DCS: A-10C II Operation Persian Freedom Campaign

Pros: - Has voice acting and pre recorded audio clips - Well structured mission concepts - uses some parts of real life military concepts that's about Cons: - It sounds like all of it is voiced by 3 people - voice acting is terrible comical and dumb - Mission are buggy - missions have inconsistent objectives and arbitrary goals that are hard to meet to trigger events - missions have concepts that are not covered in any of the tutorials. you are lucky to find reliable sources online - unclear objectives, vague instructions, bad user interface - requires you to take notes (good luck using VR) - Objectives are insanely long and boring - After trying the first mission I was no longer eligible for a refund on steam, it was 2 hours of flying from point a to b with nothing of significance happening. Then being examined on concepts that are not covered in any of the tutorials. I failed that simple fly mission 3 times to figure out how the radio system works. - sometimes you have to fly for 45 minutes for it to tell you now you have to fly somewhere else for 45 minutes and you trigger a single conversation at that way point (and even that does not happen reliably in each play through) - your loadout is terrible each mission and I had to change mine for every single one, just to make it tolerable - it half asses the military concepts it uses to the point that it does not serve the purpose of entertainment or simulation (you are busy screaming at your computer for how stupid it is). - the entire game is at all times pissed off at you for some reason, you get berated for every single mistake you make with absolutely no constructive information to help you learn from your mistakes. - your only hope of ever completing any of the missions is to try it and fail, then go watch a YouTube video of it, do it exactly as they did, rinse and repeat (At that point just watch the damn thing on YouTube you get less frustration and more entertainment value for your time and money) Conclusion: for the first time in the history of my transactions with steam I am genuinely upset for paying for a DLC of a game I love at a discount. This is boring, frustrating, wrong and annoying. There are community campaigns that are orders of magnitude better than this in realism, entertainment, voice acting, reliability and educational value. This was a huge waste of $13 for me. That being said the base A-10C II tank killer expansion is amazing and I have logged hundreds of hours enjoying it. Sadly this campaign did not live to my expectations.

I agree with Bensael's assessment. While the author has tried to make it an "authentic" experience, it only succeeds in testing your patience. As stated by Bensael already the CAS procedures used are not covered by any tutorial, more over they are not what US/NATO use IRL, so you can't actually look it up anywhere. It just seems the procedures are the author's own loose interpretation of those procedures. There's also the matter that actual brevity is used for the "cool effect" and for what they actually mean resulting in a lot of confusion. Those sort of mistakes are littered in every mission brief pdf and the mission dialogues themselves. I do not recommend buying this, just based on the fact that most players will be confused and frustrated at this campaign, regardless of knowledge and skill. Experienced players will be questioning as to why the "briefed/stated" actions don't work and you get yelled at, while the inexperienced players will be just as confused, because nothing in DCS has prepared them for this. While I commend the author for the effort, that it must've took to make this campaign. It unfortunately does not deliver a fun and immersive experience. Hopefully the author takes some time to learn military brevity and procedures before writing up special instructions, scripted events and dialogue on their next try, since there really isn't any fixing this campaign, rather than remaking it.

Waste of time and money, the first mission is a familiarisation flight and you're expected to follow precise procedures or you fail the mission, so I ask permission to start up my plane, ask permission to taxi to runway, and ask permission to take off. I'm granted all these things so I do them, and as soon as I get in the air a short distance from the end of the runway I'm told I'm in violation of some procedure or another and the mission is a failure, I've even copied what a YouTuber does in his video of the mission so don't know if it's broken or what. Either way it means you'll never get chance to play the campaign because it's impossible to tell what you did wrong when you do everything you're told and still fail. I'm sure there's some kind of absurd level of realism that I've got to engage in to pass these unknown rules which would be comical if it weren't for the fact I'm a British pilot in an A-10 attacking Iran; which is about as unrealistic as it gets to start with anyway.

The worst campaign I've ever played in DCS There are always ambushes of manpads and SAM, no SEAD to take them out, no precise info about their positions. What makes it worse is that all the air defenses target you when your friendly troops are on the ground getting eliminated. You have to make a choice between your own life and theirs. If you search and take out the air defense first your mission would fail. In reality the military won't send A10 in when there are so many air defenses. And no player wants to fly for 1 hour to the task area just to get shot down. So this campaign is neither realistic nor amusing.

