British Infantry Mod by Chems

[Rocky]

British Infantry Mod

Author : Chems

Missions : Jack57, H-Hour and Giwex

Weapons : Streinger, Earl and Chems

Reviewer : tmichc, Rocky

Download

Forum discussion : here

Required : Ghost Recon, Island Thunder, Desert Siege

Introduction

For a long time Chems has been quietly (sometimes:-D) slaving away over a hot PC to put together several mods for our continued gaming pleasure. This is one of the few that?s gotten past the beginning stages (remember the SBS Mod you started way back Chems? ;-)) and been released. As a gr.net moderator and all round know-it-all Chems has come on strong since the early days, becoming a respected and proactive member of the community. This (as far as I know) marks his first foray into Total Conversion modding - a British Infantry mod.

Textures/Characters/Vehicles

For the most part the skinning is superbly done, with appropriate patches, webbing equipment, etc correctly modelled and looking good. There are several neat touches, the goggles on the helmet being one of them. The addition of the Lynx (Naval version for some reason) and the Land Rover Defender are nice touches, making a nice change to the usual Hummvees and Blackhawks of the default game, and adding that ?British? feel to the ensemble.

The skins are very well done, with Chems applying all sorts of techniques to get that ?just been spray painted? look for the webbing on his Arctic skins.

The sniper?s ghille suit is amazing, and really must be seen in game to be believed properly. It looks amazing in amongst the terrain of the 3rd mission for instance (capture the radio tower).

The British Army medals instead of the US military ones create an extra feeling of immersion. I wouldn?t go so far as to say that you were playing a different game, but it?s nice to be able to play without seeing the Silver or Bronze Star next to the stats at the end. Speaking of which, the menus and splash screens have been redone to show the Infantry at their best (mainly pics from Operation Telic). The rounded flag emblem was an amusing touch, and fits right in with the ?mood? of the mod.

The only gripe I do have with the mod is the alpha textures for the rotors of the Lynx. They don?t render completely on my system, leaving a square outline at the edges. Other than that the vehicles look perfect.

Weapons

Once again Streinger and Chems have outdone themselves with the weapons. It would always be a challenge to live up to Op Stab and M16 armoury, but the guy?s done good, as they say. Each weapon has been remodelled and retextured, with nicely done textures and a beefier L96 sound.

The improved reticules (by Streinger) for the L85 are a nice touch, if not entirely accurate (I used to carry the L86 in cadets and remember what the view through the SUSAT looked like). However, the reticules do improve the feel of the mod, and are a lot better than using the default GR reticules (where were beginning to become stale). The L86 looks fantastic, and makes me wish even more that we could have deployable bipods in-game to enhance the realism factor. Talking about the bipods, the way they sit just perfectly in the snow on the snow retextured maps (both by Chems with a helping hand from McNamee) is awesome.

The extra weapons are a nice addition, with the AG36 supplying the grenade launcher fetishists out there (I?m more partial to throw the things myself), and a nicely done M249 Para by Earl (love the little Aimpoint sitting on top of it).

To the best of my knowledge (I?ve only got 4 years Cadets experience and numerous books to rely on) the weapons pairings are accurate, though I?m quietly disappointed that there was no FN Browning. I found myself selecting the same kits for each mission though, namely the L85 with frags, the L96 with frags and the M249 Para with frags. No fault of Chems, just the style I like to play. I?m not going to babble on about them any more, try them out for yourselves, see how good they actually are.

Missions

Note: Tapered Arrow, and Cleansing Sword by Jack57, and Blizzard Cannon by Hhour and polished by Giwex.

The cherries on top of the trifle for me. Jack57, as ever, has produced a couple of missions that will have you alternately sweating with fear (will your Ghosts get discovered?) and revelling with the satisfaction of pulling off the mission, with at least half your team intact. I tried playing them on ?Recruit? (and bear in mind I haven?t played properly that much recently) and got suitably thrashed by the enemy (that 100% accuracy thing?s annoying).

They?re hard to complete on SP with a 100% team survival, but I get the feeling that most people would be willing to give it a go time after time. Because the included missions are generally ?thinkers? as opposed to ?doers?, replay value is high (there?s always another way to make sure you don?t get so many rounds flying at you).

In Cleansing Sword you really do have to read the briefing and think ahead. There is no way simply running in with guns blazing will secure a successfully completed mission.

You will want to take note of this guys "sidearm"!

This single player only mission starts off with some great cinematics to set the scene. There are a couple of ?clues? to be had during the movies so pay attention and plan your assault accordingly! There is also a brand new effect in this mission, an early warning system for mines which works a treat, watch out for that one!

The other missions are also suitably high value for (lack of) money, with the assault on the relit beach map a particular favourite of mine. The combination of sniping and grenade throwing/launching will have many a GR player sprinting from cover to cover, hoping that the next arcing frag doesn?t wipe out his team or either of the support teams.

Fire fights are fast and furious, with Tangos converging on you from all sorts of directions (the mission to secure the weapons cache was particularly intense, felt like Zulu at times).

