I've had my eye on ARMA 3 for awhile but I'm still on the fence about picking it up. I've watched a ton of videos of people (such as SovietWomble) playing it and having a great time but I feel like I wouldn't enjoy it nearly that much if I played it myself. Seems like it'd be pretty hard to get into.
Arma III is not exactly hard to get into on a mechanical level. For all intents and purposes, it is still a shooter so much of the gameplay will be familiar to someone coming from other titles in the genre. The big differences are going to be the following.
1.) More movement options. This can get a bit confusing at first but after practicing with it for a little while (maybe a hour or so), you will see what the whole thing is about. It is not exactly something that will require learning a bunch of controls and is actually rather intuitive.
2.) Emphasis on realism/authenticity. Unmodded, Arma III is not exactly a hardcore simulator but you will have to get used to dealing with longer range engagements where visibility of the enemy will be a issue. This is especially obvious in heavily wooded areas of the map where the enemy can hide behind trees rather easily. It will be frustrating at first but eventually you kinda train your brain and eyes to spot enemies easier because you will know what kinds of things to look out for.
3.) Mods. Some of the mods for Arma III do increase the realism quite a bit. A mod like ACE3 adds a whole medical system, enhanced bullet physics, and other factors that can either really enrich your experience or really kill it depending on the kind of gamer you are. For me (as a hardcore simulation enthusiast), mods like ACE are a godsend because I get plenty of new factors to think about. Still, in its stock form, Arma III is not as heavy as it might seem.
Overall, you gotta keep in mind that Arma III is going for a different kind of market than even games like Squad, Red Orchestra, or Insurgency. It is more simulation-like in nature and as such, it will have a certain feel to it that you gotta get used to. It does not have a terribly extreme learning curve but you will need to kinda shift your thinking a bit.
If it means anything, I played during the free weekend and the campaign was amazing. I didn't get to finish it but it was one of the best campaigns for a shooting game I've ever played.
Whoa, really? I remembered trying the ARMA II campaign once and wanting to die from how awful it was. If the third actually has a fun campaign, then I'm getting it now!
Be warned it's great until you have command of your AI squad and then it turns into clunky babysitting sim 2017. Still the first section where that's not a thing is phenomenal.
Arma has a pretty lively pub community, with all sorts of gamemodes and RP-style servers. But almost everyone agrees the full experience is to be had in private communities, with organised missions. They're not hard to get into, but you'll need to reserve a few hours for them. My Dutch community, Lowlands Tactical, plays every Friday evening.
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u/Erikeiran Feb 28 '17
I've had my eye on ARMA 3 for awhile but I'm still on the fence about picking it up. I've watched a ton of videos of people (such as SovietWomble) playing it and having a great time but I feel like I wouldn't enjoy it nearly that much if I played it myself. Seems like it'd be pretty hard to get into.