Developer Bohemia Interactive has, following an extensive leak over the weekend, officially unveiled Arma Reforger, the next step in its long-running first-person military shooter series. Described as the “first milestone on the long road to Arma 4”, Reforger launches into PC and Xbox Series X/S early access today.
Bohemia opened a lengthy livestream earlier today with confirmation that the long-awaited Arma 4 is in development (its predecessor, Arma 3, celebrates its 10th birthday next year), but the remainder of the stream’s focus was very much on Reforger. It’s being called a new standalone “platform” for the series, consisting of several key parts; there’s a new engine, a new open-world sandbox, three gameplay modes, and integrated modding tools, enabling user to create and download mods directly in-game.
Reforger’s sandbox should be immediately familiar to fans of Bohemia’s previous titles, taking the form of the Everon map seen in 2001’s Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, albeit thoroughly reworked and reimagined using the developer’s latest tech. As that might suggest, it marks a return to the Cold War era for the series, circa 1989, with Bohemia saying its keen to capture the atmosphere of the 80s across its 51 sq km map.