Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Close Combat First to Fight: USMC Drills for Close Urban Combat





I was working on the second entry about the use of USMC tank-infantry teams in ARMA 2, slowly moving through an urban area with my virtual Marines (AKA herding cats, it's not easy to control AI teams in ARMA 2) when I remembered how easy was to control a fire team in this other shooter ...

... Close Combat: First to Fight.

I'm not claiming Close Combat First to Fight (CCFTF) is a realistic simulation, or that I'm going to drop ARMA 2 for it. CCFTF is a heavily scripted game, with a linear gameplay and all the marks of your regular first person shooter. But, credit where its due, your fireteam AI knows its Marine drills and this allows you to focus on the tactical situation instead of the minutiae of positioning them.


360 degree coverage. Look how the guy in the right is covering an open door. And yes, I am dropping the ball not looking at my sector. But somebody had to take the picture ...


Take down and frag. Sometimes it feels like you are playing SWAT4. But yes, the Marines have done this type of things in Fallujah.

CCFTF was released some 5 years ago. It is about the US Marines in a fictional conflict in Beirut. All battles are fought in urban terrain at very close range. This game concept was kinda recycled for the controversial "Six Days in Fallujah" game. Apparently it will be recycled yet again in this other game: Marines Modern Urban Combat.

Later on I will post more examples of the types of drills the fireateam AI can do in this game.

Cheers,


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