ArmA II

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 639 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 427 out of 639
  2. Mixed: 103 out of 639
  3. Negative: 109 out of 639
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  1. FelixS.
    Jul 10, 2009
    10
    I love ArmA2. It's as close as you can get to a real war. I'm part of the Shack Tactical gaming group (we have a featured credit at the end!). Try reading our guide to ArmA, google TTP. The best thing about ArmA2 is that you play the way that keeps you alive, not any kind of "game dynamic." The scripting can be unpredictable, but the game maintains its replayability via its I love ArmA2. It's as close as you can get to a real war. I'm part of the Shack Tactical gaming group (we have a featured credit at the end!). Try reading our guide to ArmA, google TTP. The best thing about ArmA2 is that you play the way that keeps you alive, not any kind of "game dynamic." The scripting can be unpredictable, but the game maintains its replayability via its dynamic scripting. I've never played a game that has been so challenging, and yet fair.… Expand
  2. DannS
    Jul 27, 2009
    10
    Fantastic game, it's the new game after Operation Flashpoint, i have been waiting for. Its a super game.
  3. KarlL
    Jul 4, 2009
    9
    Its a great game despite horrible voice acting and the millions and millions of bugs. I hope with Arma 3 BI Studios decides to address some of the problems that have been present ever since Operation Flashpoint. I love this game, But the lack of effort to do any kind of polish is very disappointing.
  4. mikah.
    Aug 6, 2009
    9
    Once you get comfortable with this game, you'll find endless gaming hours. It is the only game with such atmosphere and tools to create new scenarios beyond imagination. Find yourself a proper clan and you'll have something that other games just don't offer. You'll need to have right attitude tho, this aint for those that dont know how to think. I'm impressed the Once you get comfortable with this game, you'll find endless gaming hours. It is the only game with such atmosphere and tools to create new scenarios beyond imagination. Find yourself a proper clan and you'll have something that other games just don't offer. You'll need to have right attitude tho, this aint for those that dont know how to think. I'm impressed the deepnes of this title. Awesome, adult stuff.… Expand
  5. armag
    Aug 7, 2009
    9
    Well to make this short this IS a good game! if you like any simulation your gonna love this one too BUT the problem is with the bugs and i think they are gonna get fixed by patches and one extremely ridiculos thing i want to add you can controll a bunny or rooster and from cows to chickens! so if you have time you are gonna like this game.
  6. HerbalInfluence
    Sep 1, 2009
    10
    Completely fascinating and uncomparable to others! The openess of the "world" is unique in two ways: It's big and full and the course of action is open like in real life. It's dangerous like in real life. Done hours and days of it now. The bugs have been erased and bugs are not a shame to this kind of game: A world that is so open cannot be foreseen, not even by the developers Completely fascinating and uncomparable to others! The openess of the "world" is unique in two ways: It's big and full and the course of action is open like in real life. It's dangerous like in real life. Done hours and days of it now. The bugs have been erased and bugs are not a shame to this kind of game: A world that is so open cannot be foreseen, not even by the developers themselves. Be aware that OFP2 Dragon Rising is NOT from Bohemia Interactive, the people who did Operation Flashpoint. Yes, I am fan. Not for nothing. Having had lots of hours of exciting combats since Operation Flashpoint from 2001 on! Only point that cannot be no minus, looking close: you need good hardware! You may game it with the minimum but you will get so excited soon to see all of it's great graphics - you would blame be for not saying so.… Expand
  7. JonoA
    Oct 18, 2009
    8
    The game is great but the campaign can be a little demanding. If you have a powerful computer then this game won't have as many bugs as the low end for some reason. I bought a new computer, not specifically for this game but it runs it pretty much flawless. This game is kind of like crysis it isn't forgiving in the graphics department.
  8. vass
    Oct 23, 2009
    9
    The game is awesome. A little buggy on release but that's normal with such a huge open world game like this and BIS will keep patching unlike other companies. The editor is so good I'm having too much fun with it.
