[News] ARMA 3: Contact

[Arsenic]

ARMA III: CONTACT




EVER FANTASIZE ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF
ALIENS ARRIVE ON EARTH?​

In what some say is a huge departure for the series, ARMA 3's surprise new expansion centers around the immediate aftermath of at least one Extraterrestrial craft making a landing in Eastern Europe, in a fictional Polish speaking country called Livonia. The campaign will involve a NATO exercise in the region being interrupted when the craft breaks atmosphere, and have CBRN (haz-mat), EM (Electromagnetic) warfare/concepts, field science, and combat recon. The expansion will also be adding 2 new snub factions (Livonian Defense Force and Russian Spetznaz), new weapons, gear, assets for mission creation, and a new Terrain, the Nadbor section of Livonia.

Welcome to Livonia!​

The Livonia terrain is a 163km² playspace based in the partly abandoned Nadbor region of the fictional post-soviet country Livonia. The country itself is a landlocked NATO state that borders Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and the Russian Kaliningrad. It features a lovely temperate summer environment for Combined Arms action across the small and medium towns, farmland, lush forests, and abandoned towns turned into a military training site for NATO. The area also features a plethora of interesting landmarks to find and explore, from a abandoned soviet radar base, to castle ruins and more! The region is also filled with your favorite ARMA 2 structures, retextered and with added interiors and destruction, so get exploring!

Oh, and purchasing the Expansion grants immediate access to this terrain, with the conventional factions and equipment to follow. No alien stuff is to be present until release.

Guns, Gear, and Grunts.​

The Contact expansion will feature 2 new contemporary snub factions, the Livonian defense force, and the Russian Spetznaz. Both of these will be made up of a combination of new and reused assets to make sure they are fleshed out. These involve 5 new weapons (including an under/over and under-barrel shotgun finally!) as well as new rifles for the factions. They will also be getting some new bits of gear, such as helmets, armor, and uniforms to help them stay unique from the other factions. Along with this there are also new "vehicles", a mini ground drone and a tractor, as well as new CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear. Think HazMat) themed wearables (that sadly don't function outside the campaign) and props for custom missions, rugged equipment props, some new camping props, and plenty more.

The part we've all been waiting for...​

Aliens. Bohemia interactive has been rather tight lipped on the arguably most important part of this Expansion. This is good in a way, as it would partly kill the mystery and unknown factors of the campaign and expansion as a whole if they gave us all the details. All we know is there are rumors of "car-sized robots" examining the area around the landing site, that they have some form of gravity manipulation technology, and that there are anomalies scattered around, some of which seem to manipulate gravity in an extremely localized area.


A personal though; This lack of details is good in a way, but also frightens me. With knowing that outside of the campaign features like CBRN equipment are purely cosmetic, it causes me to worry the centerpiece of the expansion will be similar. It would be a crying shame for the biggest shake up to arma since it came out to be relegated to only the singleplayer mode. And I'm further frightened by my experience with the game engine. This expansion could either go really well, or really not well, and I think the game's engine is a push towards the later. I'm sure they know how to make their own engine sing, but if they don't do it right, the centerpiece of the expansion could fall flat on it's face.


Anyways, this expansion seems to have been pretty polarizing for the community so far, with some loving the daring direction and some saying it doesn't belong in arma (The later normally get pretty angry and petty when you tell them ARMA 3 originally had aliens as the bad guys and there is still a texture in the game files for one). How does everyone feel about it?