Campaign Review: "Through the desert dust"

[HIGHLANDSPRING]

YoYo has obviously put a lot of effort into providing the community with this free Kiowa Warrior Campaign, so I thought the least I could do was put a little bit of effort into writing a review that may help encourage other players to give this campaign a try.

 

Short Version: Don't hesitate! Through the Desert Dust is an excellent (free) campaign for the Kiowa based in the skies over Afghanistan. I started the campaign as a seasoned chopper pilot but a newbie to the Kiowa. I completed the basic training packages and then dived straight into the campaign, taking the time to read up on the upcoming mission and practicing the required skills in advance of flying the mission itself. A very enjoyable experience from start (Intro) to finish (Mission 14), with each mission getting better as you progress. 

 

Long Version: 

1. Research and documentation: The campaign comes with excellent supporting material. This documentation not only sets the theme and objectives but also provides details on the area you will be operating in, and educates you on the history, which I always appreciate and enjoy. Without giving any spoilers, there is also the occasional 'cut scene' throughout the campaign that puts your actions into historical context. 

2. Briefing and Kneeboards: The supporting documentation is backed up by excellent mission-by-mission 'briefings', with key information provided on the kneeboards. 

3. Controlled Base Operations: Whilst not complex, the campaigns follow a structure for power-up, taxi, departure, and arrival operations. Specific WPs, routes, and departure/arrival ATC procedures are provided, which adds a sense of 'real world' operations together with their supporting comms, which are all automatic and managed via triggers. Once you set the comms during startup, however, you never need to touch them again throughout the flight. This makes the mission building less complex to build and maintain, and for novice players it's one less thing to worry about (good), but it does detract from the 'real world' experience of communicating with your environment by switching manually to the correct channel. However, considering that this is a free campaign, I feel bad even mentioning it  

4. Robust use of triggers: Verbal instructions and directions were very clear, and as a result, I have no recollection of having any issues with triggers throughout the campaign. I have played paid campaigns where the trigger logic appears to be a lot less robust/confusing, and that can get very frustrating, but not so with Through The Desert Dust - great job YoYo!

5. Interaction with your flight: Interflight comms is beautifully done, comms triggers all function smoothly, directions are clear and the discussion all contribute to a successful understanding of the mission and your objectives. Listen to them, they help, and in certain instances can be the difference between life and death, ask me how I know. One very challenging area that all mission builders have with DCS is managing the 'crazy' AI. I don't recall a single AI issue throughout the campaign - exceptional!

6. Atmosphere: Thanks to the combination of mission start times (dawn, dusk, night), the excellent musical interludes as you are cruising to your WPs, and the story behind the missions themselves, I can certainly confirm that you will be sucked into the varied world of a Kiowa crew. I have to commend the excellent OH-58D Autopilot (which I hope to see in the Gazelle 'in the future') for supporting the twin-seat operation of the Kiowa, which in turn added to the immersion as you were able to focus on the 'WSO' role when required. The campaign is based in Afghanistan, which is great, but I will look forward to coming back to this campaign in a couple of years to see how the map quality improves. The FOBS created by YoYo were excellently done and full of life, but the map could be pretty bland in parts (yes, I know it's a 'desert'). I especially enjoyed the missions that took you into the mountains.

7. Missions: Mission complexity increases as you progress with different weapons, threats, and objectives. Mission time is in the 60-90 min range but honestly, I couldn't tell you for sure, as mentioned above, you soon lose track of time due to being completely engrossed in each mission! None of them feels 'too long', and when you have a bit of cruise time from WP to WP, those are either filled with helpful and interesting conversations or music (which I very much enjoyed). The storytelling was also excellent, and missions 10-14 inclusive were particularly memorable (no spoilers). 

8. Level of experience: I started the campaign as a seasoned chopper pilot but a newbie to the Kiowa. I completed the basic training packages and then dived straight into the campaign, taking the time to read up on the upcoming mission and practicing the required skills in advance of flying the mission itself. Ultimately, when flown with due respect to one's mortality, I'd say the campaign was a low-threat environment. The only time I died was because I did something stupid, even AK-47S can be deadly if you stray too close  

So to conclude my overlong ramblings, if you fly this OH-58D campaign, you will thoroughly enjoy it and come out the other end as a better Kiowa pilot.  Thank you YoYo for another excellent campaign - outstanding work!

 

[Yurgon]

Excellent review, and that reflects my impression of the campaign as well. This is really top notch content and definitely surpasses some payware campaigns in terms of story telling, immersion and flow.

I've got 5 more missions to go and judging by your feedback, these should be ones to look forward to in particular.

[Yurgon]

I hope it's okay if I hijack the thread and add my own mini review.

I just finished the campaign and I love it. Awesome entertainment, brilliant mission design, great immersion. I particularly liked the crowded skies in the later missions that conveyed this feeling of "Holy cow, that's a lot of aircraft and there's gotta be a lot of fighting going on here, I'm just a tiny part in a large war".

If I had 3 wishes, these would be:

• Different air pressures. Hard to believe that it's always exactly 29.92 inHg in Afghanistan over an entire fighting season.
• FARPs that allow for rearming and refueling, especially in the longer missions with (relatively) many hostiles.
• A voice for the player. I understand writing dialog, adding VOs and subtitles is a ton of work. It just felt odd that James would do all the talking while Leo was always mute.
• Don't force players to use a particular weapon or tactic. (Yes, that was item 4 out of 3, I know ).

I said it before, I'll say it again, this campaign is top notch. If you could get voice actors to record all the lines of dialog, this would be 100% payware material IMHO.

Thank you YoYo, amazing work!

[YoYo]

Hey guys, I honestly missed this thread because I'm following the main thread about the campaign. Thank you so much for such a kind review , and I'm very glad you enjoyed the campaign and that it provided a great experience for the "virtual" KW pilot. The module definitely deserves an interesting campaign, so I think this is a pretty good addition. I'm also drawing some conclusions for the future as well. Thanks again for the feedback!

[Raffi75]

This review has convinced me to learn the OH-58 and its systems so I can experience this adventure for myself. I've explored the Yoyo's capabilities in the Mi-24 campaign, and I expect a lot of fun. 

Thanks for the review. 

Edited 13 hours ago by Raffi75