  9. WalterS.
    Oct 25, 2009
    8
    Some of the most advanced military simulations available to date. The realism is great, but the game does suffer from an unpolished interface and some usability issues.
  10. Fin
    Oct 25, 2009
    9
    Note: All of the following is based on the game patched to the current version, 1.04. More of good is never bad. Arma2 continues the Operation Flashpoint heritage, and does it quite a lot better than its predecessor Arma1. The engine has finally received some long wanted functionality updates, and along the way they've also ramped the graphics up on notch. Whereas the singleplayer Note: All of the following is based on the game patched to the current version, 1.04. More of good is never bad. Arma2 continues the Operation Flashpoint heritage, and does it quite a lot better than its predecessor Arma1. The engine has finally received some long wanted functionality updates, and along the way they've also ramped the graphics up on notch. Whereas the singleplayer campaign of Arma1 was a disappointment to many fans of the original OFP, Arma2 does things a lot better. Especially the first few missions are excellent and give the player a big deja-vu from OFP, which in this case is only a good thing. After the midpoint the campaign turns to a whole other kind of gameplay, utilizing the Warfare gamemode, and doesn't quite live up to the starting missions, but it's still ok and well done. A good started for the bread and butter of these games, which is multiplayer. Multiplayer has always been the strong point of the OFP-series, and Arma2 is no exception. BIS has always only delivered the framework and some missions to get started with, and the rest has been up to the community. Once again this concept works. The in game mission editor allows one the create simple missions in literally in 5 minutes, and with enough skills and time you can come up with practically anything you can imagine. The community has already produced several new multiplayer gamemodes (cops vs. robbers, catch the murderer, etc) , while others have made hundreds of missions for the more "traditional" modes of coop, team vs. team, CTI (capture the island) and deathmatch. Multiplayer worked pretty well even out of the box, and with patches it provides you and even more solid experience. Dedicated servers are naturally included. What makes this game unique among the genre is the relationship with the devs and the community. The devs provided the platform (the game itself) and have kept patching it, released the development tools and most importantly pay attention the what the players say. Many of the devs post in the official forums, and they actively follow a bug-tracker set up by the community and keep squashing the reported bugs. The community rewards them with more content (new units and objects, new islands, new missions, etc) which prolong the life of the game, which in turn means more income to the devs. This is a thing one most not overlook with Arma2, especially in the light of what's going on with the recently released "rival" Dragon Rising.… Expand
  11. ChaseL.
    Jun 26, 2009
    10
    This game is ruthless. You die if you make a wrong move. You'll get frustrated from reloading levels endlessly. But I can't get enough of it. There's nothing like the experience you'll get from this game. You might be in a jet firing a missile at a tank or dog fighting at 30,000. Or a sniper taking aim at an enemy commander a kilometer away, or a special forces soldier This game is ruthless. You die if you make a wrong move. You'll get frustrated from reloading levels endlessly. But I can't get enough of it. There's nothing like the experience you'll get from this game. You might be in a jet firing a missile at a tank or dog fighting at 30,000. Or a sniper taking aim at an enemy commander a kilometer away, or a special forces soldier infiltrating and enemy base to sabotage an enemy asset. Or you could just be a basic infantry man in an all out assault. You could be shot in the legs and have to crawl to safety with blurred vision and not knowing if your going in the right direction. What I'm getting at though is that there are endless possibilities for this game. Some won't like the harsh reality of it but hardcore players will find the game of their dreams here. The first Arma was a disaster. It wasn't worth the price until the community made great mods for it and it was patched by BIS. But the first game of this type by BIS was operation flashpoint, which took many hearts and ruined people lives from playing it to much. It was different from any other game at the time. Open environments, extreme realism and harsh consequences. This game is mostly a war simulator but you could make hunting missions and farming games with the limitless editor the game has. The simulation is top notch on foot but vehicles and air vehicles aren't as realistic. Tanks do need more than one person to operate fully but they just aren't realistic as a tank sim or plane sim. I am going to be playing this game for years to come and everyone should at least try the demo. Some will get hooked and others won't be able to stand the harshness but at least try and savor this masterpiece.… Expand
  12. Lizard
    Jun 27, 2009
    9
    It's still got a few annoying bugs otherwise this game would deserve a 10, I've been waiting a long time for a game like this to come along, one that treats PC gamers as a unique gaming demographic, a game with depth and sophistication that really makes full use of the PC's capabilities. I was getting rather sick of being fed an unending supply of dumbed down console ports It's still got a few annoying bugs otherwise this game would deserve a 10, I've been waiting a long time for a game like this to come along, one that treats PC gamers as a unique gaming demographic, a game with depth and sophistication that really makes full use of the PC's capabilities. I was getting rather sick of being fed an unending supply of dumbed down console ports and was starting to lose faith in the future of PC gaming, ArmA 2 is the perfect antidote to that . The scope of this game is breathtaking and the attention to detail is second to none, military sims don't come any more real than this. Performance on the whole is pretty good on my less than up to date rig with most graphics settings on normal or high . If you were a fan of Operation Flashpoint you'll love this, it's one for the more serious PC gamer, it's nice to know that we haven't been completely abandoned in this age of cross platform development and mass market appeal.… Expand
