America's Army 3
America's Army 3
Sorti le 3 mai 2009 sur PC via la plateforme Steam, America's Army 3 est un jeu de tir à la première personne développé et édité par l'U.S. Army. Conçu sur le moteur Unreal Engine 3, ce titre s'inscrit dans la lignée d'une série lancée en 2002 et présentée comme un outil de communication stratégique et de recrutement destiné à permettre au public de découvrir virtuellement l'armée américaine. Le jeu mise sur l'authenticité militaire en intégrant des éléments réalistes d'entraînement, de technologie, d'armement et d'audio, le tout servi par des personnages, des environnements et des effets de lumière décrits comme très soignés.
Le gameplay repose sur le respect strict des règles d'engagement (Rules of Engagement) et privilégie la cohésion d'équipe dans des opérations multijoueurs de type force-on-force. L'expérience de jeu propose quinze combinaisons de cartes et de missions ainsi qu'un système de progression lié à des entraînements avancés permettant de débloquer de nouvelles aptitudes et de personnaliser son équipement. La version Steam ajoute à cela un système de succès, de médailles et de distinctions, ainsi que la sauvegarde des paramètres de clavier via le Steam Cloud.
Côté accueil, le titre affiche une note Metacritic de 70 et une note agrégée de 55,11. La presse spécialisée a souligné des qualités tactiques : IGN a notamment qualifié le jeu de « shooter plus intelligent que la plupart » exigeant travail d'équipe et coordination, ce qui rend la réussite d'autant plus gratifiante. GameStar a pour sa part estimé que l'expérience pouvait être « vraiment bonne » à condition de disposer d'une bonne connexion et de trouver des partenaires motivés et coopératifs, tout en notant que l'accès aux parties pouvait prendre du temps. Du côté des joueurs, les avis divergent : certains témoignent des bienfaits de l'entraînement virtuel sur leur condition physique, tandis que d'autres déplorent, des années plus tard, une communauté inactive ne laissant subsister que quatre missions d'entraînement solo d'une dizaine de minutes chacune.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« This is a shooter that's more intelligent than most and that requires more teamwork and coordination, but that makes the rewards of success that much more enjoyable. »
« America's Army 3 can be really good if you have a good connection to the server and if you can find other motivated and cooperative players. But it can take hours until you are able to find that combination. The US army should fix the problems if they want to make a good impression. »
« A decent online FPS - provided you can find a player slot, that is. [Issue#23, p.57] »
« Lovers of real-world ballistics, cautious tactics and persistent stats will be eager recruits. [Nov 2009, p.80] »
« A realistic, but relatively bland title that's part recruitment poster and part tame FPS. [Sept 2009, p.62] »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Training has helped me so much playing against all odds environmental, Health and Fitness. My thanks to U.S Army for making amazing creation to help maintain a healthy mind body and soul. My family appreciates the education that is available help us work in our daily life. »
« Game is completely dead, which is not a surprise after all these years. All that’s left are four single player training missions which last ‘about’ ten minutes each (it will take longer to download the game). So just move along not much to see here. »
« I really like this game and has a good amount of difficulty to it. I thought voice actors for the generals were so realistic and the tutorial made me feel like I was at boot camp. I was just disappointed that there was no external controller support but with the accuracy of the shooting, I don't think it could have been done any other way. Good Luck Serving Your Country!!!! »
« A bad interface, however that can not be a reason for a bad review and you're right, however having to wait 20 minuits to join a game and when you finally enter seeing terrible graphics and again WASD controls for an azerty keyboard is enough reason for me to delete this game directly from my pc. »
« This game is a very one of a kind game. It is a hard game. It has a fairly steep learning curve, and on many times has frustrated me enough to quit playing, but it has given me a sense of teamwork and success like no other shooter has. The difficulty and intensity of the matches is awesome and exciting. I wouldn't recommend any COD or Halo fan try this game just because it is so vastly different, the hit system and medic systems are so much more realistic. If you have a mic and you are interested, give it a try but be patient with it. »
« This game tries to be a new cod style game, but fails in every facet. The older version (aa2) was much better at keeping players busy. This version kept players away with bugs and poor execution in every possible way. »
« The worst game to ever take up space on my hard drive. Firstly the gameplay is horrific, it attempts to create a serious realistic war experience and fails incredibly. There are many in the game such as sprinting whilst reloading and fiddly movement with the weapon which makes the game terrible to play. The graphics are ugly and i think everyone should avoid this game despite the free to play tag. Terrible game. »
« This game is very interesting. It uses the unreal engine and was commissioned by the US government. The game is also used as a military simulator apparently according to wikipedia. This game is heavily focused on tactics and reasonable decisions. You can't rush at the enemy and soak up bullets. Die once in a round and you are out and when you get hit by a bullet you're hit by a bullet. You fall to the ground dead or suffer a crippling injury. If you die you don't respawn but are out for the round. Depending on the round this can become only a couple of minutes or longer than half an hour. I enjoyed the game but it kind of discouraged me from joining the armed forces... because I died alot. »
