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Bohemia’s ARMA series is one of the most in-depth military simulators ever made with in-game footage often used to spread misinformation online. While ARMA 3 on console is pretty much impossible, the team’s ARMA Reforger project—a spin-off release before the long-awaited fourth mainline game—brought true military simulation to console for the first time.
When working on ARMA Reforger, Project Lead Krzysztof Bielawski decided it was time to bring a true military simulator to console. Now receiving its Fire Support features in Update 1.3, adding mortar fire, destructible buildings and much more to the game, Reforger is the most advanced MilSim to ever hit console.
Speaking to VideoGamer, Bielawski explained that the decision to bring Reforger to console was tied to the history of Bohemia Interactive. The studio started working in the MilSim genre with Operation Flashpoint, a series now owned by Codemasters, which proved there was an audience for the genre on console 20 years ago. However, when it came to ARMA, previous versions of the series were too complicated for a controller.
“The first thing is, we want to be inclusive,” Bielawski told VideoGamer in a recent interview. “We want to make sure that our game is available to as many players as possible. Historically, we had many fans which enjoyed Operation Flashpoint… Maybe they are older now, maybe they have kids, maybe they don’t have ability to buy a gaming PC for a few thousand bucks. But we still want them to be able to go back and try again [with] ARMA on the luxury of their couch with their big TV.”
Since the release of Codemaster’s Operation Flashpoint: Red River—which was quite light on actual military simulation in comparison—the MilSim genre was almost completely absent from console. For Bohemia, it not only provided an opportunity, but also a challenge in bringing really complex, PC-only gaming to a console audience.
“The truth is also that on Xbox, on PS5, there is basically almost no competition for us. What we provide, the gameplay experience is unmatched by other games.”
ARMA project lead Krzysztof Bielawski
“The fact that we released it on consoles allowed us to streamline a lot of things,” Bielawski said. “ARMA historically was difficult to enter: the controls, the downloading of modes and generally how the game was built on PC requires you to understand the file system and learn a lot. And there was a lot of hassle with this. So one of our ambitions was to ease that entry for people. Therefore, we could have even more happy players, right?”
ARMA Reforger was designed as a test-bed for many things. First and foremost, the game is designed to improve the brand-new Enfusion Engine that is powering ARMA 4. Secondly, the game is helping Bohemia to streamline both gameplay and modding to make the game more accessible while keeping its depth. Thirdly, the game allows Bohemia to see how console players react to a real ARMA game. As it turns out, they react very well with thousands of players hopping in all the time alongside PC players.
“The truth is also that on Xbox, on PS5, there is basically almost no competition for us. What we provide, the gameplay experience is unmatched by other games. Yes, you can find military shooters like Insurgency: Sandstorm, Hell Let Loose. But those are still slightly smaller games, often a lot smaller. We provide a platform: we have modding, we have player creations in the form of scenarios. It’s a platform where people can do a lot more than in a typical shooter.”
For Bohemia, brining ARMA to console was only truly worth it if the deep simulation of the game could be brought to Xbox and PlayStation without being neutered. While it was very hard to make sure everything had its place, bringing every single element of simulation to the game was make or break for the team.
“This realism is crucial,” the project lead told us. “You know, we have to put maximum realism to it. Of course, it’s not 100% realism because there is always a bit of gamification in this, like it’s not possible to make a game fully real, but we kind of ambitiously approaching those features in a way that we’re trying to make them as close to the reality, because we’re trying to make them as close to the reality because,”
ARMA Reforger is not as fully featured as ARMA 3, that’s clear, it’s also not the ARMA 4 players were hoping for. However, Reforger still has years of updates coming, and as any fan of the series knows, it typically takes a few years of updates before it becomes the game everyone loves.
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