Alpha: Antiterror

The player begins his service as a simple lieutenant, who was invited to work in the Alpha special forces in 1983. Gradually, he moves up the career ladder, completing tasks and transferring tests that fell to his lot and the share of Russia . Afghanistan (1984-1988), then the collapse of the USSR and ethnic strife in the former Soviet Union, the first Chechen war (1994-1996), the fight against terrorists in Dagestan (1999), the second Chechen war (1999-2000), the military campaign in Afghanistan ( 2001-2002) - this is only part of the stages of the path of the protagonist. The details of a number of missions and performance characteristics of certain types of special weapons are classified to this day, so the authors had to consciously distort some facts ^{[4] [5]} .

According to the president of MiST Land South, Vitaliy Shutov, the idea was initially to create an absolutely reliable simulator , a game that would show the actions of Russian special forces ^[1] . They were planning to make the game on the “ Access Code: Paradise ” engine, the company's previous title, but due to the termination of business cooperation with the previous publisher ^{[6] [7]} , the right to use the “Access Code” technologies was lost, so the engine was made from scratch.

Faced with the need to attract qualified consultants, the developers turned to a number of veteran organizations. It turned out that many people who are in control think little about the topic, but at the same time they want a lot of money for some reason, and they also like to drag out negotiations. The first 6 months were simply ineptly lost: throwing from one veteran organization to another did not lead to anything ^[5] .

Soon, thanks to the press service of the FSB of Russia, it was possible to enter the special purpose center . The turning point was the meeting with Gennady Zaitsev . This man is a legend of Group A , he stood at its origins, was the commander of Alpha for a very long time. After he gave his “go-ahead”, the developers finally got a really worthy source of information about special forces in the person of the Special Purpose Center (the Alpha and Vympel are directly subordinate to the center). Communication was conducted at the deputy level. beg. of the center - they called, discussed what and when needed, after which an acting specialist or a group of specialists stood out who directly advised on interesting issues ^[1] .

Specialists of SPC provided the developers with a full description of the tactics of fighting various gangs up to psychological portraits of specific individuals, provided aerial photographs and weapons samples for shooting references ^[5] .

Such cooperation imposed a number of restrictions on the game. Of the two and a half dozen levels made for ALFA, only 10 entered the game. Several very interesting cards were decisively rejected, because it was either a disclosure of military secrets, or the mission seemed like a bad prophecy ^[5] . ( An interesting example is the assault on IL-62 . The Alpha platform at Sheremetyevo and the IL-62 itself were modeled according to the drawings provided by the Center, but then they urgently asked to refuse all this. A mission was planned to capture the school, which was designed and implemented back in 2001 year, she was persistently asked to remove, and a little later she, alas, “ came true ” ). There were a lot of fierce debates on what to show and what not.

In the middle of the development, the project was left without a leader for a year, a new game designer was taken who did not yet have experience in similar work. ALFA was in limbo. Several times the project was completely redone. Literally everything underwent chaotic changes: an artistic solution, gameplay, technology. This was especially clearly visible on the chart - the visual style of the game completely changed several times. As a result, ALFA disrupted the terms by 2 times ^[1] .

In the struggle for realism:

• It was assumed that the fighters should die from the first bullet (in reality, however, such cases are extremely rare). As a result, an incident occurred when at the Hamburg exhibition none of the visitors could live in the game for more than a minute. I had to carefully attend to how to extend the player’s life on the battlefield, without losing realism ^[1] .
• A realistic game is not always interesting and playable. To prevent the game from drowning in the most complicated mechanics of the game process, in an unintuitive interface, the list of available commands and capabilities, the number of weapons, and the game mechanics were simplified ^[8] .
• The game has more than a hundred types of weapons, because of the desire to endow each with real characteristics, a bunch of the same “trunks” appeared in the arsenal, differing in life only by those parameters that are either impossible or not needed in the game (ease of use, fault tolerance ...) . Therefore, it was decided to “customize” the characteristics so that the weapons of the same type differed in parameters: one more precisely, the other more lethally, the third faster. The same with bulletproof vests, there are many types of them, but they differ only in the protection class, and within the class - only in wearing comfort and weight. The developers decided not to litter the inventory with the same type of bulletproof vests and made one look at the class ^[8] .
• For the sake of giving realism, they abandoned the destructibility of the environment. The wall does not collapse when firing a machine gun at it, or when a grenade explodes. But in the game honest ballistics and penetration of materials (a sniper with a B-94 can easily remove an enemy hiding behind a not very thick brick wall) ^[8] .
• I had to refuse to raise weapons and ammunition from the corpses of the enemy, since the charter is strictly forbidden to use and pick up someone else's weapon: it can be mined, or simply refuse at the crucial moment. Knives also disappeared from the game, simply because not a single person could remember a single case of their real use in battle ^[5] .

In the fight for gameplay:

• The characteristics of the fighters were affected. In the beginning, all of them, like real Alfovites, were as cool as possible. But with such fighters, the element of leveling of characters disappeared, since there was nowhere to improve. I had to make everyone weak and lethargic at the start of the game. Only the characteristics responsible for the character's character were not touched ^[8] .
• All levels were created from photographs and maps of those areas where military operations took place, but it was not taken into account that these same maps will be used for multiplayer games. As a result, some of them turned out to be unbalanced, which caused very big problems for balancing multiplayer missions ^[8] .
• The mistakes made due to separation from specific technologies include the desire of designers to add civilians and animals to the project. All the necessary 3D models were made, but you will not see them in the game. Reason: these models have a non-standard skeleton, so it would take a lot of time to introduce it into the game and to configure the physical engine. The role of civilians and animals for gameplay was not so great. But the fact that they did not think about the problem of introducing a non-standard skeleton in a timely manner led to unnecessary work of artists ^[8] .

