Arma 3 Review/ Wasteland Gameplay

Arma 3 is a sandbox military simulator game made by Bohemia Interactive. It is available on steam for $60 but i managed to grab it for $30 when it was on sale! Now I had played Arma 2 quite a bit so I was very excited to dig my teeth into this and shoot some bad guys. Now Arma is not your typical shooter game it is very real and has quite a steep learning curve so don't expect to jump in as rambo and be able to kill everyone like in CoD or Battlefield. The key aspect to this game is TEAMWORK so if you join a server with 10 other people you will need to work together to complete objectives not go off and do your own thing!

My review will be based on some of the popular multi player modes that are available on the vanilla version of Arma 3 (no mods). You can play them by simply buying the game and going to the multi player option and searching for servers that host the custom mode. The first mode i will go over is called 'Wasteland' this map is so much fun & would be a good starting area for new players.

WASTELAND

You have the choice of choosing Opfor, Blufor or Independent these are just the three teams that are available. If you choose Opfor or Blufor you will be allied with everyone on the same team whereas if you choose independent you will be on your own team. You may form groups though so you can create a party with your friends. The idea of the game is to kill other players, search for guns, collect money & purchase new weapons/gear.

Every town usually has vehicles, food, water & weapons that you will be able to find and equip. Killing other players or selling items at a gun shop will earn you cash that you can then buy better items at a gun shop (the map will show you where the closest one is) The best part is the random missions that pop up on the map where a downed helicopter may spawn with AI protecting it. Usually this results in a lot of players travelling there and a big fire fight erupting!

King of the Hill

 This mode is a lot harder to get into as a newbie than wasteland and takes a lot more aspects of the military sim into it. You start with 3 teams that you can choose to join each have a base that is safe zoned. Each team's objective is to control the allocated area hence the name 'King of the Hill'. As you play you will earn money and experience with this you can upgrade weapons, purchase vehicles, change your appearance & add attachments to your weapons. This mode has a lot of teamwork involved and may not be friendly to new players. My first time going into this mode i was para dropped into the objective town just to be bombed by players with aircraft! But in saying that once you have your head around the basic game play you will be thrown into a huge war with bullets and explosions flying overhead while trying to cooperate with your fellow team mates.

This game can be related back to DayZ fans expect that in this i get a solid 60-80 fps and I don't get any desync! Now on FPS this game is poorly optimised and is highly CPU dependant so you will need to spend some time playing around with the video settings to get decent FPS. Most multiplayer servers reduce FPS drastically whereas on single player you will have at least a 20-30+ FPS increase.

Now this is just a drop in the bucket as there are many many other modes and a lot of Units (clans) that play this game very seriously. I have joined in on a couple of mission VS AI and they deadset have people that perfect their skills as a helicopter pilot (These are very hard to use) and that's all they do for the whole game!! Most of these units will treat this game like the real deal....The ARMY! So you will be put through basic training including Fire Team formations, range safety and weapons training etc. This game is a military simulator so most aspects are very close to actually life! So if you are looking for a even more realistic time search for one of the Units on reddit and goodluck!!

Closing Thoughts

I loved this game despite the optimisation online and steep learning curve this military sim has me coming back over and over again. If you want to play a REAL shooter than this is the one to play. Endless scenarios and countless situations that will keep you entertained for hours and hours.

Price

Arma 3 comes with a $60 price tag which I think is worth it as the game only launched in September & the amount of replayability is huge. There are usually deals on steam so keep your eyes open for that! I swiped it up for $30

Latency

Arma 3 has Australian servers so there shouldn't be any problem with latency/ping

PROS

Sandbox Military Simulator
Mods!
Great Graphics
The most 'Real' FPS experience you will get

CONS

Multiplayer FPS can be terrible
Steep learning curve
Controls clunky at times

Score: 80/100

I found a helicopter in Wastleland... i got a little happy!