  13. CameronY.
    Jun 29, 2009
    10
    The Game is Brilliant. Its very realistic which may not take peoples fancy , forexample you can't just run in and shoot like in call of duty for. Instead you need to work your way in with a group of Friends or randoms and work together in taking over the citys. Also this game will not get boring thats so much you can do. One day u might want to taxi people on helicopters to the The Game is Brilliant. Its very realistic which may not take peoples fancy , forexample you can't just run in and shoot like in call of duty for. Instead you need to work your way in with a group of Friends or randoms and work together in taking over the citys. Also this game will not get boring thats so much you can do. One day u might want to taxi people on helicopters to the battle. Anoher you may want to be a sniper or a up front short ranged solider etc . the list goes on for miles seeing as theres planes vehicles. Also there are things added ontop which make the game so awesome, like seeing a Ammo Van get airlifted by a helicopter to the battle. Or one of my experiences was shooting the pilot of an emermy helicopter on the gorund with a ranged rifle and watching the heli dive bomb into some trees. Yes you may get people saying there are bugs etc , thats all mostly in the singleplayer campaign. To get real enjoyment you can only go multiplayer. Lastly there so much to do and learn so many controls , weapons etc , you can never get bored. Its a right laugh. 10 out of 10 for me.… Expand
  14. ChrisH.
    Jun 30, 2009
    8
    Fresh out the blocks I was a little disappointed, but the patches seem to be coming out thick and fast from the developers so hopefully I will soon be able to sit down and give the game the time it needs. All the patches have so far recommended that you sacrifice your game saves so I am glad I did not get too far into it.
  15. DuncanF.
    Jul 1, 2009
    10
    This game is everything I hoped it would be. With teamwork and a good online community, nothing will parallel to the authentic experience you can get with upwards of 120 people fighting competitively in 60 vs 60 warfare. www.cfarma2.com. Not to say that there aren't a few rough edges in the game, mostly the single player AI, but BI is working fast to fix these and within a couple This game is everything I hoped it would be. With teamwork and a good online community, nothing will parallel to the authentic experience you can get with upwards of 120 people fighting competitively in 60 vs 60 warfare. www.cfarma2.com. Not to say that there aren't a few rough edges in the game, mostly the single player AI, but BI is working fast to fix these and within a couple weeks of release they had already released 2 patches fixing alot of the AI issues.… Expand
  16. MartyC
    Jul 6, 2009
    9
    Good simulator of war. Some bugs, but 1.02 is good playable game with huge potential and great editor tool. GO ON.
  17. GeraldoA
    Jul 6, 2009
    9
    Tell me my friends, a game that does not have bugs? Bugs can be fixed, have some patience. This game is beautiful, has an editor, immersive and the community is great.
