ohemia Interactive is in no rush to release Arma 4—the latest in its long line of hugely detailed military simulators—but when you have a game as successful as Arma 3 on your hands, you can afford to take your time. BI’s biggest and best milsim to date has kept players satisfied for more than a decade, mainly thanks to its thriving and endlessly creative community, though a host of DLC has helped too.
If you haven’t braved Arma 3’s hyper realistic battlefields, now might be the time to do so. The game is currently 90% off, making it cheaper than a cup of coffee.
The discount is part of Bohemia Interactive’s Steam publisher sale, which has most of the Czech studio’s cheaper than usual. Arma 3 for $3 (£2.50) is by far the best deal of the bunch, though. The single-player campaign, which was released over a period of three years, is pretty strong. But really it’s the multiplayer where Arma 3 is at. Whether you’re playing ops with friends, building your own scenarios, or getting involved with RP servers like Arma life, it has tons of different experiences to offer.
If you want to go all-in, you can get Arma 3 plus all its key DLC for less than the RRP of the base game. While most of these packs are straightforward expansions that add extra vehicles, units, locations etc, there are a couple which are significantly more interesting. The first is Arma 3 Zeus, which is basically a game master mode, letting you create mission scenarios in real-time for your friends you play through. Zeus is 90% off at $3 (£2.40). Weirdly, it isn’t part of the bundle linked above. But even if you add it to the base game and all the other DLC, the total is still cheaper than Arma 3 at regular price.
Watch On
The other expansion worth mentioning is Arma 3: Laws of War, which adds a humanitarian faction to the game. Laws of War includes a mini campaign where you play as a demining expert working in the wake of the conflict depicted in the base game. It’s probably the best bit of storytelling BI has ever done, an unusual (and, sadly, deeply relevant perspective) on war and its terrible consequences. Laws of War is also 90% off at $3.30 (£2.50).
Outside of Arma 3, other deep discounts include the original Arma: Cold War Assault (originally known as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis) for $1 (£0.89). Visually it’s long since been eclipsed by BI’s later work. But its three campaigns were extraordinary for the time, particularly the Resistance campaign which sees you build your own paramilitary force to defend your home island of Everon from Soviet invasion.
Arma 2, meanwhile, is down 80% at $2.50 (£1.50). Arma 2 is, frankly, clunky as hell, but it has a decent campaign and its setting of Chernarus remains eerily beautiful almost 20 years on. The main reason to pick this up, though, is to play the original DayZ mod. To do that you’ll also need to buy Arma 2’s Operation Arrowhead expansion, which is $4 (£2.39).
Alternatively, you could just buy DayZ itself. This is half price at $25 (£20). The premium version has come a long way since its troubled early access launch and BI’s subsequent struggles to update it. It’s also enormously popular even eight years out from release, with almost 30,000 people playing at the time of writing.
Finally, there’s Arma Reforger, BI’s latest entry in the series. Designed as a “bridge” to Arma 4, it’s basically a multiplayer game with Zeus-like scenario creation tools in Bohemia Interactive’s brand new, greatly improved engine. After a dodgy launch, it’s grown into a fairly well-liked entry by the community. But it’s only worth buying if you already know that you like multiplayer Arma. If that’s the case, it’s 25% off at $30 (£25).
The sale runs until September 25.
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