Broken Arrow Review

There are a few genres that are almost entirely defined by a couple of games. Even though there are plenty of hardcore shooters on the market, for example, Arma and Squad are the two most popular ones. Steam is filled with cosy survival titles, but Minecraft and Terraria are still the ones people boot up when they aren’t in the mood for something more intense. Garry’s Mod is effectively the only true sandbox game, despite it being released almost two decades ago. The Wargame franchise, and its spiritual successor WARNO, are the modern military real time strategy games. However, with the release of Broken Arrow, Eugen Systems finally has some competition. It isn’t as stiff as it could be because of how few changes it makes from its contemporary’s formula, but Broken Arrow is a remarkably solid title that’s at least worth trying if you enjoy building armies and destroying enemy positions.

The premise and gameplay of Broken Arrow are almost identical to the aforementioned Wargame. You play as the nameless, faceless commander of either the United States or Russian forces in a Second Cold War gone hot. In its online matches against other players, and offline ones against bots, you first have to decide which units from the game’s gigantic roster you want to have at your disposal. Once you do, you spawn them over the course of about an hour. As you do so, you order them around gigantic open maps to capture objectives, kill enemies, and scout out positions. Doing all three of those gives you points that allow you to spawn in more units, but failing to do all three will deplete your army’s reserves quickly. You have to perpetually manage dozens of squads at the same time, ensure they have ammunition, and monitor the tactical situation from an overhead perspective if you want to succeed. If you don’t constantly pay attention to the battlefield, however, you will lose quickly and decisively.

Somewhat obviously, there’s a lot of nuance involved in Broken Arrow’s gameplay. Deciding where to send your troops, when to launch artillery strikes, and what units are best utilised for specific tasks is what makes it, and the genre as a whole, so addictive. And it's these types of minute actions that set Broken Arrow apart from Wargame and WARNO. Even though its overarching strategy gameplay is almost identical to Eugen Systems’ franchise, and is just as functional and refined as it, there are small differences that will be immediately noticeable to anyone who has spent any amount of time fighting in virtual Eastern Europe.

The biggest one is its roster, which is smaller, more modern, and more customisable than that of its competitors. Broken Arrow’s only two playable factions are the United States and Russia, but you can modify the specifics of each unit’s loadouts. Green Berets, for example, can be sent into combat with either suppressed rifles and airburst grenade launchers, quad-barreled rocket launchers and HK416s, or SCAR-H battle rifles and M107 snipers. They can ride in on standard trucks that have four different options for their top turrets, Little Bird helicopters that also have four different weapon packages, unarmed stealth choppers, or bipedal locomotion. Each one of the game’s hundred-odd units has the same level of customisability. And, in a broader sense, each action you take is equally more in-depth.

‍Broken Arrow’s less noticeable mechanics ensure that it isn’t merely a clone of Eugen Systems’ titles. Things like being able to designate specific targets for laser-guided bombs, being able to drop tactical nukes, and how the battlefield changes over the course of a match make the entire experience feel more realistic. Slightly more expansive elements, like the title’s 16-mission-long single-player campaign and in-game scenario editor, add a lot of depth, too. The title’s visuals and audio, in addition, are actually good, so encounters look and sound more like real fights than two armies of toy soldiers duking it out. It may not seem like any of that would matter, but because they’re combined with a tried-and-true gameplay system, it makes Broken Arrow actually worth playing even if you aren’t a diehard fan of its genre.

If you aren’t, of course, you will have to contend with its very steep learning curve. Broken Arrow’s biggest problem is the same as Wargame’s, and Company of Heroes’, and Arma’s, and pretty much every other hardcore military title on the market. That is to say that it’s not very welcoming to beginners, and extraordinarily difficult to get into if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. Although Broken Arrow does have a good tutorial at the start of its campaign, it doesn’t give you enough freedom to become acquainted with the game’s many nuances. It takes time and energy to differentiate between the game’s units, understand how best to counter them, and figure out the best strategies to defeat your enemies. Even if you’re playing offline, you can’t save mid-mission, either, which means you have to figure things out by failing and restarting encounters. If you have a couple of more knowledgeable friends, you can play with them until you’re competent enough to open up its server browser to find a match. But if you don’t, it’s easy to become frustrated at how punishing Broken Arrow is.

If you’re willing to suffer through a few hours of failure, though, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best, and only, military real time strategy games on the market. Despite Broken Arrow having more than a few things in common with its singular competitor (and that competitor’s spiritual successor), it still manages to have an identity of its own. It’s more visually polished, sounds better, runs better, doesn’t have as many meaningless mechanics, and its setting makes for more modern gameplay both literally and figuratively.

Steel Balalaika’s title, like the ones that inspired it, has a steep learning curve and a few harebrained design decisions (such as the way it implements saves). Once you figure out how to deal with both, though, you’ll be rewarded with a sophisticated military RTS that has a unique identity. Although it plays it a bit too safe with genre conventions, and its price is noticeably higher than the 10-year-old Wargame: Red Dragon, its substantial single-player content and solid visuals help it stand apart from most other titles. It’s a more focused, more contemporary version of Wargame and WARNO that doesn’t take their crown as the king of the genre, but can sit comfortably as a prince.