Multiplayer: The included co-op mission is also a real challenge that develops into a real firefight ? very enjoyable, and testing!

Overall conclusions

Apologies for the fractured nature of this review, but to my mind some elements deserve some crossover between categories.

Chems has produced a top-notch Mod for Ghost Recon, one that should see us through the dark period before GR2 comes out. Though he has not pushed the engine to its limits (we have to wait for DYNACOMP for that), as a predominantly solo-made mod it is amazing. The weapons are really nice to look at (annd listen to!), the skins are amazing (would have liked some new OPFOR though), and the missions are (literally) worth dying for. The new vehicles are nice and all are accurately skinned from available source material. The overall level of finish is very high with movies and helicopter cinematics to enjoy.

I have not played for days on end (only time will tell whether it?s a regular fixture on my Activated Mods list like Standard Upgrade is), but I get do like this mod. I may even try the SP campaign again, now Chems has redone a couple of the missions and added the British touches to the game.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

P.S. Look forward to Starship Troopers

Full Contents

3 new snow maps, Stronghold, Wilderness, M14 Mountain

2 New relight maps, Embassy to night and Beach to day

12 New Weapons, SA80, SA80 LSW, GPMG aka M240b, M249, M249para L96, L96 Guille, LAW, AT4, Sig Sauer P228, Sig Sauer P228 SD, Elise Anti Personal Mine

New Binos model and view

New Nightvision

3 New Vechicles, Defender 110, Defender 110 Desert, Lynx, Lynx Desert, Rigid Raider.

16 New CHRs and skins.

3 New Missions, 2 from Jack57 and 1 from Hhour

All new shell screens.

New L96 sound

New Guille CHR GR first

New Ubi and Redstorm video

New Chruch now on Farm Day map.

Full new set of Medals

Rework weather on orig RSE missions.

Re worked parts on some RSE missions.

Reviewed by tmichc

Edited September 22, 2005 by GiWeDa

[McNamee]

Good review, I agree with most the points! Chems has done really well, although, the one little niggle I have with the mod is the fact the webbing is incorrect

[Streinger]

I guess nobody reads those thank-you notes in the installer files...here's what Chem's BI says:

- Sterienger for letting me use his SA80, SA80 LSW and L96 Sniper Rifle and allowing me to have the 3ds Max files to create the guilled L96 and SA80 AG36 underslung grenade launcher.

Although, my name was misspelled....

[Chems]

For a long time Chems has been quietly (sometimes:-D) slaving away over a hot PC to put together several mods for our continued gaming pleasure. This is one of the few that’s gotten past the beginning stages (remember the SBS Mod you started way back Chems? ;-)) and been released. As a gr.net moderator and all round know-it-all Chems has come on strong since the early days, becoming a respected and proactive member of the community. This (as far as I know) marks his first foray into Total Conversion modding - a British Infantry mod.

This was the SBS mod, it was the reworked concept of it, the whole mod was changed to a British Infantry then the add on British Special Forces to include the SAS and SBS but i think it will be for GR2 now.

What do you mean gotten past the begining stages and been released, theres Been m16 Armoury, Swat, Embassy Revisited and this all since Jan except the embassy mod.

Alpha Textures for the lynx rotors ahey, well I dont get that problem myself, but will look into all the same.

Lovly review, you seem to have picked up on everything which is nice to know the detail efforts are worth it. Glad you liked it and I just had to edit the post to add the correct credits in, I got some emails from people because of it

[tmichc]

Ahem, many apologies all round for those gaffs.

It was only after I installed it that I thought of the review idea and didn't want to reinstall it just incase it all went pear-shaped. So, sorry Streinger, my bad. For the most part I stand by my review though.

@ Chems: Sorry mate, I keep forgetting the Mods you have released. Most of the time the Mods I refer to are ones I have installed on my hard drive and active on a fairly regular basis (M16 Armoury being one). I completely forgot about Embassy Revisited (mainly because I didn't like the original mission in the first place), but I like what you did with the BMP. The SWAT Mod I haven't downloaded yet (emphasis on the yet) because if I want to do any SWAT style stuff I've been using Baja's mod for it, so apologies there.

Anyway, I'll quietly get my coat and slip out of the side door, just in case I'm beaten with sticks by those that got annoyed.

Tim

[Chems]

lol np mate!

[DWG]

the addition of the Lynx (Naval version for some reason)

Assuming you mean wheels vs skids, that's correct for the Army's Lynx AH.9 -- definitely nice to have, though.

[Sabre67]

Chems, BI is simply incredible......Kudis to you...Anyway....Are u guys who make these incredible MOD independently wealthy.....I workfull time, and a single father of 4 kids...and I am working on a personal MOD and never have the time to do as much as I like.........My trial Photoshop CS trial just ended.....That sucks....Anyway just thought I'd ask....Thanx for all u had done mate....

Sabre

[Chems]

independently wealthy, no Im not, I have loads of education and stuff and other GR.net related things to do also.

Thanks for the comments glad you liked it!

[Giampi]

I know for sure that Jack57's made another wonderful mission set in Iraq for this very good total conversion. Any hope to get it released for the community?