Don't buy the game for the Campaign

[Mb]

For potential buyers and new users: ARMA 3 campaing is now complete, so does this mean ARMA 3 is now worth the 40 euros as a single player campaign experience? No. Not even close, in my opinion.

.. well for any BIS game veteran this shouldn't come as a surprise. Good potential for both story and immersiveness completely crippled by extremely buggy AI and poor/buggy scripting. This kills the campaign and renders it completely un-immersive.

Especially episode 2 is buggy like crazy and just doesn't make any sense. So you have this guerilla camp.. you go on side missions, find good gear and guess what? It all disappears once you start a "main mission". Yeah, you get to keep your ammo and weapons but none of the essential equipment like the night vision goggles (very much needed in some missions), nor the range finder or GPS. It's _EXTREMELY_ annoying, to the point where it feels like a chore to complete.. at least at harder difficulties.

I still think ARMA 3 is awesome but just like many other games today, it's worth buying for the multiplayer and some of the awesome stand alone single player and co-op missions that talented people here have created.

BIS just don't seem to have the will to create a good campaign. The story and immersive potential is there but the actual execution is very poor. A shame really.. was looking forward to the campaign. Oh well.. here's to hoping that ARMA <insert future version here> gets a good single player campaign. :(

[StormhawkV]

Originally posted by | Maggot Brain |:

Especially episode 2 is buggy like crazy and just doesn't make any sense. So you have this guerilla camp.. you go on side missions, find good gear and guess what? It all disappears once you start a "main mission". Yeah, you get to keep your ammo and weapons but none of the essential equipment like the night vision goggles (very much needed in some missions), nor the range finder or GPS. It's _EXTREMELY_ annoying, to the point where it feels like a chore to complete.. at least at harder difficulties.

Yes, the "Adapt"-part of the campaign isn't perfect but there's a workaround for this problem in the official forums and it takes like 5 mikes to find it. And even if you loose your NVGs by accident there are NV scopes that do get saved in the armory.

Originally posted by | Maggot Brain |:

BIS just don't seem to have the will to create a good campaign. The story and immersive potential is there but the actual execution is very poor. A shame really.. was looking forward to the campaign. Oh well.. here's to hoping that ARMA <insert future version here> gets a good single player campaign. :(

Well, in my opinion the campaign is a very nice welcome to the world of ArmA III yet it's quite challenging. I know there are no missions where you get to drive a tank or fly a helicopter but "The East Wind" is the story of infantryman Ben Kerry so it's no big surprise.

[Dj Otacon]

Why not? the campaing to me is very good and you have a lot of more mission for sp/coop in the workshop.

[denPes]

To the OP. I must admit that I have not finished the campaign yet. I wanted to start with that when Bohemian completed it. So I just started it a couple of days agio. And I must say, it has been a very immersive campaign for me

I also think it is the way you play it. If you play with 3rd person ON, there will be very little immersiveness in it. Tactics that the AI uses against you will be effortless, since you can hide behind cover, and check from your third person view.

If you have accuracy on veteran level or less, you won't have that much fun either. I started with the campaign on ELITE level. So NO 3rd person. No markers on the map you can follow. So you actually have to use the compass and the map.

I would suggest to try the campaign again on "ELITE" level, and maybe that will change your mind about it. Maybe you will find it a different experience. One thing i can tell you. The campaign lasts a lot longer ;)

[Mb]

It's actually one of the reasons why I think it's so absurd that you don't get to keep some of the vital equipment like the range finder and GPS! It wouldn't bother me all that much if I had no use for them.. but at higher difficulty levels you really need those things, or at least they are very helpful.

I do think the campaign has a lot of potential but it really does feel a bit half-arsed.. like the developers didn't put nearly enough thought and polish into the product. It's a shame really because this is the best way to get new players to the franchise. I know a lot of people play various non-realistic shooters and get hooked on these through the immersive single player campaigns (or maybe that era has passed us? I heard BF4 single player campaign is horrendous!) so this way we could get some new people onboard.. and the more people buy ARMA 3 the better it is for all of us!

Don't get me wrong, the ARMA series and the original OFP series were and still are in my all-time top 5 gaming experiences. I absolutely adore this series but I do feel like the attitude "it's just a military simulation engine.. the community will create the content and campaigns" was taken a bit too far. I was also hoping that BIS had learned from the buggy campaigns of ARMA 2 (I own most of the DLC) how to create a more believable single player experience (meaning, less buggy and more thought out).

It's especially frustrating when people have commented on these short comings already at the time each episode of the Campaign was released but many things have been completely ignored. Why? I have no idea. I'm sure there are plenty of people who were waiting for the main campaign to be complete and then see if the game is worth purchasing. I felt like it's worth warning people of the status of the campaign, especially those who have never played an ARMA game before. Most veterans of ARMA games have no problems with the buggy scripting and the idiosyncrasies of the campaign but new players may be thoroughly offput by the state which it's in.

