Americas Army: Proving Grounds

America's Army: Proving Grounds is a free to play, multiplayer version of the Americas Army Franchise. This first person shooter appeared at first to be nothing special. Just another modern military shooter seeking the Call of Duty masses. While playing for a while I started to notice some nice features, the game wasn't just a run and gun shooter.

 Some of these features included bleeding out, multiple times I saw players forget to bandage themselves and watched their health slowly dwindle to 0. Being able to go prone, this shouldn't be included as a feature as it should be in all FPS but for some reason is forgotten about. The revival and capture mechanics make the game more interesting. If you're not killed by a sniper rifle you can be revived at low health by teammates or you can be captured by the enemy making it impossible to be revived. While in the process of both of these actions you make a very distinctive sound which makes it essential to play with the sound on to be competitive. Suppression fire in Proving Grounds is one of the best I've seen, or should I say heard. Whenever fired upon behind cover the screen shakes and the sound quality of the bullets hitting your cover is outstanding. This is most present while using the sniper rifle as it causes a much larger and louder effect. There are some essential features I believe should be tidied up such as grenades randomly appearing at your feet without warning  and not being able to change the mouse speed while scoped, it seems the mouse speed slows significantly.

Proving Grounds controls are the basic FPS controls which includes pressing "Q" to spot enemies like in Battlefield. There is also the ability to take cover behind some of the environment, which allows for ducking and popping up from cover and the ability  to slide while running making for some interesting moments while sliding around corners. The maps are well designed with multiple ways to flank without being unnecessary and enough cover so as not to be left out in the open. The graphics are high quality but with some noticeable texture popping in some of the foliage areas. There are multiple game modes including Capture and Defend, Assault and Deathmatch all available in 3 different difficulty modes including Veteran. VoIP is available and can be disabled easily through the UI which is user friendly and easy to navigate. Proving Grounds runs on its own client/menu pop up which includes the server browser and the ability to change your settings before you enter a game. I found the scoreboard popping up every time the round ended to be annoying and taking away from the game. It should only show at the end of the match or the time it is up dropped drastically. Some of the key bindings may need to be changed to suit. Going into cover instead of going prone can be frustrating as you can't go prone from being behind cover and have to instead walk backwards then hit the key to go prone.

America's Army: Proving Grounds is currently in open beta on Steam. It's a quality First Person Shooter with many additional features and average to good graphics. With so much polish on the game it is a shame there isn't an FOV slider and you will have to play around with resolutions to get the best result depending on your screen. I would suggest this game to those that want a more tactical shooter where the run and gun style of gameplay is punished hard.