All Singaporean males who’ve reached the age of 18 are obliged to serve a mandatory 2-year term in the Singapore Armed Forces as part of a rite of passage known formally as National Service (NS).

If you’re one of those boys anxious to know more about what you might learn during NS or if you’re just a fan of games like Battlefield 2, then you’d probably want to try out Bohemia Interactive’s ARMA: Armed Assault (ARMA) for the PC because it’s definitely one of the most realistic first-person and third-person “tactical shooter and battlefield simulators” around.

And that’s not all only that, the game is sequel to the widely popular 2001 award winning OperationFlashpoint: Cold War Crisis (OFCWC) .

Set in the war torn, fictional democratic island state of South Sahrani, with the North of course, playing the part of the usual Communist enemy. Your job is to command a squad of highly trained United States (US) Army soldiers who are sent to the tropical island to train up the islanders and get them ready for combat.

But right about then, the North invades the South and you and your squad of merry rifle wielding soldiers have to do your best to impede the enemy’s progress alongside the locals that you’ve trained until the might of the United States Armed Forces (it’s actually 5 separate branches of the military consisting of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard) arrives and unleashes its gun slinging wrath on those poor communists.

What essentially makes ARMA a success is not the stereotypical, “I’m a Democrat, and you’re a Communist. Let’s wage a war get-up”. History has already done that to death in the form of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Rather, it’s the gameplay by which the story revolves around that makes the game work which sees you either completing missions solo or with you commanding your squad.

The game follows a linear storyline with a number of non-linear options that have an impact on the results, which I admit, isn’t exactly a novel idea. Games like Deus Ex: Ion Wars have already attempted this a few years ago. But nevertheless, this style of play ensures for hours of repeated gaming with gamers curious about how their various responses have on the ending.

And while the game isn’t exactly a visual masterpiece, which is one of my main gripes because it takes so much processing power (you need at least three Gigahertz of processing power just to run the game, along with lots one Gigabyte of ram and not to mention a lot of storage space), something only higher end PCs offer, thankfully, there are plenty of other plus points that help to redeem the game.

Many might recall that OFCWC was the first game to have realistic armaments back in 2001. And this time around, the developers have wisely elected to retain this system for ARMA.

Therefore, you get to use weapons like the M16 assault rifle (the primary weapon of choice for many armies across the world) and that’s not all! You even get to the chance to master how to operate machinery like the M1 Abrams tank which is one of the main battle tanks in the US Army.

Action wise, it’s as real as it can get. The theory about “running with all guns blazing” doesn’t seem to apply that effectively when you can’t seem to hit the target when you’re sprinting towards the enemy.

And here’s the reason why.

If you’ve read Jarhead, the novel by Anthony Swofford, you’d realise that the “the prone position” offers “the most stable shooting platform for the M16 [rifle]” and that’s what exactly you should do because the developers have added the distinctive recoils that’s associated with each weapon. Also, because you’re running like a raving lunatic, the enemy will have an easier time picking you off.

And speaking of the enemy, I must say that the Artificial intelligence (AI) is indeed top notch, especially since they react according to your every action. Don’t even try to go ala Rambo against them. The only similarity that the game and the movie villains share is that they’re allegedly communists with guns.

Instead rack your brains to come up with a defining winning strategy. Imagine yourself in the real world as a soldier. Look to either outflank or outmanoeuvre the opposition, instead of the head-on assault which will surely see your squad end up as pieces of chopped liver.

Luckily for you, if you seem to have trouble with military manoeuvres, then there’s always the multiplayer mode which allows for online players to become your squad members so they can help you with the decision making process as well.

All in all, ARMA does live up to the expectations of its predecessor. It’s utter realism and Bohemia Interactive’s attention to detail makes it one helluva experience. With a single mission possibly taking up to a few hours to complete at a go and with the added possibilities of various endings thanks to the gameplay, the game promises to be both an exciting and value-for-money experience.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 9./10
Addictive Rating: 8/10
Overall Rating: 8.5/10

All pictures provided courtesy of Atari.