  18. AnonymousMC
    Jul 9, 2009
    10
    Very good game for hardcore Military Sim players. It is unfortunate that the publisher wanted the game out before it was finished though. I personally don't find it to be complicated what so ever, but yet I typically play Mil Sims. This is definitely not the game for Battlefield 2 players though.
  19. TheIlluitionist
    Jul 9, 2009
    9
    Real Good follow uo to Operatin Flashpoint and Armed Assault 1. Awesome graphics. But it has issues with laggy mouse and stuttering. Hopefully this will be fixed with patches. Hold off buying this game till taht happens or even better email Bohemia Interactive and tell them of your decision not to buy the game till they patch and fix the bugs.
  20. JoshK
    Jul 9, 2009
    10
    This is a awesome game. If you played and loved the first this is for you. Definitely not for run and gunner's this game takes patience as every time you play you have to go in like its real life.
  21. GhostSheetsXx*
    Aug 6, 2009
    8
    After completing the single player campaign and tinkering with the Armory and Editor modes for a few hours I thought I was finished with Arma 2. I'm not sure why I hadn't considered playing online, but it's something I overlooked each time I fired up the game. Perhaps I thought I woulld be too inexperienced in a world of dedicated, hardcore Arma 2 enthusiasts. And upon After completing the single player campaign and tinkering with the Armory and Editor modes for a few hours I thought I was finished with Arma 2. I'm not sure why I hadn't considered playing online, but it's something I overlooked each time I fired up the game. Perhaps I thought I woulld be too inexperienced in a world of dedicated, hardcore Arma 2 enthusiasts. And upon joining a MP game for the first time, I was.... There were a million things happening around me in the first 64 player server I joined. Engineers repairing APC's. Harriers and F35's taxiing down the run way to make a bombing run on a nearby overun city. I heard chatter over the radio of my team's Humvey convoy approaching the city from a flank position. And while all this was happening , I just stood at base, in the very position I spawned, and spun around and around taking in everything that was happening. This was an entire world I just stepped into. To avoid kick, I decided to move around a bit. I saw a pilot fire up a BlackHawk chopper and my team started to load up. I hoppped in back and we flew to a safe landing zone about a half mile east of our target city. I buddied up with my teams sniper, and we slowly and methodically picked off insurgants and moved our way into the city. Meanwhile choppers are buzzing over our head, the realistic sound of afterburning jet engines are roaring by, AA fire tracers are spraying violently through the air and on the horizon I can see a paratroop drop of about 15 soldiers slowly floating down. It was our secondary fire team surrounding the enemy. I knew then, that I would be playing this game all summer. And I have been. I consider myself inbetween and average and somewhat hardcore gamer, but I never thought I could get into Arma 2. I thought the community was too exclusive, and the game to difficult to learn. But I'm learning it. And it's the most fun I've had on my computer in a looong time. Thanks.… Expand
  22. jbroost
    Sep 6, 2009
    9
    it's not perfect, but pretty close. i run the gambet of
    strtagy war games from medieval to necular. iv'e got a whole shelf dedicated to conquering the world, i like good graphics and reality for the time. i like a game that offers a fair challange. ARMA 2 offers all that. im not sure how fictional arma2 in Chernarus will prove to be. remember Bosnia? i didn't give ARMA a    it's not perfect, but pretty close. i run the gambet of
    strtagy war games from medieval to necular. iv'e got a whole shelf dedicated to conquering the world, i like good graphics and reality for the time. i like a game that offers a fair challange. ARMA 2 offers all that. im not sure how fictional arma2 in Chernarus will prove to be. remember Bosnia? i didn't give ARMA a 10 because there ain't no 10s. but, like i said it's close. you may edit this for spelling but not for content, then print it ,post it, or whatever. thanks Jb    … Expand
  23. mikec
    Oct 8, 2009
    5
