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Arma 4 early access begins now with Arma Reforger

It's been nine years since the last major Arma game, and Bohemia Interactive has now officially launched Arma 4 early access - it's called Arma Reforger

US light infantry assembles on a mountainside in the forest in Arma Reforger.

After almost nine years since the last entry in the series, Arma 4 early access is finally rumbling to life. Arma Reforger, a stripped-back, smaller-scale version of the military simulation game meant to get players and modders up to speed on the next-generation Enfusion engine developer Bohemia Interactive has built for Arma 4, is now available on Steam.

Arma Reforger is a different early access track than we’ve typically seen in the past. Rather than providing a work-in-progress look at Arma 4, Reforger is a separate game. There’s no single-player campaign in Reforger, which is a multiplayer game first and foremost. However, using Bohemia’s Workbench application, players will be able to get to work on mods straight away.

“Arma Reforger [is] a more compact and focused game, and the very first public milestone on the road to Arma 4,” Marek Španěl, CEO and founder of Bohemia Interactive, explains. “On this long road to Arma 4, it is essential for us to have people actively using our new technology and contributing their feedback and criticism, as was always the case with Arma.”

Bohemia estimates that the Reforger Early Access period will run for one year. On launch, it includes one map, two game modes, and Workbench access for mod management and creation. That map is set on the fictional North Sea island of Everon, a 51 square kilometre landmass that originally served as the setting for Operation Flashpoint/ArmA: Cold War Assault. Newly rebuilt in the Enfusion engine, Everon is broadly familiar but packed with new details and beautifully overhauled visuals.

“In this setting, we aim to leverage two decades of our collective experience to create an unbelievably authentic Arma game, with the new Enfusion technology providing us with the tools to actually deliver this unparalleled authenticity,” said Ivan Buchta, Arma Reforger’s creative director. “I really hope that players will live through many memorable moments in Arma Reforger, our first step on the road to the new and powerful military sandbox.”

Conflict, the primary game mode, is a team- and objective-based mode that involves expanding your faction’s influence across Everon and securing key locations, eventually capturing your enemy’s headquarters. Games of conflict involve resource management and logistics, and they’ll go on for as long as they have to in order for one side to secure the win.

A hand holding a military-style compass near a gravel road in a sunny field in Arma Reforger

Reforger also includes Game Master mode, a live, in-game scenario editing mode similar to Arma 3’s Zeus. It allows one player to create a scenario on the fly, dropping in structures, vehicles, NPCs, and objectives with a relatively simple menu interface.

Another game mode, Capture and Hold, is available in the Workshop tab as an official mod. This is a more constrained mode than Conflict, and is a simple battle for a single strongpoint on Everon – the mod allows you to move that strongpoint to one of several different locations on the island.

You can start playing Arma Reforger right now, as it’s just launched on Steam.