Project Reality

Ever fired a weapon? I mean a real weapon, a fully auto smokin' sum'bitch? More particularly, ever fired an actual G3, L85A1, or an MP5? Have you ever smoked up an RP as your squad exfil'd to the staging area only to take a lucky (or unlucky, depends on the direction) bullet to the face? Very few Australians in this day and age will actually experience the shaking numbness of unloading at full-auto, even less likely is us having to taste the bitter adrenaline and debilitating fear that war brings. Black Sand Studio's Project Reality is going to bring you closer than ever before to this feeling.

 

 

Project Reality (or PR as it's known to its devotees) is a full Battlefield 2 mod. You're going to recognise the character animations and movements and it also has vehicles of all sorts much like the parent franchise but the familiarity stops there. The team at Black Sand Studios have created a very special game from the bf2 framework, it is a complete and excruciatingly thorough redesign that turns your favourite shooter into an unrelenting war simulator.

 

There is the usual absence of a HUD on your screen however it doesn't stop there. At the bottom of your screen is a compass and it's one of the most useful tools in your arsenal. No longer do you need to interpret the cry of "snipers on the tree line". Instead you're going to hear "snipers at 125 degrees high". Snap to that direction and depending on how close you are to whoever called it you will see snipers at that degree mark. If your squad is separated (a bad idea) then you will refer to your minimap. Calling in those same snipers is different; you'll call it with a grid and position reference ("firebase spotted at D3 numpad 4 {where the numpad is overlayed on the grid-square}).

 

First things first, if you're an e-whore this is not the game for you. Each team (apart from Rebels) has pretty much just the one weapon. Most classes carry a variant; the Brits for instance work from the L8 series and the US from the M16 family. There are however many specialist (or "limited") kits. These can be picked up from friendly flags, vehicles, rally points and firebases. Some kits like the HAT (Heavy Anti-Tank or "arsehat" to the opposition) can only be picked up from flags or firebases whereas other kits like the marksman or light anti-tank can be picked up from anywhere named above. If ever you get the chance, you must try out the sniper rifle on a forest map. With two levels of zoom it's not just a long finger of death, it's a vital kit used to scout forward enemy positions and report these to your squad leader. Don't whore a particular kit though, choose whatever is right for your team at the time or whatever your squad leader request. I personally will kick you if you persist in ignoring my kit requests. Kits are limited by squad numbers, composition and time. You can only have one type of a particular kit in any one squad and some kits won't become active until a certain period of time has passed in the game (same as some vehicle assets that won't spawn in for the first 20 minutes).

 

Philosophical motivators aside, games since the very earliest known titles are all about killing things before they kill you. Title after title pits you as the muscled protagonist, alone and outnumbered but bearing gigantic guns that scream "fuck off before I melt your face". PR however teaches us that the first into the breach is also the first into the casket. Gone is your magic body armour, able to take a hail of bullets and keep you alive. Instead, one shot is going to make you bleed, hard. Your screen will start to gray as you bleed out, place a bandaid on it and it will stem the flow but you need a medic soon or you're going to die. Problem is, if you run to meet your medic you'll tear the wound wide open and meet only your maker instead. One the second shot, you're dead. For the good of your squad you have an idea about where it came from because a well-camped shooter will take out your entire squad. The beauty of PR, the part that turns away every arcade-med-whore player who joins is the bullet deviation. You can't bunny-hop or prone-spam in PR, you need at least 2.5 seconds scoped in and still before you'll hit what you're shooting at and even up close at full auto you'd better be prepared to wrestle the recoil.

 

To play PR you first need to own Battlefield 2. To give 'nilla players a clearer picture of what PR plays like I will now look at a few scenarios and see how each game interprets it.

Vanilla: You run up the sloped road towards the hotel flag. You duck behind a barrier and crouch spam as you single shot the two snipers off of the roof. Switching to the grenade launcher you rocket a 'nade next to the scan trailer and pick up a quick two kills. Prone-spamming across the flag you hold off three more troop spawns as you grey out the flag in 10 seconds.

