DigitalBattle.com

The third edition of America’s Army has brought several new features, including a new graphics engine. America’s Army 3 (AA3), like its predecessors, is the true “murder simulator” (as Jack Thompson puts it), because, well, it’s made by the US Army to recruit new soldiers. We won’t go into the debate about the game and the Army and the politics of using games to brainwash recruit new soldiers, we’ll focus on the game here. In AA3, you play either as the US Army (the good guys) or the Opposing Force (generic terrorists/baddies). As in previous AA games, you create a soldier, and through battles, you earn XP and level up, unlock new items and so on. None of this is new, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s there and it works as it should, or rather, as advertised.

Before we get deeper into the gameplay, let’s get one thing straight right away and call the game for what it is — a completely free game — America’s Army 3 is worth it. Mind you, it’s no Counter-Strike, nor Battlefield nor ArmA (read our ArmA 2 review here). As a First Person Shooter, America’s Army 3 is in a whole other ballpark, the realism ballpark where only the tough kids play. While it’s still an FPS and a multiplayer shooter, it’s one of the pure kinds of shooters, the ones where there is no mommy, there is no mercy. However, even with those “realism” features, the game doesn’t feel any more realistic than Battlefield 2, it might be on paper, but it doesn’t feel like it.

You’d expect the developers, being the US Army, to know a bit more than the usual FPS developers, and dig deeper into the realism of the FPS genre. Bu they haven’t. AA3 feels like a generic multiplayer shooter, and that’s a shame, because it has some nice aspects. The medic and health systems are great and realistic, the weapons are very detailed and feel realistic, and even the five maps offer a lot of gameplay value. But it’s not a game that will stick with you like Counter-Strike and Battlefield, it doesn’t give you that rush when you play it, it doesn’t make you sit up all night playing it, like you may do with CS and BF2.

To make matters worse, it’s not the best looking game out there. Far from it. Despite the fact that it uses the advanced Unreal Engine 3, it’s no prettier than Counter-Strike Source — an almost five year old game! To say that AA3 is powered by UE3, is an insult to the engine, and an insult to all the games that utilize the engine to its potential, like Gears of War, Bioshock, and dozens of other titles. How the US Army took an engine so powerful, with all its tools and customizations, and make it look so bad, is quite astonishing. The audio is pretty decent, the gun sounds and explosions are realistic, and helps create an, at times, great atmosphere of war.

While America’s Army 3 is free to download and play, it’s not an indication that it’s for everyone. In fact, it’s only for the really hard core FPS fans, those who find Counter Strike too easy, those who are kicked off BF2 servers for being to good (or simply for being Tankwhores…). The game is ruthless and realistic, one shot usually means instant death. If you don’t have the nerves for that, and if you easily get upset because you die too often, it’s probably not or you. However, being a few game, it never hurts trying. You might end up liking it, after all.

The Good:
Very realistic
Completely free
Great audio

The Bad:
Very realistic (again)
Bad graphics
Laggy at times

Overall score: 6/10