Home » PLAYER'S HQ 1.13 » JA2 Complete Mods & Sequels » JA2 Arulco Revisited » My review of the AR mod
| My review of the AR mod[message #309063]
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Tue, 14 August 2012 16:01 
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 Istrebitel |
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Messages:212
Registered:December 2009
Location: Russia, Saint-Petersburg |
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Greetings.
Decided i'll write up a review of sorts about the Arulco Revisited mod. I played the game on Expert, with lastest exe (newest features), with no reload (one exception - see below), Slow item progression. So far i experienced Omerta, Chitzena + SAM, San Mona, Cambria. This review may obviously contain spoilers.
Arulco Revisited, in short, is a truly wonderful mod. It fixes many "problems" in a very subtle way, and definetly adds a lot to the game without taking away anything. First of all, i'll talk about the "problems" i mentioned.
A big problem in the original 1.13, in my opinion, was that BR's huge selection made the "loot" aspect of the RPG kinda obsolete. It was present even in vanilla, but to a lesser extent, because there were less guns, there was no LBE, less armor/gear etc. In 1.13 you just gear almost 100% from BR because best guns are there, best ammo (enemies do not use rare ammunition like cold-loaded AP, AET or glaser) is there, lbe is there, variety of attachments are there. This was especially evident for those who enjoyed original JA where you only had what you got from looting the enemies and the sectors. While addition of shop where you can get what you want is welcome, JA2 sectors felt very "empty" compared to those of JA even in vanilla version. Looting every house in Drassen, Chitzena and Omerta would yeild you... almost nothing. It was kinda... disappointing, sort of, to get one or zero items for visiting every house in the whole Drassen Mine sector. And on top of that, in 1.13 BR shop offered everything you need.
Another big problem is that after you take all the mines, you are left with little else to do. Your money income is at your maximum, you control 3/4 of the map, all you are left with are some very easy quests (Hicks, Cats, Robot) and Orta / Tixa (if you didnt do that) (and i think everybody takes Balime before last mine, because it has just so many goodies in store - money, motion detector, energy/regen stims). The game definetly suffered a problem of being "anti-climatic" - the final battle for Meduna is more of a tedious chore (huge amount of enemies and very beefy tanks) than an enjoyable finale - that's why I (and as far as I know, a lot of other people) played and enjoyed a lot of campaigns, but completed very little %. Game is very enjoyable when you gradually gear up, get cities, but then its over before its over. Worst of all, you are pretty much inclined to get mines asap, because mines mean money, more money - more items to get, more mobile militia to train, however, after you get all mines - what do you need those guns for, now? Just one last assault on Meduna?
Another problem was that SAM sites were located very conviniently for you. Usually you go for Chitzena first because its near San Mona and most people go San Mona for money and guns. So, you get SAM 1 very fast. SAM 2 is conviniently loated near Drassen, where you get the chopper - by that time, you can already fly around the northern part of the map freely. Next stop is obviously Cambria for hospital - and there you get the third and last SAM. Thats it - aerospace is yours (except the last SAM that covers Meduna).
And lastly, a kind of problem, is money. Generally, after you get two mines, you are in a net income and hardly have big mnoey problems. After getting three mines (the cheaper one usually runs out) you have a big net income and can either sustain a team of very good mercs, or just have excessive money. New guns available from BR kinda changed that, but still, money balance was not very well preserved in the original.
Arulco Revisited, first of all, fixes all those problems. And this is a HUGE reason to use this mod right there.
First of all, you get a lot more cities to conquer. Those cities do not have mines, and thats great - they provide you with stuff to do after you got all money you ever wanted and gathered your best crew with best guns. Its not over now - with a final push to Meduna for gameover - you have like 3 or 4 more cities to liberate and train militia in (and probably complete quests, look for secrets and stuff - didnt reach that point yet so i cant tell). I cant say for sure that i will finish my campaigh, because it still may become boring after you control almost whole map, but game will definetly last longer, that's for sure!
Then, there are more SAM sites than before. I didnt find them all yet, but i suppose you wont have as easy time liberating the aerospace now as before.
Money problem is fixed in a very interesting way. I didnt even notice it until it hit me in the face. You see, you can now train militia in all cities. That includes Omerta (now 3 sectors) and San Mona (4 sectors). Now, Chitzena was increased from 2 sectors to 4. What does this mean? This means that now after you got Chitzena mine, you have 12 sectors of militia instead of 3! That's if you're comlpetionist like me, but then again, I guess most JA2 players are completionists. And so, as a result, even with a team of IMP's and only one recruit from AIM (Wolf), you dont have enough money from Chitzena mine to sustain your militia alone! Not to mention you'd have to pay salaries. This creates a very good feeling of "not enough money" which can be sustained for a very long time. Right now i'm going for Cambria because Chitzena mine ran out, and then i'd be adding 6 more sectors of militia to the count. I wouldnt be getting any profits if i'd be having one IMP and others paid mercenaries, with my team i'll at least be getting SOME funds... Now, of course training militia in Omerta and San Mona is not that important and you may as well skip doing it, but then again, it creates all those possibilities for you to spend your money... its a long road until you finally feel money is in abundance.