Just finished this campaign and I thought it was fantastic! My thoughts on the campaign: 16 missions of up to 2 hours each felt like really good value...that said if you like short, sharp bursts of action there can be longer flight times and other events going on until this happens. This isn't a quick adrenaline fix type of campaign. Mission design in my opinion is a really strong point of the campaign, a good variety of mission types with multiple objectives and ever changing experiences. Missions unfold in interesting ways and keep you on your toes throughout. Some of the missions later on offer loads of variety and in general missions respond to your actions and the outcomes vary...as opposed to an arbitrary pass/fail objective you see in some campaigns. One mission I’ve played through 3 times and seen different events each time, really impressed with the work that's gone into this. I would consider the missions to be semi realistic...they aren’t precisely procedurally correct (but I don’t think the campaign ever claims to be) but to me, a semi-serious player with good but not massive knowledge of such things, they felt close enough to feel right for what I’m looking for, without me needing to read a textbook beforehand. I found the campaign a challenge but never unwinnable. Some scenarios, especially later on will test your abilities in the Hog but I never felt the situation was hopeless! You do not have to be super skilled in the A-10 to play this campaign but you will need to be competent in all the basics...especially using the CDU. Some basic knowledge of nine lines will help as well. The campaign creator has helpfully included messages and hints throughout to make sure you know what you should be doing at all times. The ‘custom JTAC’ system worked well, it can be easy to get an ‘abort call’, initially annoying but I found this happened if your position was off when you contacted the JTAC for clearance and soon learnt. The first missions with the JTAC explained how to do this with messages in the top corner and personally I got the hang of it pretty quick. The nine lines are, I think, slightly simplified versions of real life, but this helped me as it stopped me getting overwhelmed when things were heating up. I encountered almost zero bugs, any issues I had were inadvertently found to be because I’d failed to set the radio correctly. I would recommend to anyone getting this campaign to make sure they read the accompanying campaign document as it explains these things. I still don't get people who take the time to learn the A10 but fail to read all the mission documents! There is a LOT of dialogue in this campaign, if you don’t like to hear the pilots talk and banter then this might not be the campaign for you...although a lot of the dialogue is optional and accessed using the F10 menu option, so can be ignored if you prefer. Personally I enjoyed it as it helped flesh out the story and characters nicely. There is also a lot of interaction using the F10 menu/spacebar, which made me feel in control of the conversations, which I really liked. The voice over quality isn’t as good as in top tier campaigns like Raven One but having said that it’s perfectly acceptable and for me didn’t detract from my enjoyment. This campaign is also a hell of a lot more political/moral than I expected and even though it looks bombastic from the outside, actually had some interesting things to say about war in the middle east (although admittedly nothing revelatory to someone who already knows quite a bit about this part of the world). The creator also did a really good job of world building in this campaign...there is always loads going on in the background, airbases and airspace feel really alive and that made me feel like I was part of the war going on and not just a lone pilot. I really enjoyed Persian Freedom, it puts the A10 through loads of different mission types, is a really good length and lets you feel like a pilot involved in a major conflict. Combined with no bugs, an A-10 and A-10 II version and loads of replayability, I would have to recommend this campaign very highly!

Just finished this campaign and absolutly loved it! This is my second campaign for the new A-10. Loved the realism of the missions, and how lenghty they are. Some of the missions took 2 hours to complete, without fastforwarding time. And getting shot down 1,5 hours into some missions was a real pain, but thats how you get better. Really like the voice overs, they are really well made, and felt authentic. Mission difficulty was pretty much on par for medium to advanced A-10 fliers. I have maybe 150 hours total in the A-10 now, and got about 80-90 score on most missons. Had to refly maybe half the missions due to getting shot down. Looking forward to the continued campaign called Cerberus North, with the same Pilot, but transitioned to F/A-18.

Be prepared to follow 9-liners It's a good and immersive campaign and of course there is fratricide commited by A-10s 10/10 would POPOV 36 again but honestly, its a good campaign and finally a "real" conflict not just a coin scenario I would rate this just a notch below "Enemy Within 3.0" and it is easier than EW 3.0

Look this is a pretty advanced campaign. You really need to know how to work that CDU and TAD especially later on. I really liked it it was challenging and pushed me to learn more about the A10 than I even knew was possible. The fact that it is essentially a living breathing Desert Storm squeal was the ultimate selling point for me. Its not easy but isnt that why all of us got into DCS in the first place ? If you want simple and easy there are other campaigns out there. For me this campaign is up there with Enemy Within and Piercing Fury (DCS Mod campaign). Good job to Ground Pounder Sims. More voice actors would be appreciated.

I can't tell you how good or bad the campaign really is, as it's impossible to complete the first fam flight with the current version of DCS. The mission triggers don't work, the radio keeps bugging out and disappearing altogether... And No, I'm not willing to sit through an hour long YouTube video and then spend 10+ hours trying and retrying the same thing just to see if it doesn't bug out that time. More Broken than Star Citizen, I do not recommend it.

A campaign made with a lot of love. Mission are very detailed, with custom kneeboard and mission brief, that is mandatory to read and understand for success the mission. The background story and the custom voices add definetely more immersion to the simulation. Just remember to NOT use the normal way of COMM with radio, jtac, etc... everything is customized and you must use communication menu. Stay stick on the flightplan and you will not have any bug, that means also that you MUST follow jtac 9line when provided. I found the campaign learning curve well made, anyway it suppose you know all system of your A10C and the basic rules of engagment. (I'm not a pro i fly A10C from a month) I'm really enjoying it. Well done Dev.

