Info about Broken Arrow:

Official game description:
**Broken Arrow** is a large-scale real-time modern warfare tactics game that combines the complexity of joint-forces wargaming with action-packed real-time tactics gameplay. 
Featuring over 300 realistic military units and technologies, each battle offers an immersive experience with endless replayability.
Experience a gripping narrative-driven campaign featuring **19 handcrafted missions** set in the Baltic region, played from both the **United States** and **Russian** perspectives.
The campaign features a thrilling plot of escalating global tensions, where each mission presents new tactical challenges and story developments. Whether defending key positions with elite units or launching bold combined arms offensives, every mission is designed to test your command skills in dynamic, realistic warfare scenarios.
On top of the single-player campaign, engage against AI in the **Skirmish mode on 19 maps** based on real life locations, choosing your favourite specializations and difficulty levels. Team up with your friends and learn the game at your own pace against various AI presets that represent Battlegroups you will face on the battlefield. At release, Skirmish doesn’t currently allow playing co-operatively with AI as team allies, but it is planned for a future update.
But if you’d rather face human opponents, hop online and engage in thrilling **Multiplayer matches up to 5vs5**. Track your progress as you rise through the leaderboard and you gain experience as a general while you level up and gain new medals.
Unleash your creativity with the powerful **Scenario Editor**, the same tool used to craft the game's missions. Design custom scenarios complete with cutscenes and dialogue using a visual scripting system—no coding required.
Share your creations with the community via the **Steam Workshop** or download them to experience endless user-generated content.
Craft your unique army deck by selecting from a vast array of units, each customizable to suit your strategy. 
With over 300 units and more than 1,500 possible combinations, you can tailor your forces to match your playstyle. Modify vehicles and aircraft with different weapons, armor packages, and support systems to gain the upper hand on the battlefield.
Victory begins with meticulous planning. Broken Arrow offers a diverse range of units categorized into six key roles:
*   **Recon Units** – Specialized in spotting and marking enemy positions.
*   **Infantry** – Versatile ground troops equipped with various weapons.
*   **Fighting Vehicles** – Includes tanks, ATGM carriers, and fire support vehicles.
*   **Support** – Artillery and anti-aircraft units providing long-range support.
*   **Helicopters** – Ideal for rapid deployment and hit-and-run tactics.
*   **Airplanes** – Control the skies with interceptors and ground attack aircraft.
Deploy to the battlefield via land, sea and air. Use paratroopers and helicopters to rapidly seize key locations, reinforce them with heavy tanks and break enemy counter attacks with artillery and tactical missile strikes.
Infiltrate special forces behind enemy lines to disrupt enemy logistics and provide laser designation for your planes. Use the terrain to your advantage to ambush, out flank and outsmart your enemy.
Engage in combat across expansive battlefields inspired by real-world locations. From industrial harbors to sprawling urban centers, each environment offers strategic opportunities and challenges. 
Utilize terrain features to ambush enemies, secure key positions, and execute flanking maneuvers.

Release date: 19 Jun, 2025

Categories: Real-time Strategy, Tactical Combat, Competitive Multiplayer, Deckbuilding, Unit Management, Single-player Story, Scenario Planner, Military Simulation


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Exceptional RTS Experience (weight 0.42): The game is widely praised as one of the best and most brilliant real-time strategy titles, offering unparalleled tactical depth and replayability. Players consistently highlight its potential to set new standards in the modern RTS genre and deliver a compelling, 'next level' experience.
- Deep Customization & Variety (weight 0.21): Players enthusiastically praise the game's extensive unit and deck customization options, which are considered unique and best-in-class for the genre. This feature provides vast strategic freedom, allowing for countless combinations and encouraging continuous experimentation with playstyles and tactics.
- Active Developer Support (weight 0.18): Developers are highly responsive to community feedback, consistently releasing updates and hotfixes that address bugs, improve balance, and add new features. Players note a steady improvement in the game's state since launch, attributing it to the team's dedication and passion.
- Realistic Modern Warfare (weight 0.13): The game effectively simulates modern land warfare, showcasing realistic units, equipment, and tactical possibilities like drones, advanced tanks, and nuclear strikes. Players appreciate the game's balance between realism and enjoyable gameplay, providing a challenging yet fair experience.
- Fun Group Multiplayer (weight 0.12): Many players find the multiplayer experience incredibly fun and addictive, particularly when playing with friends. The game's mechanics and team-based objectives encourage coordinated actions and diverse strategies, making group play a highly enjoyable aspect.
- Improved Anti-Cheat System (weight 0.09): The implementation of Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and other anti-cheat measures has been highly effective in combating cheaters and desync issues. Players report a noticeable reduction in problematic matches, leading to a much fairer and more enjoyable multiplayer experience.
- Stunning Visuals and Sound (weight 0.09): The game delivers high-fidelity graphics with exceptional detail in unit models, terrain, and explosive effects. Coupled with immersive sound design for gunfights and explosions, it creates a cinematic and engaging battlefield atmosphere, often running smoothly even in chaotic moments.
- Engaging Campaign Content (weight 0.08): The single-player campaign is praised for its compelling and sometimes humorous storyline, diverse mission designs, and excellent voice acting. It effectively teaches game mechanics while providing a solid, enjoyable experience for players who prefer solo play.