Funny cases from the development:

• At first, the developers modeled the poses and movements ... from themselves. Of course, the movements turned out to be completely different from those of real soldiers in full uniforms. It was very funny to watch how professional commandos in heavy armor walk with the grace of a programmer who sits at a computer 8 hours a day. After that, the movements of real fighters were taken as a basis, and the animations in the game immediately became much better ^[9] .
• A vague task for the programmer to teach the character to throw grenades has led to the fact that the fighters threw grenades with absolute accuracy regardless of the parameters and along such a trajectory that no athlete can launch it ^[8] .

• Unique gameplay - a game that combines turn-based strategy and tactical simulator .
• Employees of the Alpha and Vympel detachments were involved in the creation of the project.
• More than 10 operations with real historical prototypes; realistic simulation of hostilities; really existing equipment, weapons and equipment of special forces .
• Honest ballistic model. The flight path of the bullet is calculated according to a reliable physical model. Everything is taken into account: the angle, the distance, the weapon from which they were fired. So, you won’t be able to kill the enemy through half a card with a pistol - the bullet simply will not reach the target! ^[five]
• Damage is calculated with frightening realism. You will not see situations in which a soldier gets a few bullets in his chest, then gets up and puts fifteen militants. Getting into the head or chest is certain death ^[5] .
• Each fighter is endowed with individual character traits and skills that determine his behavior on the battlefield and interaction with other members of the group ^[10] . Character may change over time. Skills can be improved with the help of special training courses between missions ^[4] .
• New people come to the squad as the plot develops, and new people will appear in the given years, so it’s impossible to “infinitely replenish the losses of personnel” ^[5] .

The player acts as the commander of a detachment of the Alpha group or other groups provided for by the plot of the game. The game is divided into two stages: preparation for the operation and the operation itself. The game process during the operation is phase-by-phase and consists of the following phases: placement phase, planning phase, miscalculation phase and visualization phase ^[11] .

• Preparing for the operation . At this stage, the player receives information about the operation, recruits and equips the team. All operations begin from this stage.
• Constellation phase . In this phase, the player places his fighters in the areas accessible for this, sets them a pose and a direction of sight. This phase is available only once at the very beginning of the operation.
• Planning phase . In this phase, the player gives orders to his fighters, orders can be given in a chain, that is, move here, then lie down and turn in such and such a direction. It is necessary to plan the actions of your subordinates for the next 20 seconds (it is possible for a longer time - it all depends on personal preferences). When planning, one should take into account the possible location of the enemy, anticipate his actions, and take into account terrain features. Subordinates know about the environment only what they hear and see. The player sees and hears everything that subordinates see and hear, plus the player has the opportunity to view the battlefield “from above”.
• Miscalculation phase . When the planning is completed, the miscalculation phase begins, in which the miscalculation of the execution of orders (20 seconds of playing time) is carried out, both for the player’s subordinates and for the enemy’s fighters.
• Visualization phase . This is the final phase in which everything that happened in 20 seconds is shown. Playback can be stopped, rewound, accelerated and slowed down. The camera is free, so you can always see what attracts attention. After this phase, the player enters the planning phase again to plan the next 20 seconds.

The basic weapon has modifications in the game, including the installation of optical sights, grenade launchers. For many types of weapons, it is possible to use high-capacity magazines, or cartridges of several types. What to use the player chooses before the mission. Weapons vary according to the year in which the mission takes place, and also depending on which unit is involved in the mission ^[10] . In single missions, the main characters are not only Alpha , but also simple units of the RF Armed Forces and the RF Armed Forces , for them the range of available weapons is much smaller than for Alpha ^[9] .

“ALPHA shows war brutally, but honestly. Here you begin to treat the fighters as living companions, which gives the game a special relish. Well, and you believe in what is happening on the screen from the first minute. Personally, I have not yet seen a game where the war would be so real ” ^[10] .

“Alpha: Anti-Terror is an ode to realism. Realism is both a blessing and a curse on the game; grand dignity and significant flaw. Credibility, even a certain vitality of the gameplay creates interest and excitement ” ^[16] .

“Incredibly difficult compared to other tactical games , it’s very realistic and wildly interesting to see what’s around the corner. After all, the more difficult the passage, the more joyful the successes. The game (or rather, all the same simulator ala " Stormtrooper "), definitely not for everyone. For someone who is willing to spend a lot of precious time for exotic entertainment. For those who are really looking for the hotter ” ^[17] .

“The young shoots of gamers, most likely, do not understand how you feel, thinking for the next hour about the next move in a strategic (!) Game. These are emotions from the first half of the nineties, when computers were slow, words like “ ragdoll ” and “ honest ballistics ” seemed indecent, and the cult X-Com passed from hand to hand on three diskettes. The feeling that every step, every decision that you are making right now may turn out to be decisive ” ^[5] .

“Alpha Anti-Terror is pure hardcore. A game for those who know and understand a lot about competent strategies. For those who can relish every move, every mission for hours. For those, finally, who like to think ” ^[5] .

• Game page on publisher’s site
• Alpha: Anti-Terror on Igromania magazine website
• Alpha: Antiterror on GameGuru