And then, there's BR. It was moved to Estoni. What this gives is that you wont get it from the start. Yes, you could rush Estoni of course, but then, you wont have big enough supply of money. Road between Estoni and San Mona is heavilly guarded, an so... You get Chitzena, you get Cambria, maybe then, or maybe even after Drassen, BR is delayed significantly so that you DO have to "live off the land". And this brings it to the next major point...
LOOT! This feeling of getting something very unique and valueable is back in force! Now every house you enter may have a surprise for you - a very pleasant one. Now when you dont have abundance of those silencers, scopes and stuff, each found item is a gift and is very much appreciated. I never appreciated a 4x scope like that before (maybe, of course, slow item progression played it part in this too). You really value that single Reflex Sight you found, you really value that single VSS Vintorez you find. Its amazing. And there's more - now explosives expert actually matters, because there IS stuff to loot with good EXP skill, right from the beginning. And its GOOD stuff. I think the amount of loot you get (at least at Slow item progression) is very balanced, not too much not too little, and i really enojy it.
But that's not all! Arulco Revisited adds really nicely done small tweaks here and there. Crossroads now often have checkpoints in one form or another, making a simple shootout in the open a mini-siege. There are bases, huts, everything became slightly more interesting without becoming too different. You dont get that feeling of "I dont recognise Arulco anymore", you get exactly the feeling "This is the same Arulco i loved, but made much more awesome!"
Also, I loved how author made some enemies stick to their positions, especially inside buildings. This actually made it very exciting experience to find that last man on the map. And when you understand he's in a building, in darkness, while all entrances are very well lit, you have a new puzzle to solve. I really loved the way i had to use grenades and other stuff more in this mod than before, because there was no other way to safely complete the sector (no reloads).
I'd like to also mention a very much welcome ability to use 4 militia trainers at SAM sites. Helps A LOT!
Overall, this is a SUPREME mod with tons of enjoyment, which made game very interesting for me again. Cant thank it enough. I'm just loving it!
Finally, I'd like to mention some problems I found with the mod, not of techincal sort, but gameplay related.
1) Chitzena SAM sector is adjacent to a roadblock/base/whatever sector which gets re-garissoned with enemies when you take it out. This might not be intended, but in effect, Chitzena SAM is now doomed, because when enemies attack it, this garisson joins the assault. You can't have more than 20 guys there, and there will be around 37 enemies attacking. Really no chance with default militia/autoresolve settings.
2) The trap room at Chitzena SAM is way too much harsh IMHO. Now, I appreciate sudden challenges and surprises, but when you make such thing, you must ask yourself, will player be able to complete it from the fisrt try without reloading? Because if you force him to reload, you basically remove the freshness of the trap. Now player knows the trap and just works around it having knowledge he shouldnt have had. What is wrong with this trap:
- First of all, there is nothing that indicates that stepping on the tile between doors will initiate the trap. There is no mine there, no tripwire there, and nowhere in game such mechanic was used before (step on tile - something happens). This means that player has no reason to expect that AT ALL. I expected that when i open the door, something might happen (like, 10 enemies in a row waiting for me on interrupt, or enemies pulling some switch or something). But not when i step on the tile in front of it.
- Second, the door closing behind you. Without knowing that it just closed, not locked itself, i had to spend extra time passing the keycard to open it. Thats what cost me my IMP's life and made me reload in the end. There is absolutely no clue as to whether the door is closed for good, can be opened with card, or is just closed and can be opened by hand. And you dont have time units to check if it opens by hand, then take card and open it if it doesnt, and move out of the way at the same time. Now, if the door wouldnt be located in the line of fire, that could work, but since it is, you cannot remain there - you'd get killed.
- Third, mustard gas. Chitzena SAM is often first one to be taken. Mustard gas is lethal. You cannot purchase gas masks from BR. COMBO! You'd want all your mercs around to eliminate enemies inside, and I doubt you're guaranteed to have that many working gas masks by then. Again, tear gas would take your guys out and make you fight for them with those who were not taken out - this is a nice test of your skills to act in unexpected situation... but when your guy is down in mustard gas cloud w/o gas mask - thats it. He's dead. Accept it or load a save. And when you load a save, it isnt a suprise anymore.
Another small problem is the location of "camping" enemies.
- One enemy decided to camp inside the new building in the university. Honestly, i got in that room, and didnt find him, and got out. I spent about 10 real minutes looking for that dude before i gave up and used Alt+E. Of course you can blame me not checking the room throughly, but at least enemy should take a position where not checking room throughly gives him a chance to ambush me - this time he just sat there and... did nothing.
- In newest exe you can dismantle sandbag fortifications. This leads to enemies told to camp behind such fortifications to turn into sitting ducks. This is very evident at crossroads checkpoint on the road from Omerta to Cambria. After you take them out once and take down the sandbags, you got two free weapon dealers every next time you visit them (since you can very easilly knock them out and rob weapons from them).
Maybe a review of where enemies camp is in order? (I dont know if you specify exact locations, but so far it seems so, since those two dudes at checkpoint are there every time i visit them, and they NEVER move unless they see one of my men).
Still, this mod is great and i'd recommend it to anyone who wants to play JA2 1.13.
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