Anyhow, it's very good to have counter opinions here to balance the matter. This is all subjective in the end. As we've already seen there are many who thoroughly enjoy the campaign as it is and this is good to hear.

Cheers!

[StormhawkV]

Originally posted by | Maggot Brain |:

It's a shame really because this is the best way to get new players to the franchise. I know a lot of people play various non-realistic shooters and get hooked on these through the immersive single player campaigns (or maybe that era has passed us? I heard BF4 single player campaign is horrendous!) so this way we could get some new people onboard.. and the more people buy ARMA 3 the better it is for all of us!

In my opinion ArmA III is a multiplayer FPS just like Battlefield (was). People play against each other or cooperate against the AI. Singleplayer campaigns are a nice addition. They introduce you to the world and can teach you its basics but aren't the heart of the game. I like the campaign of ArmA III because it does teach you the basics, something the BF4 campaign fails to do (just like it fails everything else but that's another story).

Originally posted by | Maggot Brain |:

It's especially frustrating when people have commented on these short comings already at the time each episode of the Campaign was released but many things have been completely ignored. Why? I have no idea.

That's because the developers have a very tight time schedule. There's a thread in the official forums where they stated that they would have made NVGs, medpacks, laser designators, vest and backpacks stay in the armory if they just have had more time but I am absolutely sure they will address these issues when they are done with Zeus and have some spare time.

[Theo Hardmeier]

The campaign has its good and its bad bits.
Just like most other games that have one.

The 4 best ones in arma 3 that come to mind for me were the last mission in adapt, the last one in survive, the first main one in win, the first one in survive...notice a pattern yet?
The atmosphere the missions give is a big plus if they get it right.

[Janz]

arma is the type of game that dont even need a SP campain to sells good. the multiplayer itself worth any penny, and the sp is a bonus. and i love it, stucked into adapt but lots of fun

[fusco]

Originally posted by denpes:

To the OP. I must admit that I have not finished the campaign yet. I wanted to start with that when Bohemian completed it. So I just started it a couple of days agio. And I must say, it has been a very immersive campaign for me

I also think it is the way you play it. If you play with 3rd person ON, there will be very little immersiveness in it. Tactics that the AI uses against you will be effortless, since you can hide behind cover, and check from your third person view.

If you have accuracy on veteran level or less, you won't have that much fun either. I started with the campaign on ELITE level. So NO 3rd person. No markers on the map you can follow. So you actually have to use the compass and the map.

I would suggest to try the campaign again on "ELITE" level, and maybe that will change your mind about it. Maybe you will find it a different experience. One thing i can tell you. The campaign lasts a lot longer ;)

That's so damn true. The Survive episode felt so immersive for me by playing in first person only, it was almost like I was there experiencing the war.

[AndyCCY]

Well, the campaign is very awesome for me I palyed it about 5 times, but I agree with you that the AI are very buggy, but the pevelop team are working on it.

[Mb]

Originally posted by Supercake:

Get over it you piece of ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dildo sniffer rat!

I was already a bit worried when I saw so many reasonable posts in this thread. Glad to see that you decided to restore things back to normalcy. :)

[Zlokob]

arma is much much more that only a campaign mission, so everyone who buys it for that only is anyway in a wrong game :)

[Julius]

Still miles beyond the 'Gazillion scripted baddies popping out of nowhere for your uber-mensch gunwork to dispatch of' in the CoD and Battlefield series. And those games are $60+, no?

The beauty of it is how little content brings out so much action in Arma - I got far more excited about scrounging for weapons and 1 - on - 2 fights of the first Adapt mission than any 'sprinting through collapsing building and heli minigun fire while on the way to disarm a nuclear device' of other games. So much flashy crap on top of over-the-top büllshït nowadays.

[Mb]

Originally posted by Liam Neeson Punching Wolves:

I agree about gear dissapearing, it's really dumb. However, I disagree. As an entry point for new players, Arma 3 is far more freindly than Arma 2. The counterpoint to this, if you even played just a wee bit of arma, episode 1 will most likely be very boring. Personally, i'm enjoying Episode 2. I like the scouting mechanic and events.

This is very true. Arma 3 is a definite step up for newcomers to the series.. especially the much more fluid movement has made it easier to point and shoot at what you want to kill.

[Cretin]

I just finished "Adapt", and I have to say, I found it loads of fun. If you can get past the Bingo Fuel mission (pro tip- run away and leave your squad to die) it only gets better.

[Conan]

Arma campaign is filled with bugs no doubt, i had to restart the missions all over a few times beacuse of some big game breaking bugs. But besides all that frustation it caused me i still had a lot of fun with it.

Also i just wanted to add the ai in this game is so horrible and frustrating....I can not coun't the amount of times i had too wait for the ai to un ♥♥♥♥ themselfs. Having a squad of ai in arma 3 is almost 100% Pointless. I just throw my squad into a vehical and do the rest of it myself but i still found it pretty fun to take on a mission even without the help of the ai.