Put thoughts of the John Travolta and Christian Slater film to one side, as outside of the name referring to nuclear weapons going missing, Broken Arrow is not related in any way. Instead this is a tactical modern era wargame looking to take on the RTS niche when it launches in June.
For our hands on time with Broken Arrow, we jumped right in at the deep end, playing multiplayer with a bunch of far more experienced players who had already sunk hours and hours into the game. In a way, this was actually the best way for a newcomer to see how the game works, with a 5v5 tussle for control over objectives spread across the map. Going toe-to-toe with players that have already figured out the ins and outs of how the game works wasn’t going to go well, so instead I was able to focus on smaller, less pivotal control points, while soaking in the action going on elsewhere.
Broken Arrow emphasises the more tactical aspects of warfare. There’s no base building here, but you do all bring your units out from set spawn points, having them race across the map in the early parts of battle to try and quickly establish frontlines and defensive positions with as many of the map’s control points in your hands as possible.
Units are broken down into six categories, with speedy recon units, infantry, tanks, support, artillery and air, drawing from the two sides of this particular war – the US and Russia. However, there’s a lot of crossover between these categories. Just summoning a squad of soldier is going to be pretty useless when it then takes them 15 minutes to sprint from one side of the map to even the closest objective, so you typically want to spawn them within an armoured transport to get them closer to where they need to go, or a helicopter, if the risk of being shot down is worth the reward of the amount of time you save.
And that risk is very real. Even from the opening moments, fighter jets start zipping across the map to deal quick missile strikes on advancing tanks, then countered by surface-to-air missiles that see them spew decoy flares to try and make an escape. Once that SAM has fired, it’s then in a known spot, which makes it a ripe target for artillery and surface missile fire, which in turns reveals fresh targets for fighter jets. Each time you peel back the fog of war to fire off a barrage, it brings the risk of a retaliatory strike.
Of course, you can use that fog of war to your advantage. I spent the latter stages of my first battle building up an infantry assault force, moving them through the woods and holding station until the final minutes of the battle, where I could rush a lightly defended control point (alongside a rather danger close missile strike) and capture it right with minimal risk of reprisals.
Emboldened by this for my second match, on a more watery map with an out-of-the-way control point, I then started to put my soldiers in choppers to avoid slower submersible vehicles being spotted and blown up, had a SAM for cover, and spread out soldiers with IGLA launchers handy to then hold the control point from any aerial assaults.
This was all for nought as the battle in the middle of the map went the other team’s way, and my efforts to push back onto the mainland docks were quickly rebuffed by a handful of defending units tucked up in buildings and woodland. Multiplayer battle play out through three phases, with points awarded for area control as well as casualties.
A much better way to get a handle on the game is to go through the initial training and single player missions, though. We had access to a pair of scenarios, one from each side, with an airbase assault and a mission to capture and hold a power station.
Both of them really highlight the need for good scouting and situational awareness. The runway capture mission starts with sending in airstrikes to clear air defences before paratroopers come in to secure a beachhead, but they quickly need airlifted reinforcements to stave off the counter attacks from bases further away on the map. The power station assault puts you more in the middle of a combined assault, giving you a handful of key units in a wider front and objectives that are built up with multiple buildings to provide great cover to tank-busting infantry, while the enemy counter offensives alternate between the two. It starts to get hairy as long range artillery comes to battery your positions and the tide gradually turns the screws against you through the mission.
While I’ve really taken a fairly light touch on this game, there’s plenty of depths to discover, such as customising unit loadouts to add more protection to tanks, equip different weapons on aircraft, to switch up the type of ammo used by artillery. The appeal is clear to see for fans of realistic wargame strategy titles and mil sims in general.