    Running i7@4ghz w/ 2 - gtx 260's and 6 gig ddr3 ram. i get frame rates that dip down to 20ish. playing flashpoint2 at the moment and getting 60fps MAXED out. arma2 could have been GREAT. but it wasn't. it lacks the polish that great games have. VOICES are completely ridiculous. For this reason alone i would stop playing the game, but there are other reasons... AI see's Running i7@4ghz w/ 2 - gtx 260's and 6 gig ddr3 ram. i get frame rates that dip down to 20ish. playing flashpoint2 at the moment and getting 60fps MAXED out. arma2 could have been GREAT. but it wasn't. it lacks the polish that great games have. VOICES are completely ridiculous. For this reason alone i would stop playing the game, but there are other reasons... AI see's through everything and knows ur there a mile away... campaign is so bugged out that missions have to be played multiple times to finish. i played multiplayer for a bit and it didn't seem bad, but could use a bit of structure. with the proper patches and NEW VOICEOVER this game could be the greatest game EVER, but unfortunately it falls so far from perfect. pickup flashpoint 2, it may not be uber-stupidly-realistic, but its fun!!… Expand
  24. JackS
    Jul 15, 2009
    6
    The graphics look quite nice sometimes, but this game is just such a mess! I like that it is quite a hardcore game. If you get shot by just ONE bullet, you fall to the ground bleeding. You then either die, need to reload a save game, or have to hope a squad mate can get to you and revive you. The AI is so terribly poor though, this is unlikely in offline play, and in offline play, usually The graphics look quite nice sometimes, but this game is just such a mess! I like that it is quite a hardcore game. If you get shot by just ONE bullet, you fall to the ground bleeding. You then either die, need to reload a save game, or have to hope a squad mate can get to you and revive you. The AI is so terribly poor though, this is unlikely in offline play, and in offline play, usually they don't even allow this option so you just die and then have to watch the rest of the battle without being able to play. If you thought CounterStrike was boring after you died, you aint seen nothing yet.. My main gripe though is that the campaign is just unplayable. I usually don't really care about bugs, but these bugs mean that you can't even play the game. You can't complete the missions... The controls are also really poor. I am a big flight sim fan so I'm no stranger to every key on the keyboard doing something, but this game is a joke. They clearly just have terrible designers because they use the same key for multiple things and there are different keys to do things that should be very simple. The terrible interface makes it really slow and ponderous to give very simple orders too. Your squad goes running towards an enemy, and you can't just tell them to "stop". You have to scroll through a bunch of menus to do that. The performance is also really terrible. I have a quad core which I have overclocked to 3.5ghz, and I have a GTX285. Most of the time I'm lucky to get over 25fps. It has a few quicker moments, but at times my frame rate goes to single digits. The villages are just so poorly made that the textures on all the buildings fail to load, and then they pop in far too late which looks ugly, and then the frame rate plummets. It's better if I lower all the settings to low and turn off all the effects but the game looks quite bad then and doing that on a high end PC is just terrible. Worst of all though, is the multiplayer. I have a 20mbit cable connection which is very fast... but most of the servers have terrible pings. The servers are hosted by average people not by the company, so they are really laggy. It really ruins the experience. Also you will be mid game and one time I was the only one to survive. I continued on the mission by myself and was doing well, but because the server host had to just watch, he decided to just shut his server down... I also find that people will ban you from their server if you are doing well. One time I was capping people really quite well in deathmatch and my score finally got higher than the server host. Suddenly I had been disconnected. I came back and I asked him why and he just permanently banned me without even saying anything. People will also ban you if your ping goes above 100, so if I try to play on a foreign server, I just get instantly banned. It's really a poor experience. The game has a lot of potential but I would save your money for something else. There are big games coming soon that will compete with this and do a far better job. At the very least, wait a few months and see if they can patch a lot of the problems. They already did two patches but it fixed very little and broke new things.… Expand
  25. RandallH
    Aug 8, 2009
    6
    I have only played the demo, but it seems to be an unfinished game. While i will admit it does have some hope, the game right now just has too many bugs. Also i had a hard time learning the controles, i changed a good number of them, and still had a hard time doing simple things like crawling, running aiming, and such. I will might reconsider getting the game once i see some updates/fixes I have only played the demo, but it seems to be an unfinished game. While i will admit it does have some hope, the game right now just has too many bugs. Also i had a hard time learning the controles, i changed a good number of them, and still had a hard time doing simple things like crawling, running aiming, and such. I will might reconsider getting the game once i see some updates/fixes come out.… Expand
