America’s Army 3
Developed & Published by the U.S. Army. Free download.

Passed Inspection: Teamwork-oriented, real-world setting, state of the art graphics, in-depth statistics.

Failed Basic: Lack of single-player missions, difficult to get into servers.

Overall, America’s Army 3 continues the exceptional game play that preceded it and provides countless hours of entertainment.

America’s Army 3 is the third installment of America’s Army, a first-person, online, multi-player video game. It is the official video game of the U.S. Army, which also developed and published it. AA3 was created with the intent of giving the player a realistic perspective of the common soldier, with the game play taking a serious approach to teamwork. Players are rewarded throughout the game by working together in teams, securing objectives, confirming enemy kills and healing wounded soldiers. Rewards include advancement through the Honor system, medals, badges and coins.

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To begin with, each soldier must complete basic training. While it’s not a requirement, if you do not finish all training exercises you will not be granted access to some very useful weapons. Basic training is pretty straightforward, beginning with the obstacle course and then moving to rifle marksmanship and weapons familiarization. The training culminates with the combat lifesaving and MOUT course. Pay attention during the lifesaving class because what you learn in this classroom will help you on the battlefield. In AA3, healing wounds is rather easy in most cases. The majority of first aid to teammates will be administered by pressing the space button, but some injuries will give you four choices to pick from. If you took notes in class, you won’t have a problem here, but a wrong pick may reduce your squad by one.

Finally, to graduate basic training you must complete the MOUT course. This entails a room-to-room course that will cover all the basic training skills you’ve learned so far—i.e., identifying enemies, using a smoke grenade and healing a teammate. Once you pass, you are on your way to exchanging fire with real enemies.

The game is broken down into five different maps; Bridge, Ranch, Alley, Impact and Pipeline. Each map is unique and requires a different strategy in order to accomplish your team’s goals. Missions can range from escorting a VIP through a bombed-out town, to defending vital equipment in a house, to securing an attaché case and bringing it to the extraction zone. Games can be as large as 26 players to a server, giving you multiple targets to choose from. If you’re lucky and do neutralize an enemy, you or a teammate must confirm the enemy kill. If this is not done, the enemy can be revived by one of his teammates and end up tormenting you later in the game. Game lengths can run as long as 10 minutes per round and are concluded when one team either completes its objectives or all enemies are neutralized.

Each side is divided into three teams with a squad leader who can set rally points and give commands to the entire squad. Teams are comprised of a fire team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman and grenadier, with one team having the squad marksmen. The squad marksman is your so-called "sniper" but with a twist. Those who are looking to be the lone wolf and stalk their pray won’t be successful in this game. The squad marksman is equipped with M16A4 DMR with an ACOG M150 4x optic scope, not the same as sniper rifles in other FPS games. This means your role is to support your squad, not stalk and wait for the perfect shot.

In order to be promoted from private to sergeant major in America’s Army, you must advance through the Honors system, which goes from 1 to 100. Honor is achieved through what the Army considers to be core values of a soldier: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Integrity and Personal Courage. The average score of these core values comprise your Honor rating. In order to increase each value, you must perform certain duties during your missions including assisting teammates in securing objectives (Loyalty), providing medical assistance to your teammates (Selfless Services) and eliminating enemy soldiers (Personal Courage). Note that friendly fire or shooting an already neutralized enemy can decrease your core values, making it harder to increase your Honor.

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