Disappointing Experience With This Particular Game Mod
There Is A Reason Games Take So Long To Make!
Game mods are great things… When they work. I’ve played a great many over the years and my experience with them has been mixed. Some did exactly what they claimed to do, some have been so good that they eventually led to separate stand alone games and some were - to put it bluntly - were doo poo! 😐
Unfortunately, there is little guarantee about the quality of these home brew modifications to games other than ‘suck it and see’… And this is precisely what I did with the ARMA Reforger mod ‘Overthrow’.
Above: My first experience of OVERTHROW, and things seemed to be going really well... At first!
I was quite excited about the possibilities that this mode seemed to offer based on a couple of YouTube videos that showed the modification in action, But, either the video makers skirted over the ‘rough edges’ that this mode has, or didn’t experience the issues that I did or were experienced enough with ARMA mods to find workarounds that made the mod playable for them…
As a complete noob as far as ARMA goes - though - I just don’t have the patience or the knowledge to tinker around and get iffy mods to work properly. I did try, looked up information on my issues and tried out some of the recommended ‘remedies’, but none of them worked (for me).
Chief among them was the non-persistence of the user assigned car and the fact that your transport had an annoying habit to vanish when you closed the game session and then opened it again. And the fact that there was practically no other traffic in this mode - due to optimisation issues - meant that you couldn’t simply pinch a new ride (as you would do in GTA5), and - although you can buy vehicles in game - the cost to the new player makes them prohibitive.
An Objective Too Far
While this was just one of the issues with the Overthrow mod it is a kind of biggy because ARMA maps are HUGE, they are not just like a Battlefield maps where if you lose your vehicle betwixt objectives you can easily complete the journey on foot. The sheer size of ARMA maps was one of the reasons that back in 2009 it turned off my colleagues in my gaming clan, they were used to getting straight into the action with Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty and did not like the long distances you had to travel on an ARMA map!
So having access to you personal transport made things very difficult as a beginner in Overthrow, as travelling between towns and remote villages was half the fun.
There were other niggles, such as the sparse nature of other NPCs and NPC traffic which gave the game map a very spooky and deserted feel. I just could not immerse myself into the game where I felt I was one of the few people on the island (I perhaps exaggerate the issue as there were other NPCs and enemy troops but I just could not shake the impression - again, compared to GTA5 - that the game world was practically empty).
[Note: I read that Overthrow is actually 'a work in progress' and that the developer is aware of the issues with it. Apparently, he does have a road map for further work on the mod addressing things like traffic and enemy intensity. So I will keep an eye out for future releases.]
Jumping Ship - An Alternative Mod!
Trouble was that I did desperately want to play Overthrow, or at least this sort of game mod. Luckily for me while searching YouTube for additional videos about Overthrow I kept seeing other videos about a similar mod called FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
This time I did a modicum of research about this mod and watched (***all the way through***) a few video playthrough about it, such as this...
Immediately I saw that this mod seemed to solve my major gripe about Overthrow --- There is traffic in Freedom Fighters! Not only this but there are enemy patrol vehicles and slightly more civilian activity (though as with Overthrow, it is not at GTA5 levels of population as that would still impact the game's playability - more people/traffic = more lag/reduced frame rates).
Moreover, there seems to be more thought put into the immersion side of the game plot, as in Overthrow the main driving element to the whole resistance narrative was just a menu which gave you a list of jobs and your progress, Freedom Fighters has put a little more thought into the game. It has a journal - which, yes, is little more than a fancy menu - but it has you actually make contact with the resistance group and keeps notes on your progress. It's just a small additional touch, but Overthrow never really accounts for how and why you are a resistance member, you just are.
So, I'll make Part 3 of my ARMA Reforger experience about my first impressions of Freedom Fighter. It's a bit like starting from scratch again, but I'm sure I cannot be the only person who has similar issues with Overthrow - it's just that nobody seems to have highlighted them. So my experience might be of use to someone out there who is interested in this type of game mode. Hopefully I'll help them avoid my mistakes.
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