America's Army 3: Review

Tired of playing your old boring video games?  Want a new video game paid for by your precious tax dollars?  America's Army 3 is for you!

I recently downloaded the newest America's Army 3 game via Steam.  I had played the America's Army 2, and found it to be quite a hassle.  Gigantic files that needed to be downloaded from crowded servers all over the net as well as very comprehensive training program killed the excitement of free game.  AA3 has removed the hassle downloads through the one stop shop that is Steam.  The extensive training (that included quizzes on identifying helicopters via silhouettes) is now gone, and a much more streamlined version has filled its place. 

When I first opened up the game I headed over to the training sequences.  A quick run through an obstacle course pointed out there is no jump feature.  Really?  No jump? How am I supposed to break the bricks and get mushrooms and fire flowers? Instead of jump you can vault over objects not jump in the open :( AA3 did add a pretty sweet slide tackle maneuver as well as a tactical barrel roll. 

After the obstacle course I moved on to the weapons training, which is about what you'd expect.  You get a few mags for practice and then qualify with the M16 and iron sights.  Targets pop up at different distances and you shoot for prone, crouch, and off hand (standing); pretty straight forward.

After the rifle qualification, you move on to heavy weapons training which consists of grenade launcher, SAW, and grenades (frag, smoke, and flash bang).  Same thing, practice then qualify and this is where I ran into some problems.  I screwed around a bit with the grenades and didn't pass the qualify.  I realized this happened and when I went to retake the test I passed with 100% but I didn't get credit for it.  I fought my way through the wonky menus and redid all the heavy weapons training for a third time with no luck.  I quit the program and called a night. 

The next morning I opened my account and it said I had passed the heavy weapons qualify as well as the medical section which I had never even touched... WTF?  At this point I completed the killhouse training (shooting wooden targets and clearing rooms) and watched the cheesy chalk drawing video presentation of graduation from basic training. 

Lastly, I played the multi-player, which in all honesty wasn't anything too amazing.  I was only able to try out a few maps, but I did enjoy the squad based aspect of game play which was similar to BF2.  Unlike BF2 the maps are much smaller and accomplishing a mission with squads (with team members who work together) was easily and effectively accomplished.

Is this game worth your time?  Yes, simply because you already paid for it.  It isn't nearly as good as Call of Duty or Left 4 Dead but it is okay, and a good time waster until Bioshock 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and Left 4 Dead 2 come out.  If you're playing AA3 hit me up on twitter and we'll pwn some n00bs.

Comments

[Steve Boshera]

Just played the first training mission. Glitchiest fucking game on earth. At least they didn't put to much of our taxpayer money into it.