ARMA: Armed Assault

ARMed Assault indeed.

Czech game developer Bohemia Interactive Studios' Spiritual Successor to their successful and legendary Operation Flashpoint series. Unlike the original, these installments take place in Present Day and Next Sunday A.D. time frames, not the Cold War. The basic premise and game design philosophy of making a well-researched, true-to-life and unrelentingly realistic simulation of everyday military life is still there though. As is the practice of using various fairly funny (and Reference Overdosed) Ruritanias as the setting for the games' campaigns and missions.

The story behind the conception of ARMA was one of a painful birth: After finishing their work on Operation Flashpoint, the developer Bohemia Interactive Studio and publisher Codemasters had a major falling out and split ways. BIS took the rights to the engine, Codemasters got the rights to the name. BIS has since released two sequels based on this engine, ARMA: Armed Assault and ARMA II, while Codemasters developed its own "official" sequel, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Essentially, the BIS sequels closely resemble the original, except they have much better graphics and improved gameplay, while Dragon Rising feels, well, different from the original Flashpoint, and a lot of old veterans seem to think that it suffers from New and Improved Syndrome.

Lately, the game has had a surge of popularity thanks to the DayZ mod, which requires ARMA II and ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead (or just Combined Operations for short)

Works within this series

  • [ARMA: Armed Assault / Combat Operations (2007): Spiritual Successor and de-facto sequel to Operation Flashpoint, developed by BIS (the original developers of Operation Flashpoint), based on their VBS engine.
    • Queen's Gambit: A modest expansion pack, containing a small new island and a new campaign.
  • Virtual Battlespace 2 (2007): Bohemia Interactive Simulations' VBS engine, and Armed Assault game based on it, were so successful and lauded as so realistic that this warranted an update to the game engine, also sold to the same real military organizations as VBS.
  • ARMA II (2009): The successor to Armed Assault, also a BIS production, based on the VBS2 engine.
    • Operation Arrowhead (release date June 29, 2010): An expansion pack set in a new country, with new locations and a new campaign.
    • British Armed Forces (release date August 29, 2010): DLC expansion pack and sequel to Operation Arrowhead, with British Armed Forces playable
    • Private Military Company (release date November 30, 2010): DLC expansion pack and sequel to British Armed Forces, with a deeper storyline and a moral choice.
    • Army of the Czech Republic (release date September 12, 2012): DLC expansion about, unsurprisingly, the Army of the Czech Republic. Requires both the original game and Operation Arrowhead to play.
  • VBS Worlds (2011): This iteration of the VBS engine was developed by BIS in partnership with Caspian Learning and is oriented towards civilian education: water purification unit maintenance, cultural sensitivity training, etc.
  • ARMA: Cold War Assault (2011): A free Remake (or refurbishing if you will) mega patch for the original Operation Flashpoint, released in celebration of the game's 10th anniversary by the developers. Because of the whole legal debacle with Codemasters, applying this patch to an installed copy of OFP will rename the game to ARMA : Cold War Assault. NOTE : Please don't confuse the original Operation Flashpoint with the ARMA series proper - it's only a predecessor and set in the same universe, but otherwise completely separate. The new title is there only because BIS can't release the patch under the original name of the game, since it's now owned by Codemasters.
  • Take On Helicopters (2011): This VBS-powered game is about piloting helicopters. It is stated to take place within the ARMA-verse.
  • ARMA III: Released in September 2013, this game extends the VBS engine with underwater operations (scuba diving, etc.) and other features. Set on a fictionalized version of the Greek islands of Agios Efstratios and Limnos known as Stratis and Altis. Unlike its predecessors, ARMA III has a near future setting of 2035, with fictional 6.5 ammo and an antagonistic anti-NATO alliance of China, Iran and other unspecified countries known as Canton-Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty (CSAT).
    • Apex: Released in July 2016, APEX takes place on the fictional south pacific island nation of Tanoa. Apex's missions are designed around co-op play and re-playability.

