Finally, Bohemia Interactive decided to release something for us single-player addicts—in the form of a mini-campaign doing commando stuff behind enemy lines. This, naturally, caught my attention, since so far the multiplayer-focused Arma Reforger has not interested me much—beyond a vague curiosity in testing the new and supposed improved engine, that is. So, was it worth the purchase? Read and find out!
Special Ops
In Operation Omega, you get to play the sole survivor of a botched special operation mission. Meaning, the insertion helicopter you fly in on is blasted out of the sky, with you as the only survivor. And as these things go—the show must go on!
Now, what’s cool here is first and foremost the setting. You see, we are back in the good old ’80s with vodka guzzling Russians duking it out with hamburger gobbling Americans, under the veil of Cold War paranoia. We get cool weapons, snazzy uniforms, and nothing overly hi-tech. Just a regular lamp to keep you sane in the darkness, and a plastic feeling M16A2 to help you live long enough for a ticket home.
The second thing is the general atmosphere, as your first mission is to link up with friendly units, in a very hostile land in the middle of the night… while it pours down. Yeah, it’s grim and very moody. It reminded me of the excellent mission in Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, when you had to make it back safely to friendly lines, while being hunted by the whole Russian army after a failed attack. It gave me nervous tics back then (did that bush have an AK47?) and so did this one. Well, almost, at least!
Snafu
While I did enjoy the campaign, it’s sadly extremely short, only consisting of five missions, of which three have you going solo. This is my other main complaint. It did feel cool, sneaking around and popping heads from a concealed location. However, it did come off as a totally different game—and not the military sandbox based on realism that Arma is known for. I found it to play more like a Call of Duty campaign, or something Naked Snake would do from Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s not that you’re alone on the island, either, as you meet up with other special op teams. But for some reason, you must do the first two missions completely alone. Maybe it’s a hazing ritual, or command is just trolling you. Who knows?
The two remaining missions have you leading a squad, and these missions are much better—even if the scale is small. But seeing as it’s a special ops campaign—that’s fair. The AI is actually pretty solid, and compared to Arma 3, it can now enter buildings smoothly and commit to battle indoors. This is huge, and it goes for both friendly units and the enemy. No more safe-zones inside bulletproof cottages!
I also noticed that units seek protection (cover) on “move” orders, which was nice to see. Once again, this goes for both sides, since the enemy will now avoid standing in the open, waiting for that golden bullet to release them from their pain. However, the defense order seems weird, as the units will spread out in a chosen location, but ignore cover, and just stand around like idiots waiting to get riddled with bullets.
Another issue is that squad control has been streamlined. It works of course, but features like formation, forcing a specific stance, engagement behavior (like stealth), and inventory management have been removed. This limits your options—and you feel it. Still, the improved AI is good and feels very welcome. I’m not sure why one thing has to go, while another one is improved.
Looking like Arma
Arma Reforger pretty much looks like Arma 3, though its engine is improved—both visually and in functionality. It just plays ten times smoother, while looking even better—and to my greatest joy, providing much better performance. I like for example the new and improved ragdoll effects. No more corpses shooting towards space, or doing bizarre circus acts before finally joining the afterlife. On a technical level, it’s impressive, but unfortunately, it comes at the expense of a more streamlined and stripped-down squad system, as mentioned. But my main problem with the game is: multiplayer.
Arma Reforger‘s content is almost entirely multiplayer focused. I did try it, but it was a quick reminder of why I left that behind. Whole communities, even in games that shouldn’t tolerate this kind of behavior, have shifted to something much more goofy and unserious—think Fortnite mentality. It was bad! I understand seeking out good groups and servers makes all the difference, but I don’t have that investment in me anymore. I just want to sit down in front of my PC, sip my coffee in peace, without being lectured that my sandbag placement is three centimeters off for optimal defense by a 12-year-old. I’m too old for that shit!
Now, what this means for Arma 4, I don’t know, but I hope this shift in development shows that people want singleplayer content. Which leads me to the conclusion…
Conclusion
Operation Omega was an enjoyable little campaign, and I did appreciate getting to try the new Arma (Enfusion Engine) engine, but that €25 price tag was a little steep for what I got. The campaign can be finished in about five hours, and while replayable, not much actually plays out differently. So, while it gave me entertainment for a few hours, Arma Reforger will now rest undisturbed in my game library henceforth—thanks to Bohemia making multiplayer its core.
There might be more singleplayer content to come, as the game ends with a promise of a main island invasion, but maybe that promise is for Arma 4—and this is all we get for Arma Reforger. Regardless, while fun, it’s not currently worth the purchase for its meager campaign. But maybe it will be in the future—only time will tell what Bohemia got up their sleeves!
Thanks for reading.
– Thomas
Addendum: (one or two days later from writing the review)
I managed to get onto a good server that had people actually playing with teamwork, and going for the objectives. I had a lot of fun, and at one point I almost pissed myself from laughter. So, to be fair, the multiplayer is not all bad, I have to reluctantly admit. Anyway, my driver got killed, which forced me to take over the driving with two other players tagging along. And well, my driving is questionable at best, as you can see in this bonus video:
| System: | PC (Steam) |
| Played with: | Mouse and keyboard |
| Release year: | 2022 |
| Mods/fixes: | None |
| Enjoyment rating: |  |
Tom's Gaming Vault 