Bohemia Interactive deploys Arma Reforger and the ‘Road to Arma 4’ on PC and Xbox

You’ve probably heard of the Arma series of games. Coming out of the brilliant Operation Flashpoint way back when, the Arma series is one that has gone from strength to strength. Today, Bohemia Interactive are looking to push it on further, with launch of Arma Reforger on Xbox Series X|S and PC, confirming that they are also fast traveling down the road to Arma 4. 

Arma Reforger is out today – now – via PC Early Access and Xbox Game Preview. It’s with this in which Bohemia Interactive invites Arma fans to experience the future of their much-loved series with a work-in-progress version of their next release, Arma Reforger. 

And yes, as Reforger goes live, the Czech-based team are also officially confirming the development of the highly anticipated Arma 4. Huge thanks go out to the Arma team for giving us insight via a brilliant press briefing. You can watch what we know too, thanks to a new cinematic video recounting the franchise’s most significant milestones. 

Here and now though, it’s Arma Reforger which is front and centre. Available now on PC (Early Access) and Xbox Series X|S (Game Preview), Reforger promises to showcase the studio’s progress with their new Enfusion engine – honestly, this looks brilliant – as they offer a glimpse of things to come. Making the most of Early Access and Game Preview, Arma Reforger functions as a creative platform, providing multiple tools and services for users to modify and adjust the experience. 

As a standalone affair, Arma Reforger will let you discover the power of Enfusion, as well as to provide valuable feedback to the Bohemia team in regards the ongoing development of Arma 4. Besides this, Arma Reforger hopes to empower Bohemia Interactive’s dedicated community of modders with an exciting new suite of integrated, in-house Enfusion tools. And yep, the plan is for those mods to work across PC and Xbox, with cross-play creation. 

Arma Reforger takes us back to the island of Everon and a fictional 1980’s setting. The terrain itself, part of the fictitious Malden Islands archipelago, has been reimagined and faithfully recreated here, as Bohemia add in a host of improvements; lakes, ponds, and flowing rivers all made possible thanks to Enfusion. It’s a fairly sizeable bit of terrain too, spanning an impressive 164 km² area containing 51 km² of landmass. If you’re looking for a bit of a stunning environment to discover, replete with dense forests, low-rolling hills, mountains, patchwork fields, and idyllic towns, all inspired by the former state of Czechoslovakia, then this is it. 

It’s not just about how it looks though – the playable content is equally exciting. Arma Reforger comes with two multiplayer game modes – Conflict and Game Master. 

The first of these is Conflict and as you’d probably expect, this is a team versus team deployment where players are tasked with working together in order to capture strategic positions from the enemy. Base-building and completing tasks will be par for the course as combatants look to earn battlefield promotions and rise up through the ranks. 

You’ll be able to do this as either the Americans or the Soviets, each coming with its own era-authentic weapons, vehicles, and equipment. There is also a smaller independent force, with unique apparel that community veterans will quickly recognize from the first game in the company’s mil-sim legacy.

Second up is a real-time scenario editor – Game Master – a dynamic sandbox in which one or more curators take on the role of Game Master, creating responsive combat encounters for other players. This has been fully designed with both newcomers and long-standing Arma vets in mind, capable of delivering a fast-paced, mod-compatible mission-maker which will ensure playthroughs are different every time. 

There’s more though and in addition, Arma Reforger comes with an exclusive, in-game platform for sharing user content, named Workshop. It’s in here where mods generated by PC users can be published for everyone to enjoy, including those playing on Xbox Series X|S. And further, Bohemia are supporting the game’s release with Workbench; a software package that provides the community with the very same tools used for development. Any user, with a fair knowledge of C# scripting, should be able to add custom AI behaviors, audio and visual assets, or even completely new gameplay mechanics. Artists too can import their creations using intuitive, streamlined workflows. Essentially, imaginative players (ie, not us) will be able to explore Enfusion to its limits and receive a crash course in Arma 4 modding, well ahead of schedule.        

So, to recap, the main features of Arma Reforger are:

• Game Modes – Take to the battlefield in one of Arma Reforger’s two multiplayer game modes. Select a side and fight for the island of Everon in Conflict, or edit scenarios in Game Master and manage events as they unfold, guiding players through the chaos of war.
• Multiplatform – Experience authentic combat on both Xbox and PC, for the first time in the Arma series. Modded content is no longer exclusive to PC players and can be downloaded by console owners from the content creation repository on the Workshop.
• Multiplayer – Join other players in the Conflict game mode and fight for the island of Everon across a massive open-world terrain, or create your own scenario as a Game Master in Arma Reforger’s real-time editor.
• Reforging Arma – Arma Reforger is a versatile platform for player exploration — powered by the all-new Enfusion engine. Every aspect of the game can be modded using Workbench, a suite of in-house development tools, designed specifically for the Arma community.  
• Workshop – Expand the game with original modded content or make and share your own! The Workshop is Bohemia Interactive’s own integrated, repository service, meaning console players can also enjoy add-ons created by PC users.
• Workbench  – Thanks to the Enfusion engine, you can mod Arma Reforger using the exact same tools used to make it. Introduce new mechanics, assets, and more. The only limit is your technical abilities and imagination. Reshape the game and share your own creative vision!

Just remember, Arma Reforger is currently in Early Access / Game Preview mode, and as such is nowhere near the finished product. Expect bugs and issues as the Bohemia team look to build towards an official v1.0 – there is as yet no release date. Thankfully, Bohemia Interactive will continue to support Reforger even as their teams shift their focus and resources down the road to Arma 4.

Give the trailers below a watch and head to the usual stores – PC and Xbox – for the Arma Reforger downloads that you need. 

About Arma Reforger –

Arma Reforger is a milestone on the road to Arma 4 and a showcase for some of the exciting developments made possible through Bohemia Interactive’s new Enfusion engine. It marks the culminating success of Arma: Armed Assault (2006), Arma 2 (2009), Arma 3 (2013), and is the spiritual successor to the original game that helped define the mil-sim (military simulation) genre, Arma: Cold War Assault (2001).