For the Codemasters created follow-up and competitor, see Operation Flashpoint - Codemasters.

NOTE: Many of the tropes listed on the page of its direct predecessor also apply to this series.

The ARMA series features the following tropes:
  • A Father to His Men: Brian Frost from the British Armed Forces and Private Military Company DLC expansions says that the troops he was commanding were like sons to him.
  • Artificial Stupidity: ARMA II has problems with waypoint finding, and requires some tweaking for patrolling soldiers to acknowledge that their comrades are suddenly dying from your own sniper shots.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Where to begin, where to begin...
    • In ARMA II, the occupying Chedaki force speaks faux Russian, while the native Chernarussian inhabitants speak faux Czech, including names and voiceovers: A Chernarussian officer named Lt. Tomáš Marný ("Thomas Hopeless", or even more literally "that's hopeless" in Czech), a civilian named Pepa Zdepa ("Joe from-the-Depot"), etc. You may ocassionally hear Chernarussian civilians say things like "Potím se jak vrata vod chlíva..." ("I'm sweating like a cowshed gate...").
    • Apart from that, most if not all of the names of Chernarussian towns and landmarks are of Russian origin (although the official language is "Chernarussian"). The castle hill "Zub" means literally "Tooth", the peninsula "Golova" is translated as "Head" (and both are just two of many anatomic names in Chernarus). Other names are the "Pobeda" Dam (the "Victory" Dam), and "Stary Sobor" and "Novy Sobor" ("Old Fence" and "New Fence"). The two major cities of Zagoria (which itself loosely translated means "Behind-The-Mountain(s)-ia"), Chernogorsk and Elektrozavodsk, can be loosely translated as "Black-Mountain-sk" and "Electric-Power-Plant-sk". Former of whom is a tribute to the country's name of Chernarus (lit. "Black Rus", which itself is a parody of the name of Belarus, aka "White Rus").
    • Also, "arma" is both the Latin term for "weapon" and the in-universe codename for "armed assault".
  • Civil War: The basic Backstory behind every installment is that you're a foreign soldier helping restore peace and some semblance of order in war-torn countries. This is different from Operation Flashpoint, where most plots involved Cold War espionage and False-Flag Operation invasions of defenceless countries.
  • Continuity Nod: A lot towards Operation Flashpoint, its various characters, events and locales - courtesy of both series taking place in the same mildly fictional Alternate Universe.
  • Crew of One: Averted, like in the original OFP. You need a driver and a gunner at the very least to properly operate armoured fighting vehicles of any kind. The commander's movement controls are the same as the driver's, albeit corresponding to said verbal orders. Unfortunately they can become even more repetitive than the infamous Mad Libs Dialogue, so in missions with waypoints the unit orders menu does include "Next waypoint" in its movement submenu.
  • Do Not Run with a Gun: Perfected even more since the time of OFP. ARMA II makes it impossible to shoot while running, as your character will start a jogging animation after moving for a second with their arms being occupied - to shoot while moving, you must either aim down your weapon sights (limiting your character to walking speed like many shooter games) or hold the walk button so that your character can "hipfire"; even then, there's considerable weapon/crosshair bobbing, so you don't get a stable point of aim unless the character is stationary.
  • Downloadable Content: An odd example would be ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead (itself a standalone expansion) having British Armed Forces and Private Military Company; OA already has the character types and weapons used in the DLC, but they have low-quality textures and sound quality. BAF and PMC are not just additional campaigns (one each), but also higher-quality textures and sounds for their characters/weapons that're already in OA. (The exception is the XM8, which seems to be the standard weapon system of the PMC faction, but was already in the game as far back as ARMA II.)
  • Dueling Games: With Codemaster's own series, currently consisting of Dragon Rising and Red River. Good lord, the Fan Dumb - on both sides. Bohemia Interactive's forums were actively encouraged to flame the living shit out of the Codemasters' forums.
  • Fackler Scale of FPS Realism: In some cases, even higher than in its predecessor series. Of course, several mods exist to tweak these values, and BIS has promoted the ability to "zero" scopes in Operation Arrowhead so that they will account for bullet drop - that is, adjust the scope so that point of aim will equal point of impact - at the specified distance.
  • First Person Ghost: Following in the footsteps of Operation Flashpoint, this is averted. In ARMA II and its expansion, the TrackIR device essentially adds a motion-based control option for free look.
