Arma 3 Review

As the third installment in the 12 year old Arma series, Arma 3 has redefined the definition of graphics in video games when it was first released in 2013. It is a military simulator with its main campaign taking place in 2030 on the imaginary islands of Stratis and Altis located near Greece. Apart from the singleplayer campaign, the game is mostly a platform for players to modify and adapt the game in multiple genres.

What stands out the most from this game is the environment, the islands of Stratis and Altis contain miles upon miles of photorealistic terrain. Going around the world in a civilian plane and enjoying the eye candy that these maps provide is very enjoyable. Altis, the biggest between the two, has approximately 270 square kilometers of ground to explore with multiple different terrains like hills, forests and cities. The game provides you with two of these official maps, but what really makes this game shine is the fact that users can create their own maps for other players to use.

Players are not only limited to creating maps, they can modify or create any asset they want. From vehicules to clothing and weapons to entire game modes this is what makes the game so unique and special. Servers are hosted by the community, meaning you can gather up a bunch of friends and make the perfect game mode and environment for your needs. This is where the content creation aspect really gets crazy: you have servers who host roleplaying game modes where you play a character as a civilian, a police officer, a gang member or a rebel and then you have military simulations where there is huge 100+ player events with whole platoons and divisions with different task and realistic radio communications.

With over a thousand hours on this game in the last three years  I can say I have seen most of Arma 3, but I still do come back to it from time to time because of its amazing replayability. I have met a lot of good friends on this platform and much more in the future probably as it is a very social game. To finish this off, I hope you go give this game a look as I believe it deserves much more recognition.