“Alliance of Valiant Arms” (“AVA”) is a free first-person shooter game developed by Red Duck, and published by IJJI. This game takes place in a fictional modern day setting. A war springs up between the EU, consisting of the United States, France and the United Kingdom, and the NRF, consisting of Russia and most of Eastern Europe. Vladimir Mashkov recreates the Warsaw Pact, a group of countries under an alliance. Jump into a map and kill other people in order to complete objectives.

“AVA” has unique game modes as well as classical modes. This game applies original ideas to classical modes. In Annihilation (in other words, death match) players collect dog tags, which contribute to the score. This rule is pretty unique, because players do not see dog tags used like this in other shooter games. Additionally, some maps have artificial intelligence filling in for spots that are empty. The idea is good, but the AI tend to run into enemy grenades and to neglect taking cover. Another original game mode is Convoy, where the EU tries to deliver a safe box to a designated area, while the NRF attempts to stop them. This particular mode is an intense, fun game, because players fly all around the map trying to control one black box. The race can be funny, because players can sneak into a certain route and get the safe box into the drop off point without the defending team noticing.

Another game mode is Demolition, which requires the EU to plant a bomb, a C4, on a bomb point. The NRF attempts to prevent the EU from setting off the C4. These games are for more experienced players, because the routes are narrow, which makes people easy targets. Escort missions have these same types of routes, but require different objectives. The EU tries to move a tank to a certain destination, while the NRF tries to stop them with a special type of rocket launcher, the RPG7. The classical game play can lead to highly competitive games, so be on your guard for competitive players. I witnessed many hosts kicking other players, including myself, for low kill ratios in many games. The most fatal flaw within this game is the community, which underlines what the game truly means.

The community has some nice people within the forums for sure. There are FAQ’s to different game modes, information about becoming professional and a lot of good novice guides. There are also unnecessary games played on the forums. The three word game is where people post three words and try to come up with stories that wind up having sexually unacceptable themes. That’s only off game. On the game, players spam random insults at each other. A good example comes from the signature of a player, iPoot. On the bottom of the signature, this one angry player has another player calling him or her a nerd and a hacker. I don’t know why this happened, but I do know that good games do not have players insulting each other. A game should be played without putting down the other player. At least, there are no microphone capabilities in “AVA.’ The microphone spam in “AVA” would hurt my ears.

The game does not need microphones. The game has a textual system that allows players to communicate to one another using pre-written commands. The NRF speak in legit Russian, which shows how hard the developers had worked on this game. The intro music to the game sounds interesting, because the music fits with the war-like scenery of the game. Players should check out the sounds and the visuals within the game.

The graphics to this game are gorgeous! Players can enjoy different types of environments within the game, such as deserts and factories, and a lot of others. I particularly like the lighting effects within the map, Cold Case. The lights are blue for the EU and red lights are for the NRF. Additionally, I love the water display in Castle Rock, because it just looks so real!

I would suggest this game to anyone who likes to deal with angry people with guns, or who is really into digital design, because the graphics are just amazing!

Reggie Kwok can be reached at [email protected]