  • For Massive Damage: It's more than possible to defeat some vehicles using just small arms; for example, a helicopter can be forced into a crash landing by shooting out either of its rotors.
  • Game Mod: Has a very dedicated worldwide modding community that can already rival that of the original Operation Flashpoint.
    • Now even includes a Zombie Apocalypse mod called Day Z. It's about as realistic as a zombie-infested, fictional Eastern European country can get, and has singlehandedly caused a spike in ArmA II sales.
  • G'day, Mate: Dixon from ARMA II: Private Military Company is an Aussie who names his gun "Matilda".
  • Gun Porn: Thanks to various addons, the games can include everything from Gauss Rifles, G11s, and Pulse Rifles. The basic list of the firearms already present in the vanilla version of the game is also pretty extensive.
  • Hollywood Silencer: Averted. And played straight in ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead. Kinda sorta...
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Averted. As in OFP, you can only carry as much equipment, weaponry and ammo as your webbing or backpack allows. Too big or heavy weapons take up a far bigger slot than a combination of several smaller ones and they also slow you down a little if you're running.
  • I Call It Vera: Dixon's aforementioned "Matilda".
  • Instant Death Bullet: Averted - unless you get shot point-blank in the head. You can die very easily, in just a few shots, but you usualy only get injured in certain parts of your body, which affects your overall combat abilities. Getting shot in the legs makes you unable to walk.
  • In-Universe Marketing: Several good examples (i. e. AAN News Online), but the viral marketing of the first ARMA game via a fictional blog of an in-game character takes the cake... There's also a hefty dose of Continuity Nod towards Operation Flashpoint in all these Viral Marketing materials (to nearly Continuity Porn levels).
  • Joke Character: There is a T-34 tank available in ARMA IIs Armory and Editor (in the case of the Editor, it's a unit of the NAPA faction).
    • With plenty of mods installed, you can quickly turn various WWII and Vietnam-era factions into this. Have fun pitting Nazis with KAR-98s and nothing more than the uniforms on their backs against US Special Forces with SCAR-Hs and XM 8 s and body armor.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Brian Frost, protagonist of ARMA II: British Armed Forces and Private Military Company, becomes this, fully succumbing to cynicism by the time of PMC.
  • La Résistance: ARMA II uses guerrillas as both enemies (the "Chedaks" faction of Chernarus) and potential allies (the troops of the "National Party", aka NAPA). You spend most of the campaign fighting irregular troops, unlike previous installments, where you mostly fought organized soldiers.
  • Mad Libs Dialogue: Armed Assaults and ARMA IIs radio voiceovers of the individual soldiers kind of inherited this quality from Operation Flashpoint. Naturally, the somewhat unnatural sounding style of the voiceovers is caused by the daunting task of having to record each possible combination of a voiceover line separately (it would take ages and require thousands of voice files). There are some community-made mods in the works for replacing the original voice files with better dubbed ones, and ARMA III promises to have far better voice acting.
  • Meaningful Name: In the first campaign mission of ArmA II, you and your squad are ordered to mark an enemy communication centre in the remote coastal town of Pusta for aerial bombardment. In the process, you will find that the rebels who occupied the town, massacred most of the townsfolk, and ditched them in mass graves on the outskirts. Now, for everyone who speaks Russian, the town's name foreshadows this unfortunate turn of events - as Pusta means "Empty" in Russian.
  • Next Sunday A.D.: But kind of subverted by the fact that the series takes place in a somewhat Alternate Universe version of our own, so ongoing events like the War On Terror are quite different there.
  • Nintendo Hard: You'll have to do your best imitating Real Life military tactics to win the game, and no one ever says their jobs are easy.
  • No Arc in Archery: All the rocket/recoilless weapons for some reason (they were realistic in Operation Flashpoint).
  • One Bullet Clips: Averted, as in Operation Flashpoint. After reloading, magazines with bullets left are put back in the player's inventory and can be reloaded again later, at any time.
    • The realism-enhancing ACE II mod makes this worse, in a way - besides the fire mode selection, it removes the ammo counter from the GUI. The Reload action will inform you how heavy the magazine "feels" and that's all the info you get about the amount of ammo left... Unfortunately, the default ARMA II action for sitting down had to be removed from the ACE II mod's gameplay due to this.
