The new installment in the Arma series Arma Reforger is playable now on Steam but will also be available on Xbox Game Preview.
If you are a PC gamer and also a military simulation enthusiast you have probably heard of Arma. The Tactical shooter series has been around since 2006 so it’s nothing new but until now the games have only been available on PC.
Fans have been waiting for a new installment in the series for so long that they were probably expecting Arma 4 to be the next game to be released but instead Bohemia Interactive has surprisingly released Arma Reforger.
Arma Reforger is the fifth game in the Arma series, and it takes place in a late 1980s Cold War-era scenario, returning to the Cold War environment explored in the first game.
The multiplayer aspect of the game is heavily emphasized, with competitive and cooperative gameplay modes showcasing large-scale infantry and vehicular warfare.
The base game’s content can be further expanded by downloading mods created by the community (which is highly encouraged by the developers) via The Workshop.
The key objective of Reforger for Bohemian Interactive was to show off their new Enfusion engine, with a particular emphasis on giving the community access to the tools needed to create user-made add-ons.
In Arma, where light and shadow feed directly into tactical first-person shooting, the Enfusion engine features realistic light simulation. Because light is so crucial in this game, if there are clouds over the moon and no artificial light source, the player will be thrown into darkness for added realism.
Arma Reforger is a reinterpretation of the original game in the series, Operation Flashpoint, released in 2001. Everon, a fictional Eastern European Island from that game, has been entirely restored in Bohemia’s new Enfusion engine, and players can choose between playing as Americans or Soviets during the Cold War’s peak in the late 1980s.
Game Master, the second multiplayer game mode, is a simple, user-friendly tool that allows players to build numerous scenarios, oversee events as they unfold, and guide other players through curated experiences using Reforger’s real-time scenario editor.
The Enfusion engine will also be used to create Arma 4 which is currently in production making Arma Reforger somewhat of a testbed for the technology.
Arma Reforger will exit early access “once it’s considered complete,” according to Bohemia interactive. Even when its focus switches to Arma 4, the developer promises to continue maintaining it.
The trailer showcases the Enfusion engine used to create the game and from what we have seen it looks very enticing as far as visuals and gameplay go.
Fans of the series will ultimately have the final say though so it could be a hit or miss either way, but it is great news that the game will be available for Console players too so they can see what all the hype is about and make up their own minds about the game.