America's Army: True Soldiers Impressions October 3,2007 - When the original America’s Army game came out for the PC platform five years ago, it was originally met with criticism over its official Army branding and recruiting tool purpose. Still, it managed to garner generally positive reviews. The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, however, didn’t pass the test as well. Ubisoft and developer Red Storm Entertainment hope to be turning those results around this time, bringing America’s Army: True Soldiers to the Xbox 360. While at Digital Life, Red Storm designer/creative director Randy Greenback was able to give us a walkthrough and hands-on of the upcoming title.

Realism was a big part of the original game with the recruiting tool mentality, and True Soldiers appears to be surpassing its predecessors beyond most limits. In order to make everything as accurate as possible, Greenback spoke of how the development team visited several Army bases around the nation. Many of the game’s physics are identical to their real life counterparts. It ranges from the way you handle your weapons to how you drive tanks and whatnot. RPG elements will also have an effect on how your character behaves. While playing you will rack up experience points to attribute to a few different areas: fortitude, medic, valor, sniper, and physics. And similar to a real soldier, you can only max out in one or two areas. Clearly, not everybody can be a super strong sniper-medic. So, you will have to choose your specialization according to your preferred playing style.

Prior to battle, you have the option of undergoing a training program. Most games will require you, but this doesn’t. Not the biggest of features, but something worth mentioning for those you love to simply jump in. After suiting up for battle though, you’ll be able to rank up to unlock official Army ranks. It actually has real gameplay affects, too, because teams are sectioned off under squad leaders and their subordinates. As a squad leader, you will have access to call in air strikes and regroup your teams. Lower leaders will have different options available to them as well but of course to a lesser extent. Before every multiplayer match, you can sign up to be up for leadership consideration. The results will be factored by how well you perform, individually and as a teammate. That brings in honor and respect tokens. For instance, if your teammate is pinned down by enemy fire and you dispose of said enemy, you will automatically receive honor points. At the end of matches, you will have respect tokens to hand out to various teammates, so you can give X amount of tokens to the guy who got you out of harms way, and Y amount of tokens to the guy who bandaged you up.

They’ve added plenty of great multiplayer features. One of the best features would be the 16-player co-op play. Yes, 16. Halo 3 created massive hype with four player, but America’s Army hopes to blow that experience out of the water with 16. Just like Halo, players can be either localized, system-linked, or on Xbox Live. You can’t customize your character that much, but you can change the look of your face. And no matter what, you will see yourself and your teammates as the US Army. The other team will look like the enemy, but they will see themselves as the Army as well. It was a development decision to keep the game feeling as a streamlined Army experience. And playing will gain you Army coins. Racking up coins will earn you prizes, we were told, as in physical prizes. “You mean I get something?!” Yes, you will. Once you reach a certain point, you will be given a code to enter at the game’s site. Initial prizes will be Real Heroes action figures (figures with the likenesses of real soldiers), but you can go so far as to earn trips to jump with the Golden Knights and to the Virtual Army Experience. Some impressive incentives, to say the least.

The Virtual Army Experience was something we were lucky enough to get a behind-the-scenes look at. Heading into the experience, you register your name and image to get your nametag (Note: No, it is not registering yourself to the Army, just in case you were worried). Then once you get deployed, you are briefed as to what your mission is, and then you gear up. Hopping into a mock-Hummer, you sit in the back, where you shoot using game controllers, or in the middle/front passenger’s seat, where you get behind a mock turret. A turret?! Yes, a turret. It feels real, and you actually have to use its aiming system in order to nail targets and swing it around from side to side. On the whole, it is a unique experience and much different from simply visiting a museum and touching something like it. It reacts and handles as though it were the real thing. We recommend testing it out should you ever come across it.

And we also recommend taking a closer look into America’s Army: True Soldiers. It won’t be anything revolutionary, but it looks to be a fun ride and a close look into how Army fighting works (though, clearly, it is not anywhere how it is to truly be a soldier). 16-player co-op should be one of its major selling points, but surely it will come back down to being a recruiting tool. Still, it seems to be shaping up to at least be worth a rental, should it return to the quality of its original PC version, as opposed to its console variants. Look for America’s Army: True Soldiers on store shelves October 23rd.

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