Common complaints:
- Severe technical issues and poor performance (weight 1): Players widely report constant crashes, freezes, lag spikes, desynchronization, and poor optimization, making the game frequently unplayable. These issues extend to server instability, leading to frequent disconnections and difficulty connecting to matches. Many players experience low FPS even on high-end hardware, with performance often degrading significantly after a few matches or updates.
- Widespread unit and faction imbalance (weight 0.8): The game suffers from fundamental balance issues across units, factions (especially between US and Russian), and overall gameplay mechanics. Frequent, often illogical, nerfs (particularly to the Russian faction) and buffs create a meta dominated by spam, overpowered units (like certain helicopters and Abrams tanks), and ineffective counter-units. Unit costs are often disproportionate to effectiveness, and many units are deemed useless.
- Persistent cheating and broken anti-cheat (weight 0.45): A significant number of players encounter cheaters regularly, utilizing map hacks, infinite resources, invulnerable units, and other exploits. The Easy Anti-Cheat system, implemented late, frequently causes game launch issues, disconnections, and further performance degradation for legitimate players while proving ineffective against determined cheaters. This severely undermines multiplayer integrity.
- Frequent leavers and flawed penalties (weight 0.33): Multiplayer matches are frequently ruined by players leaving prematurely, often due to frustration with technical issues, perceived imbalance, or simple rage-quitting. The implemented leaver penalties are widely considered insufficient, too lenient, or unfairly applied to players disconnected by server issues. This creates highly unbalanced and frustrating matches for remaining players.
- Missing single-player save and AI features (weight 0.3): A critical omission is the lack of a save function in the campaign, forcing players to restart long missions upon failure or interruption. The skirmish mode is also criticized for lacking friendly AI options, robust customization settings, and requiring an online connection, limiting its utility as a practice or casual play environment.
- Ineffective developer communication and slow fixes (weight 0.2): Players report a significant lack of transparency, responsiveness, and timely action from the development team. Updates are slow, often introduce new bugs, and fail to address long-standing core issues. Communication is perceived as vague, insincere, or AI-generated, leading to a loss of community trust and faith in the game's future.
- Imperfect ELO and matchmaking (weight 0.16): The ELO-based matchmaking system is frequently criticized for creating imbalanced teams with significant skill disparities, especially for solo players. The ELO calculation is seen as unfair, sometimes penalizing higher-rated players more for losses or not adequately rewarding individual performance, contributing to a frustrating competitive environment.
- Disappointing campaign quality (weight 0.11): The single-player campaign is widely described as mediocre, short, boring, and lacking depth in its plot, characters, and voice acting (often perceived as AI-generated). Its design frequently devolves into repetitive unit spam or uninspired defense scenarios, serving more as a lengthy, unengaging tutorial rather than a compelling standalone experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Asymmetric US/RU Factions (weight 0.15): The game features two primary, asymmetrical factions: the United States and Russia, each with distinct unit sets, specializations, and tactical advantages. Russia excels in short-range air defense and heavy ground vehicles, while the US leverages superior air power, stealth, and strong reconnaissance. These factions employ modern military units, including various tanks, aircraft, anti-air systems, and even tactical nukes, influencing diverse combat doctrines.
- Core 5v5 Multiplayer Focus (weight 0.11): The game is predominantly designed as a competitive 5v5 PvP RTS, emphasizing coordinated team play. While single-player content exists, the primary and most engaging experience is the online multiplayer, which features ranked matches and lasts approximately 45 minutes per round. Playing with a full, communicative team is highly recommended due to the game's emphasis on teamwork.
- Modern RTT Wargame Genre (weight 0.1): The game is a modern-themed Real-Time Tactics (RTT) wargame, drawing comparisons to titles like WARNO, Wargame: Red Dragon, and World in Conflict. It focuses on tactical combat and unit specialization rather than large-scale army management, aiming to simulate modern land warfare with high fidelity while maintaining playability.
- Central Deck Building Mechanic (weight 0.07): Deck building is a fundamental and enjoyable aspect of the game, allowing players to customize their unit loadouts before battles. Players can create specialized or versatile decks by combining two of five available specializations per nation, adapting to different maps and playstyles.
- Single-Player as Learning Tool (weight 0.05): The single-player campaign and various scenarios serve as effective tutorials for new players, introducing core mechanics, unit types, and micro-management skills. Players are encouraged to engage with this content before entering competitive multiplayer.
- Steep Learning Curve (weight 0.03): The game presents a significant learning curve, often described as 'hard to learn, very hard to master.' Players indicate it requires 50-100 hours to become proficient, due to the need for constant micro-control and detailed understanding of unit capabilities.
- Recon Units are Crucial (weight 0.03): Reconnaissance units are vital for effective gameplay, enabling players to spot enemy positions, counter artillery, and prevent ambushes. Their proper use is a key strategic element, as unspotted enemy recon can severely punish exposed units.
- Developer Aims for Asymmetric Balance (weight 0.03): Developers actively strive for a 50/50 win rate between the US and Russian factions, utilizing win/loss ratios for balancing. This is achieved through an asymmetric design, where each faction has unique advantages and disadvantages rather than direct parity.
- Dynamic Unit Reinforcement System (weight 0.03): The game features a unique economic system where units respawn or can be called in after a cooldown, provided resources are available. This differs from traditional RTS resource management, allowing for continuous reinforcement rather than fixed unit selections.
- Phased Capture Point Victory (weight 0.03): The primary game mode revolves around 5v5 battles across three 15-minute phases, with victory determined by accumulating more points through capturing and holding map objectives or destroying enemy units. Capturing all objectives can lead to a sudden death win.
- Tactical Unit Deployment & Roles (weight 0.03): The core gameplay loop involves deploying units, securing key map positions, and engaging in tactical combat, without extensive base building. Effective team play often requires players to specialize in roles like air support, infantry, tanks, or artillery, complementing each other with chosen specializations.
- Varied AI Opponent Experience (weight 0.03): The game offers AI opponents for skirmishes and various modes, including co-op scenarios and even zombie defense. While the AI can be challenging, its implementation is noted as rudimentary, and players desire more refined AI level adjustments and deck building options for bots.
- User-Created Scenario Support (weight 0.02): The game includes a scenario editor that allows players to create and share custom scenarios. This feature enables casual play and fosters community creativity, letting users script events and design their desired combat situations.

