America's Army: Operations

Overall Rating:
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Christian Rating: 4 of 5
   (slightly offensive)
Gameplay: 3 of 5
   (average)
Violence: 3 of 5
   (mild)
Adult Content: 4 of 5
   (barely present)

There is only one aspect of this game: multiplayer. You have a selection of missions to choose from, ranging from destroying weapons caches to escorting VIP's to safety. However, before you can play any of the missions you have to complete basic traning. Most of the training is as simple as listening to the Drill Sergent yell at you. Training ranges from target practice to parachute school. While most training is simple and/or somewhat interesting, some can be very annoying, especially for a game. In order to play as a Medic in the game you have to complete Medical Officer Training. This traning consists of several lectures in a classroom setting after which you have to take a test in order to pass. This can be very boring and even though it's “cheating” if you just want to play the game I would recomend finding the answers to the tests online. You can also play only certain maps after completing SF training which is Extremely hard.

Once you finally complete all the training you want to you can play any number of maps. Except, of course, those that required additional training , or additional honor (the scoring system in the game.) Parents will be happy to note that there is a parental controls section where they can turn on a language filter (not terribly effective but nice) a no blood filter, no advanced marksmanship (so little Johnny can't use the sniper rifle) and the MILES (like laser tag army style) only server filter. Now finally you can play the game.

Graphics: 3-5; Depending on what your computer can support AA:O can look very nice, or very blocky. In general most computers can give out enough that AA will look very nice.

Gameplay: 3; The actual playing is very enjoyable and playing with military tactics can be very amusing, however, there is only one gamemode in AA, team match. This means that you are on a team and you try to thwart the evil terrorist's plot (to the other team you look like a terrorist and vis versa) and once you die you have to wait for the one team to die or for one team to complete te mission. This can be extremely monotonous, especially on maps that take a long time to complete, like "Radio Tower."

Sound: 3; Nothing special here, the sounds are average, the gun sounds are a little sketchy but not bad.

Violence: 3; Depending on whether you have the blood filter on makes very little difference in the violence catargory, it is barely visable and only appears as a light mist when you see a player from just the right angle after he is shot. What gives this game a 3 is the introduction of Rag-Doll physics. With this “enhancement” players arn't limited to a set number of death animations, dead players will roll down stairs, lean against walls, flip, etc, depending on how they are hit. For less sensitive gamers this can actually be an interesting despite from just watching your team after you die.

Christian Value: 4; Nothing really offensive except for the violence and the occasionally jerk who will swear/use crude language, however the Administrators of the servers are usually pretty good about removing those players.

Well, you get what you pay for, which is nothing. The game is not bad, but it isn't great either. There are many annoying aspects of the game, such as training, and the bugs that pop up seem to be like a plague of locusts. The [DEV] team tries hard but they have a hard time keeping up with updates. All in all, if you are bored, download the game and get a few hours of enjoyment from it, but if your computer can't handle it or you are looking for a really nice FPS, look elsewhere.

Year of Release—2001

Christian Spotlight Guide2Games is part of Christian Answers. Copyright © Films for Christ. • “Christian Spotlight’s Guide to Games” and “Guide2Games” are service marks of Films for Christ.