  • Orphaned Series: The first ARMA game (a.k.a. Armed Assault) eventually became this when BIS decided not to create any more official content for it and moved on to produce a more polished and improved sequel. Many fans and reviewers felt that this was fairly justified, since the game was still too much like the original OFP, despite implementing several new features and technical improvements. The fact that some of the new stuff was often pretty buggy to begin with and not always well thought out (particularly the implementation of actual tall grass for stealth and the oft overcompetent enemy AI) all added to the game prematurely fading in popularity and not gaining as big a modder base as OFP or ARMA II. The sequel was also launched less than two years after AA, so most of the fanbase made the hop to ARMA II fairly quickly. On the other hand, given how buggy ARMA II was on release (and still is to some extent), the problems are not completely endemic to Armed Assault.
  • People's Republic of Tyranny: The Democratic Republic of Sahrani (DRS) in ARMA: Armed Assault. The DRS also has elements of a stereotypical Banana Republic. In ARMA II, Chernarus used to be this, and some of the in-game factions would like if it stayed that way.
  • Private Military Contractors: The subject of the Private Military Company DLC.
  • Psycho for Hire: Dixon in ARMA II: Private Military Company. He even suggests shooting at US Army soldiers to expedite some processes.
  • Qurac: Takistan in ARMA II : Operation Arrowhead.
  • Red Scare: ARMA: Armed Assault has you fighting the Commie-ish Democratic Republic of Sahrani, which is invading its southern neighbor, the Kingdom of Sahrani. ARMA II pits you against Commie rebels in Chernarus and even brought back the Russians, though of the modern day, non-communist flavour.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: The description for any M16A4 with an attached M203 in ARMA II reads "Assault rifle with grenade luncher".
  • Ruritania: The Kingdom of Sahrani Island from the first ARMA game played this trope fairly straight, being a stereotypical Mediterranean-esque monarchy. It's adversary is the aforementioned People's Republic of Tyranny in the northern half of the island, which broke away from the kingdom a few years ago. If you succeed in beating the main campaign, you can defeat the Democratic Republic of Sahrani and help restore the original united kingdom.
  • Russians With Rusting Rockets: Actually subverted pretty well. Garrisons of the Russian Federation spread across the Chernarussian border do use equipment and vehicles descended from Soviet era ones, but all of these are more modern versions of the older kits. All in all, the Russian soldiers have pretty decent gear, even carrying around exclusively newer assault rifles from the Kalashnikov family (like the AN-94 Abakan or AK-107) - while in Real Life, these are still not as widespread in the Russian army as the gradually phased-out AK-74.
  • Semper Fi: The default ARMA II campaign stars a Force Reconnaissance team, and therefore the USMC are the default "BLUFOR" for the game - hence Marine Corps weapons, Marine Corps vehicles.
  • Shout-Out: Private Hudson asks how can he get out of this chickenshit outfit.
  • Sighted Guns Are Low Tech: Back in the day, Operation Flashpoint was one of the first games to thoroughly avert this. ARMA does the same : Your sights are better for aiming than your small on-screen crosshair, and if you ramp up the realism by turning off said crosshair, you can only aim with your sights (or scopes). Some weapons even come with dual sights (i.e. backup iron sights on a scope for use at close-range or with night vision).
  • Simulation Game: And a very Wide Open Sandbox one at that. You can do anything from fighting on foot, to driving cars and tanks or flying helicopters and other aircraft... Or just walk around the country and the settlements, talk to civilians, etc. Oh, and in ARMA II, there's also a free-roaming mode that allows you to play as any of the local animals. So the game is also the first rabbit simulator for the PC!
  • Schizo-Tech / Anachronism Stew: The scenario editor in ARMA II makes it possible to deliberately invoke this - a scenario can be set to take place anywhere between 1990 and 2015 (ramped up to 1980-2020 with Operation Arrowhead), but setting it as early as possible doesn't make it any less possible to fly an F-35B or MV-22, or shoot a G36C or XM8.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: You can swim pretty well, in contrast to the original series, where getting completely submerged for more than 10–15 seconds meant insta-death. Even this is handled realistically - swimming for too long will cause any weapons carried on your back to slip off and disappear.
  • Take That: At Codemasters for Dragon Rising. From an in-universe interview at "AA News Online" (for ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead):

