About as close to war as you can get in a video game.
The visuals are nothing short of spectacular. When it is on max it looks so photo-realistic that it makes CoD4 look like a cartoon. Arma 2's graphics feature some of the best lighting and object/character modeling that I have ever seen. It is the graphics alone that are responsible for half of the immersion that can be experienced here. A strong PC is very necessary to run it at max. One with strong CPU and graphic card, but do not worry if you don't, because lowest settings are still fairly attractive and don't affect the experience fully.
We all know that the most important thing in a simulator is the gameplay. The game lets you play from first-person or third-person (you can always choose as you play.). Third person is great for getting a nice view of the fighting while first-person is good for getting more accurate hits on distant oponents or for dragging any of your wounded to safety. The action is really tense and realistic in this game. Getting hit in the arm will have it bleeding and make your aiming much less steady until you are healed. To get much clearer shots, you can make your character hold their breath. The game lets you make your character move his head around by holding down 'default ALT' so you can look around you without turning your whole body around.
The game is close to reality. Your soldier possesses a watch and compass to help guide you. You can even pilot any vehicles you want (I would suggest for you to be the driver because the AI can be quite clumsy). The game gives you a lot of things to do along with squad (and sometimes even army) commands. The controls are so deep that almost every key on the pc keyboard has a function (though some of them are secondary for control), but a little bit of patience can get you used to it. The only real downside to the gameplay is that the AI is incredibly stupid at times and will not move everywhere you want them to even though they reply "Affirmative". Regardless, the gameplay is nothing short of amazing and this game gives you a lot of things to do.
There is not much I can say about the maps. The game only provides two different maps, Utes which is a small Island, and another map which is a region of the fictional country 'Chenarus'. May be only two but they are incredibly large and have very memorable landscape. Even though the system requirements are high, I made an experiment as to how much far you could go beyond the map because the maps borders cannot stop you, and seeing how large the gameworlds are, you need to appreciate the fact that the pc requirements are this low. In a tutorial level for piloting a jet fighter, I flew literally over 300 kilometers away from one side of the Utes map and I could still keep going. I have currently saved it at that point and yet to come across something that prevents me from progressing further. Even though, it is mainly open water, the size of the game world is revolutionary. The maps you are stationed in at first are not a fraction compared to the size of the entire area. par/>
The single player campaign is a brilliant story-orientated experience which features large replay value. The only thing that ruins most of the experience is bugs. I did not encounter any crashes but there were times when frame-rate slowed down even when there were not too many AI, plus I experienced a bug that is apparently common among people where you may have to restart a checkpoint because progression is prevented. Turning down the resolution helped with the frame-rate, but did not fully fix the problem. Nevertheless, I did not find it hard to put up with. In the campaign, you can choose what additional objectives to do throughout the missions when they pop up and your actions have consequences. The campaign features many kinds of objectives and situations. Some are exciting while some moments are a bit disturbing (especially in first mission if you choose to do certain side-objectives involving genocide investigations). If bugs drop, the campaign is an unforgettable experience.
Arma 2 comes with a mission editor and also a map editor. The easy-to-use map editor is great for placing AI around for an unscripted battle. The mission editor I spent more time on however. You are presented with a small number of mission modes to choose from and you have the ability customise them by editing time of day/month/year, as well as weather and choosing units. The full customisation has made me make a lot of my own personal missions. The level of customisation for it is incredible and you will have a lot of fun editing your missions and choosing locations on the map that satisfy you. If the campaign is too buggy then you will have a great time on this or on map editor.
Sound is different from a lot of war games. The gun shots do not sound dramatic (if that's how you want to describe it), but instead try to feel realistic. This is, after all, a simulator. They sometimes echo like a real gun would which gives a better sense of immersion. The music consists of a mixture of techno, orchestral, and classical-style music. It is very fitting for the game and sounds good. I sometimes liked the rock-style music that pumps a player up for some missions. And I don't know if anyone could forget that beautiful Chernarussian waltz/anthem that is sometimes heard in the menu. Sound-wise, the biggest problem would be the voices. It seems that command dialogue is simply combining together recorded words from different speeches. If you're tolerant of these things like me, then you won't have much problem.
Before I finish, I just want to make a few things clear about ARMA 2. This game is NOT Call of Duty. I discovered a number of gamers that have been desperately trying to compare this game to the modern warfare COD games. Not just on gamespot but everywhere else. I try not to bad-mouth people in my reviews, but now I have been forced to because this is just unnacceptable. The two games are nothing alike. We have CoD4 which is really a linear/scripted, and short ride filled with acrade-style kill-kill-kill (Why compare ARMA2 and CoD4 when you can easily compare CoD4 with hundreds of other shooters), with really simple gameplay controls and nothing innovative. ARMA 2 is a realistic, in-depth shooter (with third-person as well) with real sandbox style plus features mission and map editors. Even the setting is much different, aside from modern warfare. Anyone who tries to make the games look similar needs to literally grow a brain.
Summing up, Arma 2 is an exciting, realistic, unforgettable video game. Bohemia Interactive have made an indredibly ambitious game that really cannot be compared to any other FPS except for its predeccessors (according to gameplay videos). The simulator feels very realistic and challenging while also bringing a lot of fun. I cannot give it a perfect rating I'm afraid, because the AI (esecially civvies in map editor) is sometimes so stupid that it makes the AI in Operation Flashpoint DR look smart, and also the campaign is too buggy plus combat occasionally feels clunky (but that is maybe for bigger realism), but that does not stop this game from being one of the best shooters to come in a long time. Ignore anyone who tries to compare this game to a certain arcade, hollywood-style shooter. If you are patient with the tutorial, you will jump in like a real soldier in no time.