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

• More messaging when unable to connect to server for particular circumstances like full servers, etc
• More enhancements to PunkBuster implementation
• Adds in switching viewpoints during pb validation and adds in messaging to let player know something is happening
• Streamlined the server connect
• Adjusted the ftmp cleanup logic so it works properly on the server
• New Auth SDK that fixes MBS query issues, several crashes, and memory leaks
• Better feedback to players kicked from training due to not being qualified
• Fixes to player count in Internet Browser
• Fix for hud decrementing frag grenade round display when 320 ammo types are switched
• Frag grenade loadout fixes
• Cleanup of client stat file on startup so bad stats won’t hang players joining training
• Removes “player didn’t play in round” debugging message from logs
• Fixes accessed nones caused by mission lost statistics when player isn’t alive at end of round
• Adjustments to clan tag support to allow use of a prefix (+ is add it as a suffix, – add as prefix, and anything else uses the “of xxx” format from 3.0.4)
• Prevent going prone while tossing a grenade
• Report full server to user message and bad/wrong password to user in message box after being kicked from server
• Adds in ability to left click on a server in MBS and have its information updated if it hasn’t been updated recently (in last 10 minutes)
• Adds new message box if the connection times-out so user knows what happens if they step away and the client fails to connect to the server
• Added pbsetup and a simple batch wrapper to call necessary commands to setup a system for using PB (Binaries\pbsetup_help.bat)
• Added PunkBuster setup steps to installation

The update can be installed by just restarting your Steam client. If you haven’t checked the game out, it’s a free download, so unless you’re afraid of the U.S. Army brainwashing you into enlisting, give it a try.

• Improved console help
• Added Clan support. Add clan tag in Account Settings. You must change information while in single player mode for now.
• Admin VOIP Improvements
• New “version” console command to see the current version
• Server browser performance improvements
• Fixes joining password protected servers so it no longer selects the server underneath the mouse cursor when clicking on the “Join” button in the password entry dialog.
• Fix for settings menu improperly closing when ESC pressed and leaving the player stuck with no UI and limited control
• Mission generation optimizations
• Fixed issue with logging into game servers that sometimes used another player’s soldier profile.
• New TS3 SDK integrated
• Improves how server manages authentication objects
• Fixes issue with players being added to the scoring system not having all of their scoring data written.
• Fixes issue where players not logged into MBS were being logged out if they left the server prior to authenticating
• M320 grenade attaching issue resolved.
• Dedicated server title bar now shows mission and player details
• Fixes the “Waiting for other players” UI so it now appears again.
• Removes some server logging
• Increased communications handling to support when all players use heavy load outs. This may correct many instances where players didn’t spawn correctly or get the correct load out.
• Fixes the M320 getting an extra round of ammo
• Fixes the Account Settings password changing not working properly
• Fixes the IRC link not working
• Fixes the displayed mission type (assault/defense/etc.) shown in the battle planner so it displays properly after side-swapping

However, that appears not to be the case, as the new developer has released the second major patch in a week, addressing a number of issues. The new changes include:

• Removes Password from AA3Launch.log
• Fix for MBS not working after server changes to a new map
• Fixes TeamReady in Mission Preplanning
• Updated authentication SDK to improve reliability and performance
• Fix for freezing on training mission load
• Improved performance on loading maps/training missions
• Fixed several small memory leaks
• Fixed performance issue with server that caused it to load UI elements into the server (where they aren’t needed) and thus use up additional CPU and memory.
• Modified training authentication so it is more efficient
• Modified AMD negative delta time exception handling so it no longer stops the server or client, but just logs the event
• Fixed Admin add Player Admin
• Fixed Admin kicking of players. Now works properly with Soldier name and has optional kick by player ID
• Add new AdminListPlayers to get list of players and their player ID’s
• Removes most of the server log spam, especially that tied to missions and mission setup and ROE
• Fixes several issues related to ROE firing off when player is bleeding, asphyxiating, or falling after being wounded by ROE
• You can now strafe on ladders so you don’t get stuck in Pipeline or Obstacle Course. Strafe too far and you fall off, just like AA 2.x
• Modified program startup to clear out any old ATS temporary files
• Improved scoring messaging support for training missions
• Fixes several scoring issues
• Optimizes more of the authentication code and adds better exception handling in it
• Adjusts STS (stats) integration to better detect invalid objects to avoid crashes
• Fixes issues with single player stats not correctly initializing all of the time
• Adds feedback to UI when player purchases training until purchase is complete (says “Purchasing”)
• Modifies MBS to track how many players are playing vs. how many players are on the server (player + Spectators) and now MBS browser only shows the number of players (so the count won’t exceed max players)
• Turns HUD off whenever menu is activated (still an issue with battle planner activation the first time, however)
• Adjusts the close menu logic to always close properly so double menus should no longer happen

Accompanying the game is a new America’s Army graphic novel, further brainwashing developing the story line of America’s Army.

America’s Army 3 is built from ground up using the Unreal Engine 3 and the Steam version will include all the features as regular games, like auto-updating, Steam achievements and Steam cloud.

America’s Army 3 is rebuilt from scratch using the Unreal Engine 3, and will have several new features, including ranking and new weapon unlocks.