What happens if COD, MOH and ARMA are mixed. A 2nd take on Red River is surprising good despite OFP:DR
Gameplay SP: 5.5 (brain dead friendly AIs that make the experience fustrating)
Gameplay MP: 6.5 (surprising change to 4 player campaign coop with level grinding and perks system to keep it interesting)
Audio: 8.0 (sound design are really good, and i love Sgt Knox dialog & voice acting, however your squadmates are a mute)
Value: 6.5 (at MRSP $40, wouldnt buy it. Worth a try once it hit MRSP $20)
2nd take for CM in simulation fps genre is surprisingly good compared to the first take. From the pacific island to the mountainous region of Tajikistan. The arid environments and beautiful weather keeps the scenery beautiful and the long drive from being boring. In addition, your lovely Sargent Knox will keep you interested with his rules and racist remarks, which will make me ROFL sometimes. The often bark orders as well as briefing squads regarding to tactics and rules during the long drive to your combat grounds, bring realism on how operation is performed. Sgt knox isnt a jack**s, his rules and guides are often helpful.
Campaign could be played alone with 3 Ais or with 3 friends and the campaign consist of 10 mission at last about an hour each. Those missions are long and hectic often forcing you to move large open distance on foot sometime on vehicles (clearing village to the next). Often during missions, they will be more than 2 squads in direct command under Sgt. knox and each plays an important role in the battlefield. Some might provide firesupport for your squad to advance and others act as spotters. Sgt Knox often change orders during time to time and often condition in the battlefield change to the unexpected. This brings a rough idea how does an actual operation is carried out than most shooters out in the market. Sadly, none of the other squads 'charlie' or 'alpha' can be played in a larger scale coop as the coop is limited to only the 4 man squad called 'bravo' under Sgt knox.
For some reason, i love the story that CM cook up in Red River with great intro and mission briefing to at least push me to finish the game especially mission 5. The first 4 missions might not be as interesting as the other half of the missions. But when PLA started attacking, hell breaks lose.
Bewarn, this game is rather buggy. Often objectives will not complete or disappeared and a restart is required. Friendly Ais too are often stuck by doors or vehicles drove over cliffs resulting to a complete halt in progress of completing the objective.
Besides that, CM did some changes in Red River which differ to OFP series. They made a lot of changes that lean towards arcade shooters but core gameplay still remain the same. Well it might not be a good change for fans of OFP, but it will attract new players. Firearms and rifles in Red River showed very low recoil and aiming has been simplified to COD style. Bullets are adjusted to be more accurate, and because of this, weapons preformance are nearly the same. However, CM didnt change the bullet drop and the ricochet effect and its a good thing they didnt.
CM did a good 2nd try on OF, and at least it show improvements. This game may not be suitable for most groups of fps but its a definitely worth a try when it hits the bargain bin. Great Story and Characters such as Sgt Knox is a fine encouragement for a game that many thought its hopeless.