Ivan Ruce: It seems pretty obvious to me that no one wants to see a Flashpoint Rising in the Green Sea Region.

  • Tank Goodness: Received a slight nerf in Operation Arrowhead, where vehicles' "health" is by component instead of as a whole - so it'll be possible to "mobility kill" or "mission kill," i.e. by damaging the treads on either side or the turret, respectively.
  • Universal Ammunition: Averted. Only played straight if several weapons are of the same design family and use the exact same ammo.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: Averted. Enemy Exchange Program is in full force and you can borrow any enemy equipment if you're out of your own or running low on it.
  • Useless Useful Stealth: When Armed Assault came out, one of the much-touted new features was the ability to use tall grass for stealthy incursions into enemy territory. Sadly, this only started properly working once the game got properly patched - until then, players had severe problems with aiming at enemies while lying in the grass and the enemy soldiers had Improbable Aiming Skills thanks to an annoying bug. Guess how that ended for most players while they were trying to be sneaky?
  • The Verse: The devs have recently started referring to the setting by the (somewhat more Czech-sounding) term "ARMAversum" as well as "the Armaverse". Given the continuity, OFP's setting belongs under the umbrella term as well.
    • The devs seem to have confirmed that their helicopter sim Take On Helicopters takes place in the Armaverse as well, with one of the characters having been a combat pilot around the time of Operation Arrowhead. Vrana Corp and ION are likely to make cameo appearances.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Civilians frequently appear in the missions, and hurting them usually does not affect the mission. Also, in any mission with the Simple First Aid module, you can repeatedly shoot your allies with no ill effects.

Sykes: Cease fire goddamnit!

  • Violent Glaswegian: Tanny in Arma II: Private Military Company. The protagonist explicitly refers to bars in Glasgow when speaking of Tanny.
  • War Is Hell: More prominent in the original Operation Flashpoint series than the sequels. ARMA II put you in the role of a member of an elite USMC Force Recon squad, liberally adorned with fancy looking high-tech gear (although not to the extent of Modern Warfare 2). OFP gives you a rifle, uniform and boots, a helmet and... not much else. War is still unforgiving though, regardless whether you're a Red Shirt or a member of the elite forces.
  • We Are Not the Wehrmacht: German KSK teams are in the game, and there is a more complete Bundeswehr mod.
  • Yanks With Tanks: In ARMA II it was the USMC, but in Operation Arrowhead the American component is made of US Army soldiers, while British, German and Czech allied units are present as well.

"ENEMY MAN. AND, MEN. TO OUR RIGHT! FROST, TARGET THAT! END OF PAGE."

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