The series went downhill. I presume that the success brought on the ever-clueless money men. Later installments are arcades as opposed to experiences. Then again, maybe the objective with the later series is just to make money and art is just a side-show.
Does anyone know of comparable games?
For me, the other most significant experience was playing a heavily-modded ARMA 2 in an online community called United Operations (that was some ~5 years ago maybe). It was a community dedicated to realism and simulation of military engagements. They simulated various eras and conflicts, from Vietnam to the invasion of Iraq (99% of content we used was community made).
They used ACRE, which is by far the most sophisticated in-game voip system I'm aware of: you can talk, you can whisper, you can shout, and there's a dozen of different real radios that simulate everything from range to interference. You could even hook up one radio (like squad radio) to one ear, and a platoon radio (if you're a squad lead) to your other ear. You could run a radio from a HMMW's speaker. ACRE was responsible for at least 70% of the immersion, realistic comms are that effective in multiplayer.
There are some things I experienced playing ARMA 2 that I still remember so vividly as if it happened just now. I remember experiencing mild shock because of the tension build up.
One of those memories is a night mission. Our side is Taliban and we're preparing an ambush. The opposing side, US forces, have to escort a VIP through our valley. Taliban's objective was to capture the VIP _alive_. We know US will be equipped with night-vision devices, while we'll have to rely on natural sight. It was overcast fullish-moon, so our visibility I'd say was around 5-10 meters, maybe less. We had trucks, so we parked them in crucial spots and turned on the headlights. Later, during the engagement, I didn't hear our trucks being repositioned, so I presume that either it was too dangerous or they weren't that effective, or their lights were simply shot out.
Anyway, the valley was narrow, less than 100 meters probably, and we setup in a small village that covers the whole width of the floor of the valley. I don't remember if we were 100% certain that they'd come through here, there might have been a parallel ambush site higher on the valley wall. They came through this village.
US forces were mounted, but didn't have any type of support (no air, no arty, no armor, nothing larger that .50 cal). The way villages were built in this region was wall-to-wall buildings with occasional gaps in between where vehicles can't pass or risk getting stuck while zig-zagging through the irregular arrangement of buildings. Only one road ran through the village. US forces could approach from the valley walls or from the valley floor while dismounted, but they would likely try to get their light vehicles through the village as well to get fast transport through and out of the valley.
We, the Taliban, had a normal platoon style hierarchy, but it was of minimal use and we were mostly lone gun-men, because we couldn't coordinate. The capacity of this game to simulate and immerse in coordination is huge. We couldn't coordinate, because A) we practically couldn't see each-other (or often the enemy), because of the dark and because we were spread thin, B) we couldn't shout, because we couldn't afford to give away our position, C) we didn't have individual radios, like for example US spec-ops would.
I was a ligt machine gunner. We tried to spread ourselves evenly as possible. My position was relatively deep in the village, near the main road. At first I was covering any incursion from the valley wall, later after the initial gun-fights died down I moved to a nearby road-side house. I lay prone in that house, watching the road at a near 90 degree angle through an open door-way. I could see and fire upon a stretch of about 5 meters of road, depending on how close the target passed to the building.
90 degree angle wasn't convenient fire-power wise, ideal angle being 0 degrees, i.e. facing the traffic full-on. However, since those who I lay in ambush of had night-vision, if I had used a shallower angle they might have seen me before I saw them. With a 90 degree angle, I would have a very narrow time-window to engage, but it would be at a distance where night-vision advantage was negated and I was unlikely to be spotted before I opened fire.
The main thing about this experience was the atmosphere of what I can only call the loudest silence. Since we had such a severe sight disadvantage, we didn't maneuver. Well some of us did probably, to some extent, but I practically stayed put, changing positions only once in maybe 30-40 minutes to watch over the road, until the firefight that is.
All this time, you watched the dark, where you weren't even sure you could make out a human figure if there was one. You listened to shots and ricochets somewhere on the outskirts of the village, a flare (probably hip fired) was popped a few times. You tried to make out faint sounds around you: foot steps? Is someone slowly stalking? Imagination was as much a problem as the night blindness. You could never relax: you had to control the sounds you made, the movements, you had to listen to the sounds behind you, making sure you don't get shot in the back while lying on the ground. You had to move as little as possible, because even with NVG a still prone figure can be hard to make out. All this contributed to a strong sense of tension that was gradually growing.
As the time passed, I could hear less and less firefights, and, more importantly, fewer and fewer signs of friendly activity. It was increasingly hard to tell if there's still 20-30 of us left, or just me. This hiked up the tension even more.
By now I was in the road-side building, watching the road. In the distance I heard a motor, faint. Then the sound started growing louder. There was a light vehicle in the village and it was revving.
My hands were already moist, but now my heart was climbing my throat. I could hear the car approaching fast, accelerating hard out of the turns. Was it a friendly car? Or, was it enemy? Will I be able to hit a car going 70km/h at an agle of 90 degrees from a distance of maybe 5 meters? Do I reposition? I have only seconds to decide.
The road was already down-sight. When the car's engine became so loud I couldn't possibly imagine it getting any louder, I pulled the trigger pressing it to the guard and I kept it there.
My gun released a deafening and blinding spew of white fire. After a moment, the car passed through my fire at a very high speed. I saw it for a split second. Headlights were not on.
As soon as it passed, I released the trigger. In retrospect, my eyes were probably adjusting to the again dark scene, and my ears were probably ringing, because I didn't have ear protection, but I didn't notice any of it. My heart was about to jump out of my chest.
I jumped up off the ground and I ran outside, hoping to pepper the car from behind as it sped away. As I left the house I heard a crash. This was one of the last buildings in the village, and the car, after passing me, went off-road and hit a tree dead-on and that's where I saw it.
It was one of our trucks. 4 person AWD. I was sure that it was hostile, but in retrospect I couldn't have been 100% sure.
I started sprinting towards it, lugging my unergonomic gun. When I got within about 15-20 meters of it, standing squarely behind it, panting, I put the gun to my shoulder and sprayed long bursts at the passanger compartment aiming at the back window.
The game abruptly ends. We lost. The VIP was on that truck. My first burst incapacitated the driver, so the truck crashed. My second and last set of bursts killed the VIP. I came within seconds of delivering victory and instead I forfeited the game. Best gaming experience ever.
This very long recitation of something I did years ago hunched up at my computer is in its own way a testiment of how immersive a good game can be.