# Arma 2 / Operation Arrowhead **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530 "2012-03-12T05:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/1 "2012-03-12T05:41:19Z")
Has anybody picked this game up? For the uninitiated, it’s the most diamond-hard military FPS I’ve ever played. Its big features are an enormous map (400 square km), a huge array of vehicles and weapons (pilot a helicopter!), and a quite well-developed system for giving commands to NPC subordinates. Some people call it Really Slow Battlefield, but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. I got all the way up to the helicopter mission on OA, and I’m currently struggling my way through the first free-roaming mission in vanilla. If you want a game that is seriously, no-fooling the most difficult thing ever, give it a shot. The tutorial takes about 2-and-a-half hours to get through. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/2 "2012-03-12T19:35:11Z")
It is a pretty decent First Person Stroller. A shooter, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/3 "2012-03-12T19:46:16Z")
It’s a military sim, it’s not a linear, action movie shooter. It’s realistic, it’s deliberate. And it’s no fun unless you have a crew with you that knows what they’re doing, at which point the game becomes ten times better than any CoD. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/4 "2012-03-12T20:44:09Z")
Is it less terribly bugged than it was at release? I seem to recall the Drill Instructor who was supposed to teach me heavy weapons being randomly and absurdly sniped by an invisible enemy who wasn’t supposed to be there. (Or was that the first ARMA?) ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/5 "2012-03-12T21:40:26Z")
On the latest releases, I find the bugs to be much diminished, though in the complicated missions they can still be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/6 "2012-03-12T22:31:34Z")
I recall giving this game a reply but giving up in frustration because it wouldn’t let me remap the keys the way I always do. I use the right-mouse button for forward movement and the W key for the right-buttons standard function _(usually zoom)_. Unorthodox but it works for me and the fact you can’t swap it in Arma made the game unplayable for me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/7 "2012-03-13T20:37:41Z")
I’ve had a ton of fun with it in the past. I haven’t played much in the last 6 months or so. It’s a huge game with huge potential and huge bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Modevo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Modevo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Modevo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/8 "2012-03-27T02:35:09Z")
I still enjoy having to do an emergency landing in a UH-60 for some reason, after watching the sky fill up with rpgs. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/9 "2012-03-28T16:57:58Z")
This thread has really made me interested in Arma 2. I really miss the old, original Ghost Recon, where you could direct different squads and the maps seemed much more open and larger and non-linear than later games. I played the Operation Arrowhead demo and enjoyed what I played, but there wasn’t a lot of content present in the demo. Does the full game come with enough scenarios and campaign stuff to keep one busy in single player? It’s $20 on Steam right now; does it go on sale from time to time? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/10 "2012-03-28T17:42:49Z")
Check out [Armaholic.com](http://Armaholic.com) for tons of content including missions and campaigns. The squad command is clunky but workable. Works better with real players. Of course mods can improve things. I don’t see a lot of sales on Arma2. ---
**Author:** ![opossum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2bfe46/32.png) [@opossum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opossum)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/11 "2012-03-29T03:20:54Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > I played the Operation Arrowhead demo and enjoyed what I played, but there wasn’t a lot of content present in the demo. Does the full game come with enough scenarios and campaign stuff to keep one busy in single player? It’s very easy to create your own scenarios, and as control-z said, there’s an astounding amount of content (including scenarios, new units, new maps, etc.) on Armaholic. I never even played all the way through the single player campaigns, preferred making my own with a lot of extra stuff from Armaholic. I think it it is in a league of its own in terms of replayability and custom content. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/12 "2012-03-29T12:26:26Z")
Think of it more as a sandbox rather than a planned experience such as Call of Duty. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/13 "2012-03-29T13:07:47Z")
I got the combo pack of Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead; it was still downloading by bedtime but I’m excited to give it a workout. Thanks, folks. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/14 "2012-03-29T13:10:17Z")
I haven’t played in a long while. Anyone up for a co-op mission or two this weekend? ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/15 "2012-03-29T14:03:18Z")
I’m east coast, I tend to play 8pm+, but have some flexibility. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arma-2-operation-arrowhead/615530/16 "2012-03-29T16:25:08Z")
East Coast too. I can play at any time of day or night. The wife is working over the weekend so I am a free man! And being the good husband that I am, it’s multi-player gaming for me over strip bars and beer!