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Mission 2 - Production Notes
Operation Anaconda

We started developing the mission on Operation Anaconda just as some of the guys who actually fought in this campaign began to be interviewed by the media. We were fascinated with their stories - about a hundred American soldiers fighting off wave after wave of enemy attacks while stuck in the "bowl." This was better than any mov

ie, and it was real! We decided that we had to make sure we did justice to what they accomplished on March 2. Then, as we began to get to work, we learned about the hunter killer teams operating in and around the battle - how these fighters patrolled the area, picking off snipers and mortar teams, and generally keeping the heat off the Americans. The two stories fit perfectly together, so we put both of them into this game. What you have is an exciting, true-to-life mission that really captures the fast pace and the danger of the battle.

For details of the terrain, we started scoping out all the satellite photos we could get our hands on. And then we added a mind-boggling amount of footage that combat photographers were shooting while the battle was actually happening. The buildings, the caves, the way the snow capped the mountains - this all came to us because there were incredibly brave military folks were right in the thick of things, shooting live feed. It’s one of the strange aspects of combat today, that people can watch a fight while it’s still in progress...

Once we got our details, we made the whole thing more game-friendly - simplified some of the features of the caves, and did some serious work trying to get the feel of the thing just right (If you like the terraced fields, drop us a line - it was hell to put it all together and build those soft curves up from a bunch of polygons!) Finally, we did some serious work on the choppers. We had some really good footage of the different helos that were operating in this campaign, and we made the most of it.

Hope you enjoy!