My Thoughts On... A.W.O.L.

I'm not entirely sure what "mil-spec FPS" is supposed to mean, but here's my thoughts on the game that describes itself as such.
I highly recommend watching Icarus' thoroughly entertaining video on the original "oops, wrong build" release version: • A.W.O.L. - Heart Of Ja...
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[@jax199]

I got impressed by the game getting a somewhat functional basic tactical experience running in an old school engine (the 0,00$ price tag helped). Caught myself wondering what the devs could do if they could get proper funding and more time (a sequel or another Build game, one can dream). Also, the Build engine doesn't get nearly as much love as the GZDoom, so I hope that the game inspires others to jumpstart their own projects, setting up improvements and avoiding errors, so that we get something like Supplice, Hedon or Selaco and Captain Wayne (last two still in development, demos avaliable) did with the GZDOOM. Ion Fury is good, but it's nowhere near enough.

[@DWTerminator]

To be fair regarding the "Build doesn't get nearly as much love as Doom" situation... the Doom engine is a lot easier to work with than Build.

[@jax199]

@@DWTerminator I know. Read about it once. The whole code is held together with the programming equivalent of silver tape and prayers. It's a miracle it still managed to turn out such things as Blood and Duke Nukem 3D. Still hoping that projects like Ion Fury (and the Aftershock DLC) and AWOL are successful enough to inspire more people to make games on it.

[@Garcia1995]

​@@DWTerminatorJust a heads up, the last time we saw a proper tactical shooter with campaign and AI was 2011's Operation Flashpoint Red River.

[@DWTerminator]

Operation Flashpoint goes past "tactical shooter" and directly into milsim territory. Hence me not counting them. That said, Dragon Rising and Red River certainly aren't quite as "sim-ey" as the first game or the later ArmA series.

[@Garcia1995]

@@DWTerminator That is true, thanks for correcting me.

[@playlistanonymous5414]

Milspec means military specification or military standard. In other words, misappropriating terms for advertising fodder.

[@1998topornik]

This game is quite a chaotic experience.

[@quanghuynguyenang8455]

Yes, it's tactical FPS if you play on hard mode minimum, otherwise it's a CoD clone for real... Call of Duty that made in Duke3d engine

[@johnhighway7399]

Hey DW, do you not update your game requests anymore? I sent a form a couple of months ago but I don't see it listed (the game was Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, the OG "Men of War").

[@DWTerminator]

Thought I'd put it on the list already. Apparently I hadn't. Fixed now.

[@brickproduction1815]

I did once tried to make a tactical shooter out of the raycasting game engine so imaigne tactical wolf3d and the setting was during the Iraq war. The entire game was quite slow and thoughtful but i didnt finish making the game before it was lost forever

[@jax199]

Consider playing and watching Insurgency Sandstorm and Six Days in Fallujah for some inspiration

[@UnchainedEruption]

Hey DW, have you ever played Spore? You've probably heard that 42 is the answer to the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Well, EA's next best guess was the game "Spore" in 2008. From the simplest bacteria, to land mammals, to tribes and civilizations, to space-faring colonizations the game is pretty much the story of evolution--past present, and future. I had never heard of it until a while ago, but it is one of the coolest, most unique ideas for a video game that I've ever seen.

[@UnchainedEruption]

And what's stranger still, is that they development team behind it actually did a collaboration with Seth Green and the writers of Robot Chicken.

[@UnchainedEruption]

It's a free mod, and a very ambitious one at that. I think you're being overly critical. As a standalone mod, it is quite impressive, even if not really all that fun. I think I tried it once as a weird oddity, but Modern Military shooter inside classic Build engine isn't my thing. I like both genres in their own arenas, but together? Eh, not as appealing.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

I can tell from the footage that you seem to have given up on the game at the city level, which is understandable since the design of that map is absolutely psychotic and the engine stutters like crazy trying to load in that gigantic area. They should have made this a stealth game instead of this call of duty thing. Also the story is hilarious in how invasive and impossible to follow it is. Still, I like that it exists, i just wish they polished it a lot more.

[@DWTerminator]

I actually played through the whole thing despite this being an MTO. That city level was definitely awful, and yes, the story's practically incomprehensible.

[@jayd1os400]

I just got curious, anytime that you playthrough Doom do you mess around with mods, such as the Brutal Doom mod on occasion?

[@DWTerminator]

When I play Doom, I mostly play more or less vanilla. I say "more or less" because I normally use the GZDoom source port and that's not completely vanilla.

[@NebLleb]

I immediately put AWOL in my library, because this video has made it extremely funny. It looks genuinely like one of the best "worst" games ever according to your hilarious analysis and descriptions. They honestly should've jumped over to the GZDoom engine during development, but alas... Oh, well, might as well stick to the original Rainbow Six series (R61 - Vegas 2), Ghost Recon 1 and the Advanced Warfighter sequels, SWAT 4 and Ready or Not for my tactical shooter fix... AWOL is only worth playing for shits and giggles. Thanks for warning me to only play this game if I feel like having a good laugh at a game that genuinely tried, but failed in for one reason or another.

[@brickproduction1815]

I tried the game. Technically its impressive but i dont really enjoy this

[@TheAlanReviews]

Does Brothers in Arms have artificial intelligence on par with AWOL?

[@DWTerminator]

Brothers in Arms' AI is better.

[@fmsyntheses]

This is mean and uncharitable and not at all fair, but frankly it gave me Xtreme Paintbrawl vibes. If anyone remembers that trash.

[@pacmikey1763]

This game has one of the worst stories ive ever seen. Why couldnt they just do the classic trope of having no story at all? Just say "terrorists wanna destory everything, you are our last hope!"