  26. BaronM
    Jul 28, 2009
    5
    The game has a lot of fun parts to it, but there is just to much you can do. To much buttons to press, and to many bugs in the game. They just added to much. The game is to large as well. and the maps are way to big I am rarely in infantry combat because all people want to do is go in jeeps and tanks and planes and coppters. Also the voices of the side characters sound like 10 year olds. The game has a lot of fun parts to it, but there is just to much you can do. To much buttons to press, and to many bugs in the game. They just added to much. The game is to large as well. and the maps are way to big I am rarely in infantry combat because all people want to do is go in jeeps and tanks and planes and coppters. Also the voices of the side characters sound like 10 year olds. Why did you also use the in game battle com voice that BF2 uses. It sounds like they recorded one word seperately and added it together. I don't know which is worst arma 2 or AA3.… Expand
  27. [anonymous]
    Dec 25, 2009
    5
    The game was too graphically intense and shaders/objects did not load very quickly. My PC exceeded the recommended specs by two or three times. Game play was no different than ArmA 1.
  28. Illuminous
    Aug 29, 2011
    6
    I've been a great fan of Bohemia's simulatiors since they released Operation Flashpoint, but ArmA II just doesn't live up to it's predecessor. The graphics are great, almost to much for my PC to handle from time to time, and some missions gives you alot of open space to travel, but I've experienced just to many bugs within the game to continue, especially with the Co-oP campaing wereI've been a great fan of Bohemia's simulatiors since they released Operation Flashpoint, but ArmA II just doesn't live up to it's predecessor. The graphics are great, almost to much for my PC to handle from time to time, and some missions gives you alot of open space to travel, but I've experienced just to many bugs within the game to continue, especially with the Co-oP campaing were saving didn't work or missions were totally bugged. Hopefully ArmA III will put it all right, but this time I'll hold onto my money and not preorder it.… Expand
  29. Reaper1990
    May 29, 2012
    9
    Simulator which makes everything in large scale, no tiny maps, no small numbers of bots/people.
    Huge possibilities, editor, nice graphics and so on...
  30. Hudson633
    Aug 15, 2012
    7
    Mildly enjoyable, but annoyingly it's quite user-unfriendly and infested with awkward features and little bugs. I imagine what an older game could have been in the same genre, and this grew up from that genre and sprouted hideous defects. I'm being harsh because it really annoys me when a developer ruins a product by leaving it rough around the edges, but this is honesty and not spite. AtMildly enjoyable, but annoyingly it's quite user-unfriendly and infested with awkward features and little bugs. I imagine what an older game could have been in the same genre, and this grew up from that genre and sprouted hideous defects. I'm being harsh because it really annoys me when a developer ruins a product by leaving it rough around the edges, but this is honesty and not spite. At least I'm having fun on the popular DayZ mod with it, so all is forgiven.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

61
#61 Best PC Game of 2009
14
#14 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009
45
#45 Most Shared PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. Gamers.at
    72
    It's a shame the developers obviously didn't have enough time to finish ArmA II properly before they shipped it: There are many bugs in the game and the AI's actions mostly just don't make sense at all. One piece of advice: Get patch 1.01 – with it the game is at least moderate fun. Still, we hope that some further patches will follow and fix ArmA II's major flaws so that it will finally become the great game it could be – next time, however, we'd like to see the game finished by the time of its release!
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  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    70
    The vast and open world of ArmA II offers an incomparable army experience. You only need to accept its slow pace and batch of unpleasant bugs. Still ArmA is the only matchless war toy.
  3. GameStar
    66
    ARMA 2 doesn't seem to be a finished game. The AI is cheating, physics and controls are out of date and the game is full of annoying bugs. That the game manages to look great from time to time doesn't help much. Hopefully Bohemia Interactive will release some patches soon. The game still has a lot of potential.
    Read full review
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