There are a few vague allusions to an overarching plot involving a British black-ops group and some suspicious earthquakes, but neither plot point stakes much of a claim on the proceedings. You, as Kerry, take on an escalating part in an escalating war, eventually graduating from a follower role on Stratis' meager 20 square kilometers to commanding a squad on Altis and its staggering 270 square kilometers. The grunt tasked with doing that surviving, adapting, and winning is one Corporal Kerry, who reacts to every order he's given with a beleaguered protest ('You want me to do what?'), which is a curious trait for a soldier with a non-zero amount of experience. A multistage affair ensues, playing out in a dull triptych: Survive. NATO forces are in the midst of a drawdown on the island of Stratis, when the once-friendly local forces lash out in a surprise attack. Now Playing: Arma III - Updated Review The topography of Altis gives way to roads and towns in a way that looks natural.īut a campaign was promised, and so a campaign must be delivered. There's a stubborn canard that asserts a video game's single-player campaign, if offered, must be its nominal flagship, even when in practice it's a secondary (or tertiary) concern for player and developer alike.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

It was odd, then, to see some lamenting the relegation of Arma III's campaign to three downloadable post-release entries.

Modding enthusiasts leverage in-game editors and a relatively ungated code structure to produce their own playable content in lieu of formal designs, and to great effect. The Arma series is known foremost as a platform: a malleable assembly of characters and military objects, and rules to govern their behavior. Here is the modern shooter, dressed for success.īut what's to be said for the wisdom of appending a campaign mode to a game that has traditionally been appreciated as a multiplayer creative suite? There's a blunder for the modern era. It certainly plays all the right cards: vaguely foreboding news montages, not-so-vague allusions to real-world conflicts, and realistic weaponry and other military miscellanea. Arma III should be at a healthy remove then, centered as it is around the battle for a fictional Mediterranean archipelago. The most famous of the classic blunders, we're told, is getting involved in a land war in Asia.

Arma 3 multiplayer campaign