Well first off I have to say this game\'s graphics are not up to par with some of today?s top games like BF2 and CS Source. But that said the game is immensely fun and a great buy for?FREE! Overall I would say this is a hyper-realistic/fun/recruitment tool online shooter but minus the gore. First off a little history, AA (America?s Army) was designed using our shiny tax dollars by and for the US Army as a training/recruitment tool. The game runs off the Unreal 2 engine (which is showing age), but rumor has it that it is under re-development with the Unreal 3 engine! The game was originally designed to train soldiers but expanded as a recruitment tool and was launched to the public. The game is currently on version 2.6 (at time of review), and the game is being continuously worked on.

Graphics 6/10

Graphics wise the game is pretty lacking considering that at maxed out settings the game looked about as good as Farcry on the lowest possible settings. But don?t get me wrong AA still looks good. Also the steam and night effects are excellent. The bump mapping seemed a bit sub par for today?s standards but it gets the job done.

Sound 9/10

Sound wise it has amazing surround sound capabilities so when a bullet is fired you can hear it whiz past in whatever direction it was shot from, on one map ?Courtyard? the bell in the bell tower can be shot and you will hear a satisfying *dong *. Also if you are moving faster than a slow walk any nearby player can hear your footsteps. The voice commands sound decent, just about on par with BF2. All in all good sound can be expected with a 5.1 setup or decent headphones

Game Play 17/20 Controls 3/5

Playability wise the learning curve takes about a half an hour till you really will feel comfortable with it (and an extensive session of key remapping). Before you can even start playing online you need to complete the games boot camp (think CoD and Medal of Honor). The Honor system the game incorporates takes several factors into totaling your points: 1) Kills 2) Deaths 3) Tk or even team damaging 4) Wins 5) Leadership (AKA how many people are left in your squad in the end). The level of challenge mainly depends on what team you are on and who you are playing. The objectives from map to map vary from killing all opp. Forces to securing briefcases. Once you get tired of the 15+ normal maps available you can do the Spec. Forces training to unlock new maps and customizable weapons. Appropriate for all ages (with the help of parental controls!). The game earned a T from ESRB because of violence and death, but in actuality this game can be adjusted from E-T with several parental controls. The game (unaltered) is filled with shooting and/or protecting people from death. But the parental controls allow you to: A) Turn off blood (which is minimal anyway), B) Block all sniper training, and C) Chat filter which effectively blocks 98% of curses and references to reproductive organs, and finally D) Disallow all online play since it requires the shooting of human characters. But overall the game earns its T. Violence People killing people in self-defense (-4 pts) Blood The game allows gore to be disabled (+1) Language The game allows swearing to be disabled (+1) Prejudice Characters are portrayed with stereotypical biases. (-1.5 pts) Traditional/Family Values Decision Making Good value decision making is required to progress in the game.