PR: You run up the sloped road towards the hotel flag, you duck behind a barrier and your screen goes black with the message 'you are critically wounded'. You hear your squad leader calling you a fucking idiot and telling you to follow orders next time.

 

Vanilla: Taking off from the carrier you fly into the frontlines. Switching quickly between the pilot and gunner seat you thread a TV missile through a crack in a fence and assplode an APC. Turning around you run some rockets through a group of infantry finishing with a loop-the-loop to punctuate your ownage.

PR: Hopping into the chopper you hit accelerate, flip upside down and kill yourself, a command truck and your two passengers. You hear the commander screaming something about 'arsehole's wasting assets' and your negative team-score gets you kicked from the server.

 

Vanilla: your squad leader, a true team player, sits out of danger near a flag as your squad spawns off of him and eventually caps it to win the match.

PR: your squad leader, a true team player, sits outside of the flag radius. He gets waxed by a roving S&D squad. They predict your squad's path of approach to the nearby flag, task two men to find your rally while the rest come in behind you, destroying you with nades and the M249 SAW. Your team loses and everyone knows it was your squad who lost the vital point. Your kitten poos on your shoe.

 

 

Project Reality brings with it the death of the pub hero. Heroic deeds are many, but it will almost always be as the result of great squad work. The game mechanics themselves make squadding up a must. Firstly let's look at the PR squad. Once you have 3 team mates in your squad you can select the Officer kit. The Officer kit will have a scoped rifle (or an un-scoped AK for the Rebels), a laser designator (binoculars with 2 x zoom), 3 patches (tampons or bandaids as they are known in the field) and a range of other weapons/tools. Most importantly you are able to communicate with the commander, set markers on the map and set down rally points (RP). A rally point is a spawn point for your squad (and your squad only) as well as a place that can provide limited kits. It looks like either a small mound of camouflaged sacks with your flag on them or a pile of crates and netting (in the Rebel's case). In order to place an RP you need two of your squad members to be in your vicinity, so in a firefight or where your original RP is compromised it is vital that the squad stick together. Holding fire when heading to a desired RP location is also a must, many hostile infantry squads will be solely dedicated to hunting down and destroying these points and will use sound to zero in.

 

Let's drive a tank! First you must select the specialist crewman kit; with this you occupy the driver's seat. Then a squad mate gets their own crewman kit and hops in to be your gunner. Congratulations, you are now an effective fighting force. You and your driver have access to powerful binoculars on the X key, use it to identify and engage targets at distance. Choose either your armour piercing sabots or clean out that pesky infantry with a white hot HEAT round. Solo-crewing is out in PR because each time you get in the gunner's seat the weapon is frozen in place for a full 30 seconds; more than enough time for a combat engi to lace you with SOFLAM's or C4. If you are damaged you will need a combat engi, supply crate or a firebase to repair. Seriously damaged vehicles will be unable to drive or move their turret and as main assets (tanks, choppers, jets) have a 20 minute respawn time it is vital to keep the ones you have running.

Fancy a chopper? Use your T rosette to access special kits and select 'pilot'. Your main weapon is now a pistol, but the good news is you have a parachute. Hop into the driver's seat and sit there for 30 seconds, DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Let your rotors warm up. Once your gunner is in and you're running, gently increase acceleration and take her up. Your chaff is on the X button and considering that AA has a range of 2km+ you're probably going to need it. Heed your map, your commander may place markers indicating hotspots and don't think that armour is a sitting duck, any weapon can hurt you if it hits your windscreen and even the armour at your feet won't hold off a 50 cal. Never head in to AA, you will lose. Your job as the attack chopper is to support troop movements on the ground and acquiring and destroying enemy armour and firebases. Communicate with your CO to identify targets and threats and don't go on crazy solo missions, you are the air wing of a combined arms outfit, you're not MacGyver flying Airwolf.

