesnt seem like they did as many bug checks as they should have. Nevertheless I feel that it is a bit better than the original campaign and is worth playing even if only for the concentration camp missions. I really enjoyed those.

After Royal Flush I jumped into the second campaign "Rahmadi Conflict". While Royal Flush took place a year after the events of the original campaign this one takes place during it. You are a member of a special forces team tasked with capturing the enemy leader.

Rahmadi Conflict is fairly short (I finished it in just a few hours). It consists of 3 extremely focused and very polished missions. I think Bohemia Interactive realized how terrible they are at making cut-scenes, so instead of in engine clusterfrak in between missions they opted to use a stylized slideshow, and this time they hired a decent voice to do the narration. Overall the acting and cut-scenes are amazingly well done compared to those of ArmA and Royal Flush.

Welcome addition is also a set of new (small) islands to play on. Royal Flush reused the landmass from the main game, so it is nice to play around in the new environment in Rahmadi Conflict. I am guessing that it is due to the small size of the maps, but it seems like they crammed more detail into the levels as well.

All in all Queen's Gambit is a good expansion that expands and improves on the original campaign. While Rahmadi Conflict was the most enjoyable part of it, Royal Flush was pretty fun as well. If you finished up ArmA and would like more I would definitely recommend Queen's Gambit.