Excellent campaign, one of the best I've played. Not for the rookie A10 pilot, you really have to master the Hawg, plan ahead and pay attention.

Loved this campaign. The missions are varied and well laid out with pdf briefings and kneeboards for each one. All comms are handled by the custom F10 menu making it more reliable, voiceovers are nice and although the story is kinda simple, it offers a few surprises along the way. However be aware that this campaign aims to be realistic which means long flights and missions (average of 1.5 to 2 hours each) and working with JTACs and nine lines. This can be a little frustrating since the JTAC will only clear you to attack if you follow the his directions precisely. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this campaign and recommend it to any warthog owner.

The time commitment for this campaign is insane. 45 minutes of nothing to get to the target then you eat a MANPAD because the JTAC has you come off target right over them. That's happened at least 5 times with the last 3 missions. Until ED implements an in-game save option, I recommend avoiding this one.

Bravo to the creator! The best Warthog campaign. I don't regret a single dollar spent on this campaign. I had a great time, all missions can be completed, you just need to read knee pads and mission papers! I salute the enormous amount of work it took to create this campaign. Creators- Thank you very much for wanting. This is very important to me because I only play offline, so people like you let me savor DCS.

So far its decent. Biggest gripe is the damn 9 line heading. They want 090 if your at 091 for the moment u press space....u gotta set back up. Like jesus fuck the tank is dead do you care where the JDAM came from? lol

In this suck campaign my GAU-8 gun always unsafe and unable to fire？wtf is this stupid campaign？？？？

One of the best campaigns that I’ve played so far, (as good as the enemy whitin 3.0) highly immersive, detailed briefing and documents, ATC communication is also very good. A Wide variety of missions and loadouts, good line of events, increasing difficulty and dialogues that make you really think about it… Lots of Easter eggs… sometimes the developer even talks to you… hilarious Lol If you like the A10C, this one is a must… Cons… Usually long missions Pros… besides everything that I already mentioned, complex missions whitout any bugs is really an accomplishment. Final Grade 9/10

Bought it, downloaded it. dont see it yet its supposidly int he Steam library. Ideas appreciated.

cant get the campaign to register the radio. so for me this is useless and not worth the money

Ahahaha! Cows on the runway) Very thank you! Really interesting campaign. Recommend to all.

One of the best campaigns I played so far. The missions are varied and offer the player choices and optional tasks. Everything is voiced and the story is supported by a reoccuring cast of characters. There are also extensive briefings and mock-news reports on youtube for the missions. This campaign also expects you to know the A-10C. It is not an extended tutorial but rather likes to challenge you by making you use a wide array of different functions of the aircraft, aswell as making you communicate with other allied forces via the radios. So far, I did not encounter any relevant bugs. Overall it´s a 9/10!

This is easily the best campaign I've played in DCS, by a long way, almost to a problematic level: I'm going to have a lot of difficultly lowering my expectations for other campaigns from now on. The level of detail both within the missions and in the EXTENSIVE briefing pdfs AND kneeboards is incredible. The use of radio channels, CAS marshalling, JTACs, 9 lines etc. raises the immersion level so much. There are some minute details, like having a taxi-escort by a HMMWV when doing an unplanned rearm at an alternative airfield, that go above and beyond what I've seen in any other DCS campaign. All of the negative reviews I've seen here clearly either haven't read the readme file about how the campaign's comms work (it's all done over f10 with 100% bespoke comms for every mission), or didn't listen during the missions - every concept is covered within the missions, or through the brilliant briefing notes/kneepads. I also completed every mission with the default loadouts, so I'm not sure what @BeNsAel is on about. The missions, as a negative review says, are long, with a lot of flying, believe it or not (the fact that this is raised as a con tells you everything you need to know about that particular review). This is a strength of the campaign, in my opinion. It's not an instant action, arcade set up. You have to get over to the AO, await tasking, manage fuel for loitering etc. Plus, when coalition forces take new airfields closer to the front, it feels great, because you know that in the next mission you'll be able to take a heavier load-out with a shorter commute. The missions also have various success and fail states - you can fail to complete objectives, or not do them fast enough, and still complete the mission. If you fail to follow ROE, or hit friendlies, over fail to stop an armoured attack you might get 'yelled at', or informed of the friendly body count. Again, having extra, conditional dialogues/conclusions to missions is a big plus in my book. If you're getting 'yelled at' in every mission...well...that might be a you problem! There are some minor issues with the voice acting - as the modder struggles a bit with the US accent and its rhotic R, and there are only a few voices, but I'd still say the overall quality of the performances are good, the dialogue is fine, and the characters are distinct despite the few actors. I've also encountered a couple of bugs when mission triggers didn't happen, but nothing game-breaking. There is easily 30 hours of content here, spread over 16 missions, so value for money would be fine even if the quality was poor, but it isn't! I highly recommend this campaign. I'm looking forward to anything else this modder creates.