Alfa: Antiterror
Preview
Explore the world of anti-terrorism
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
In the beginning
It is a sad fact of life in today's world that there is a need for organizations such as the British SAS, SWAT and America's vaulted Delta Force. All of these military special operations units are often used to combat the ever-increasing threat of terrorism. Just about every major power in the world today has a special operations or Spec Ops unit that can be called upon at a moments notice. Well, our good friends in Russia are no different as they have a unit very similar to the elite forces mentioned above. Their unit is called ALFA and this is what this new turn-based strategy game is all about. It's about a real life Spec Ops unit that is very well known and respected through out the world.
MiST land - South is developing Alfa: Antiterror and the publisher is Game Factory Interactive. It is slated for a second quarter or May of 2006 release date. Alfa: Antiterror is all about Russia's attempt at fighting terrorism in the time period from 1984 to the recent past. The campaign begins with the player being assigned as a junior officer starting his career in the Soviet Union's Military effort against the uprising in Afghanistan. He will continue on in the war against terrorism by going through various missions such as the destruction of convoys, covering a retreat, assassinations and various stealth missions like rescuing hostages.
I remember
The game reminded me of X-Com and Jagged Alliance and it has a very rich and in-depth game story line. The briefing screens are chock full of various intelligence data and different maps. Every scenario is based upon historical fact and it is quite realistic in nature. As stated above, the player starts out as a junior officer and is in charge of a unit that is fighting in the Chechen capitol of Groznyy.
You are the Commander
As the unit commander it is the player's responsibility to study the intelligence information and to formulate a plan of attack. You do this by hand picking your team from a roster of sixteen characters. Each of these characters comes complete with different attributes such as the standard dexterity, agility and strength. In addition to these he will have shooting, hearing and other specialized abilities. As the unit commander you will want to pick your squad and equipment based upon the mission objectives. You will want a couple of members to have a high shooting ability so that they can serve as the snipers of the unit. All of the team members will start out as green rookies and as they progress from mission to mission they will gain experience and will get better at what they do. Be aware that if a mistake in planning or execution is made and a team member gets killed, then he stays killed. There are no replacements and as members meet their demise then the unit will be short a man. If a member gets wounded in action then he will need time off from the next mission to mend.
It takes good equipment to win
The equipment and weapons in this game are extremely detailed and there are many of them to choose from. They all come from the Russian arsenal so you can expect to see a lot of AK and other well-known Russian armaments. I really enjoy a game where I can pick and chose from a large inventory of equipment. Each rifle or handgun and all of the equipment have their own detailed description. Other equipment will consist of various body armors, different types of hand grenades, helmets, gloves and other necessary equipment that might be needed to accomplish work such as disposing of terrorists.
