ARMA Tactics Review

When I saw that this game was available to review, I was instantly attracted to it. “I like ARMA”, I confidently said to myself, “and I really like XCOM”. So an ARMA title based heavily upon the turn-based strategy of XCOM should’ve been ideal for me, in theory at least. Well unfortunately the reality is a lot less exciting than the ideas I had buzzing around my head. Perhaps I went into it over-optimistically? Then again, maybe ARMA Tactics is just a mediocre mobile game port that has tried, and failed, to blatantly copy the design of an already fantastic title. Actually, I’m just going to go ahead and say it’s the latter; my hopes weren’t actually all that high to start with.

The core game on offer here isn’t necessarily a bad one, the base mechanics are actually pretty fun. Well, they’re essentially the same as XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The FPS nature of the parent ARMA titles is swapped out for a turn-based style that sees the player take on the role of an omniscient overseer with the ability to control a squad of four troopers. As opposed to the isometric grid of XCOM, here you’ll find a distance based system with which to move your men about the maps. This is the only core difference of the base mechanics, other than this, anyone who’s played the sci-fi TBS title will feel right at home. The game stems from a mobile game of the same name, and this is most clear within the control scheme. Dragging an icon from the soldier of choice to the desired movement location is an ideal input method for a touchscreen, but on PC it feels a little clunky and slow. There is the option to double click but it’s difficult to see where you soldier would be moving using this method.

The game itself consists of ten levels spread over two campaigns, the second of which is only available on the PC version. Each level takes around half an hour to complete and tasks you with a variety of objectives from diffusing bombs to saving wounded comrades. All pretty familiar modern warfare stuff. The levels can be approached differently each time and feature a small degree of random generation, mainly just the starting locations of your enemies. Saying that, there is the option to take a stealthy route through some of the levels, and to be fair these are handled very well. Moving your troopers through enemy infested territory like a team of modern ninjas is a rewarding experience and provides what is by far the highlight of the whole game. It’s also a nice removal from the bombastic gameplay of XCOM. The downside of this is that when things get loud, it’s nowhere near as good.

My main issue is with the camera, which has to be the most inept and illogical system I’ve seen in a while. A game such as this requires a camera that is versatile, manoeuvrable and clear. The camera in ARMA Tactics has none of these traits. On the majority of occasions the camera would snap to a random point on the map, or directly above the soldier under attack, making it very unclear where the attack came from or even what effect it had. The action cam is seldom used, which is where most of the issue lies, even if you set it to be used on every attack. In a game that’s all about probabilities, it’s an imperative to be able to accurately judge distances and obstructions; you can rarely meter either of these while playing.

If you can bear the terrible camera, then there’s certainly some enjoyment to be had here. The missions on offer all provide a slightly new challenge and take place in a good variety of locales. The colour scheme is substantially grey, however, and somewhat reminiscent of the PS2 days, so the variety stems from interesting level design as opposed to visual grandeur. It’s also pretty clear that this is essentially an upscaled mobile game. While the overall package looks decent enough, the flimsy character models and the unconvincing weapon effects somewhat diminish the authenticity that ARMA usually wears with pride. The classic ARMA traits can be found in other elements of the game, the difficulty in particular towards the later stages. There’s also an attempt at the loadouts and weapon variety, although with very few options to actually choose from, this is a dead end as well.

In fact, the lack of customisation is an issue that persists even after you’ve completed all ten levels. With only a few weapons to choose from as well as the standard explosives, medipacks and small upgrades, there’s little to really encourage you to properly mix up each trooper’s loadout within the main campaign. The game also features a level editor which provides a little bit of replay value. This allows you to choose from a selection of maps and play out a certain scenario within it. There are only a handful of scenarios to choose from and few other options, but it’s a mode that provides a bit more variety than the full campaign, even if it’s not as focused. Although to say that the campaigns are truly focused would be to exaggerate; there’s a horribly delivered storyline to each one, presented in the form of badly written text and even worse voice acting. Rather than submerge you into the game world, it spits you out with its terrible cliche and dramatisation.

Despite all of these drawbacks, I still had some fun with ARMA Tactics. That dependence upon the mechanics of XCOM is handled well enough to not spoil the fundamentally fun gameplay. Saying that, there are a lot of issues with the game that detract from this experience. The appalling camera is the primary of these problems, followed by the lack of mission variety as well as the underwhelming visual effects and sound design. The game also does a great job of taking you out of the action with cheesy in-game dialogue and the occasional bug. In fact, there were a fair few bugs present during my time with ARMA Tactics and while the developers have been patching the game regularly, it’s never a good sign when a game is released full of technical issues. If you want something to occupy your time before XCOM: Enemy Within is released, then I’d recommend having another playthrough the original game rather than picking up this mediocre effort from Bohemia Interactive.