The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Chanced upon the demo of Alfa : Anti Terror developed by MiST Land South and published by Game Factory Interactive in 2005 while looking for the Hired Guns : Jagged Edge demo (which unfortunately doesn’t work on my PC).

Take note that the following info relates only to the demo and the full game may be different – that being said, I haven’t never seen this game being sold in SG before

In Alfa : Anti Terror, you control up to 4 squads of 4 soldiers each – all drawn from the Alfa Group, a dedicated Russian counter-terrorist unit. In the demo mission set in Chechnya, you control 2 squads of 4 members each and attempt to break out of an encirclement by numerically superior Chechen fighters and make it to an Russian outpost.

© Game Factory Interactive

Compare and contrast the heavily armoured Alfa Group soldiers (top) against Chechen fighters (bottom)

Players of Battlefront’s Combat Mission series will immediately notice the similar gameplay in Alfa : Anti Terror. albeit in a smaller scale focusing on infantry engagements. There is the additional ability to customize your soldiers’ equipment and weapons too. (these are special forces troops, after all)

© Game Factory Interactive

Assault equipment screen (above) and sniper equipment screen (below)

Each soldier is categorized as an assault, grenadier (unavailable in demo) or sniper specialist and therefore can use only appropriate weapons from the armory. Assault specialists can use the usual assault rifles, suppressed SMGs and light machineguns whereas snipers have access to a range of different designated marksman/sniper rifles from the common Dragunov SVD to the suppressed VSK-94 or the massive 12.7mm V-94 rifle.

© Game Factory Interactive

Sniper with V-94 in camouflage suit (selected)

Using the we-go style popularized by the Combat Mission games, the computer resolves orders from you and the AI opponent simultaneously. Each “turn” is 20 seconds as opposed to the 1 min turns in Combat Mission since this game focuses on small unit tactics. Also unlike Combat Mission, you are able to issue individual orders to each squad member.

After the orders are resolved, you can watch the replay multiple times from mutliple angles and playback speed and plan your next moves accordingly.

© Game Factory Interactive

Here during the visualization phase, this lucky enemy marksman has been saved by the bullet impacting on the wall in front.

I’ll briefly outline how to issue orders as the interface feels quite uninituitive at the start. Maybe I’m too used to the excellent interface in Combat Mission.

To issue orders to a soldier, you need to click on the soldier on the team panel on top (or press [ and ] to cycle thorough the soldiers) before double-right-clicking to bring up the Orders menu (alternatively click the Orders button on the left bottom). Click on the target/location for the order (e.g move to, observe, attack, etc) to confirm it.

It’s best to memorize the keys needed (which is thankfully not too much of them) and use them to issue orders by selecting the soldier and pressing the appropriate key to issue a certain order and then confirming your choice by left clicking. See below:

The possible orders are pretty well thought out e.g press Z to lay prone and face a certain location which consolidates two actions in a single one.

Some tips to fully enjoy this demo:

• Read the Readme file for the controls or press F1 to view controls while in-game.
• Don’t choose Quickstart because you will end up with a team of eight assault specialists in light armour, hardly suitable when you are suppressed by enemy machinegunners at long range – click on briefing and then manually select your squad members and equip them with better body armour and/or weapons.
• The bar under each portrait indicates the stamina level, not the health level.
• Use the left Shift + cursor keys to rotate camera or hold down right mouse button and drag to change the camera angle.
• You can set the starting position and stance of each team member in any of the five green areas during the deployment phase. Use that to your advantage
• When camouflaged, the background colour of your squad member is green (e.g in grass), otherwise it’s maroon (asphalt roads).

So after playing the demo several times over the last few weekends, here’s a summary of what I like and dislike about the demo.

Likes

• Require proper small unit tactics and proper use of cover to make up for small teams of highly-trained and armored soldiers
• Soldier weapon and equipment customization
• Enemy AI quite good in using ambush techniques to overwhelm your troops
• Unit AI able to react well to enemy fire without need for excessive micromanagement. It’s still better to prioritize certain targets by manually targetting them with an attack order (A).

Dislikes

• Clunky interface – using hotkeys alleviates most control issues
• 3D camera quite fiddly at times
• Little personality in the squad members – all share the same voice and look almost alike – but then you can’t have much variety when all your squad members are wearing balaclavas, can you?
• Difficult to determine the exact level of possible enemies in multi-storey buildings via the location indicators

This game is pretty fun if you can get over the control system and camera, or have a healthy interest in small unit tactics. Besides there’s only so few games featuring Russian special forces in English

Download the demo from Yahoo! Games (361.8 MB)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
FM 3-90 – Tactics
Jagged Alliance 3 Trailer
Liberian Army Tactics
Stalker: Shadows Over Chernoybl Wallpapers