 

Fancy commanding? Grab an Officer kit and start overseeing the battlefield. The average PR gamer is a mature fellow and all respond well to orders. Reposition squads, share troop movements and keep pressure on flags. The most vital aspect of a commander is their ability to build firebases and defences. At the start of a round you must build the Command Trailer (UAV trailer from bf2). Once this is up any squad leader or commander can build structures as long as they are within short distance of a command truck. Generally, the squad leader requests a build order, the commander approves it then the squad leader marks the spot. Once it has landed (and it will tk if you're too close) you then set two troops on to it to build it with their shovel. Once built you have a spawn point for the entire team and a place to select all specialist kits from. Once that's up you can then build sandbags, razor wire and AA turrets near to the firebase.

 

The thing that will drive you to or from PR, depending on your standpoint, is the tactics. Battles are slow and gruelling affairs at times, interspersed with frantic moments of adrenaline-fuelled chaos. Closing in on the reported position of a hostile RP, wondering if you'll get there in time to destroy it before their reinforcements spawn; providing covering fire so your combat engi can creep up on a stationary APC to plant C4; popping smoke as medic and waiting out the 30 second casualty count on your team-mates knowing there're still hostiles in the area; the beauty of all of these moments is that you must operate as a team to see them to fruition. The most effective squad leaders, of which there can at times be frustratingly few, will dish out orders and expect you to follow them. The smart ones do as they'e told, the rest head back to AK whore on Sharqi. You cannot hunt and take an RP or cap a flag on your own. For an RP you need to co-ordinate and flank; and for a flag, well, you actually have to have two people on it to cap. Great commanders, of which there are less than there are effective squad leaders, will co-ordinate a map like a ballet and good tactics are always rewarded by a strong win. A group of competent squad leaders can provide strong victories, but dedicated CO eyes are always a boon.

 

The rest of Project Reality is there for you to discover. The truth is in the stories, you might play your first round and spend an entire hour (some rounds go for 2) walking without seeing a hostile, and you wonder why you started playing. But the next round your SL will be strong, your squaddies able and willing and your enemy firmly in your sights. It's the co-ordination of a squad, the commitment to an objective and the thrill of the ambush that will fire a sabot into your veins, straight into the hungry maw of your brain, never to let go again.

 

I've barely scratched the surface of PR, my job here was merely to whet your appetite. The 0.75 and patch files (core and levels) are available from most major ISP mirrors. The Australian community is headed up by BigD Gaming and there're plenty of players on every night ready to show you the ropes.

 

 

For Internode clients you can pick it up here;

PR Core: http://games.internode.on.net/filelist.php?filedetails=14315

PR Levels: http://games.internode.on.net/filelist.php?filedetails=14316

PR 0.75 patch: http://games.internode.on.net/filelist.php?filedetails=16050

For GameArena, go here (no patch required);

PR Core: http://www.gamearena.com.au/downloads/details.php/project-reality-v075-mod-for-battlefield-2

PR Levels: http://www.gamearena.com.au/downloads/details.php/project-reality-v075-map-pack

For Westnet 3FL, go here:

PR Levels: http://www.3fl.net.au/downloads/index.php?dlid=872

PR Core: http://www.3fl.net.au/downloads/index.php?dlid=873

PR 0.75 Patch: http://www.3fl.net.au/downloads/index.php?dlid=871

PR scores an 8.5 overall, the team at www.realitymod.com are working on this game constantly with many new elements being added or discarded with each release. Relying on the bf2 engine means that the graphics are what they are... they've squeezed a bunch of extra performance out of the engine, particularly in relation to shadows but ultimately it has the same look to it. I award it a lower score as there is still plenty to come, hopefully they'll migrate it to a new engine sometime soon, either way I need to leave them room to move! What makes PR the number one game on my list is the gameplay, a winning 10 out of 10 for those of you with a tactical or team-based mindset.

 

I have one last thing to say to you and it's vital to your survival. Only the veterans know the deepest meaning of this phrase;

RTFM!