Performance notes:
- Poor Performance & Optimization (weight 0.19): The game exhibits widespread optimization problems, resulting in consistently low FPS, frequent stutters, and freezes for many players, even on high-end systems. Reports indicate that performance has often worsened with updates, making the game hardware-demanding and challenging to play, although some users with specific configurations report smooth gameplay.
- Unstable Servers & Desynchronization (weight 0.15): Players frequently encounter server disconnections, high ping, debilitating lag spikes, and significant desynchronization, rendering online matches unreliable and often unplayable. These issues severely impact unit behavior, command responsiveness, and overall gameplay fairness.
- Anti-Cheat System Disruptions (weight 0.12): The Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system is a significant source of frustration, frequently preventing players from launching the game, accessing multiplayer, or causing severe performance degradation, lag, and stuttering. Updates to the anti-cheat system have been linked to increased connectivity and performance issues.

Recommendations:
- Divided Purchase Sentiment (weight 0.51): Player sentiment regarding purchasing the game is heavily divided, with recommendations ranging from strong endorsements to explicit warnings against buying. Many advise waiting for significant sales, further development, or critical fixes before purchasing, especially considering the current price point and fluctuating game state.
- Frustrating Solo Multiplayer Experience (weight 0.08): The multiplayer experience is notably better when playing with a pre-made team of friends, with solo players frequently encountering significant frustration. Reviewers strongly advise against buying the game solely for single-player content or expecting a smooth competitive experience without a dedicated group.
- Critical Technical & Balance Issues (weight 0.07): Players report widespread problems including rampant cheating, frequent leavers in multiplayer matches, and ineffective anti-cheat systems, alongside poor server infrastructure. Significant balance issues with units and their costs are also frequently cited, leading to calls for a major overhaul of game mechanics and matchmaking.
- Niche Appeal to RTS Enthusiasts (weight 0.07): The game strongly appeals to a specific audience interested in modern combined arms strategy, tactical realism, and competitive multiplayer, particularly fans of games like Wargame or Warno. However, it is generally not recommended for casual players, those focused on PvE, or those expecting a highly polished and complete RTS experience.
- Weak Single-Player Campaign (weight 0.05): The single-player campaign is largely considered unengaging and not worth the game's full price. Players hoping for an experience comparable to titles like World in Conflict are often disappointed, and an offline skirmish mode is desired but currently insufficient.
- Mixed Comparison with Warno (weight 0.02): The game is frequently compared to Warno, with sentiment being mixed. Some players find it superior or a potential replacement, while others believe Warno offers a better experience in many regards, particularly for solo play, or highlight that this game does not yet fully replace established titles.

Other player notes:
- Game needs significant development (weight 0.21): Despite many hours played, the game feels unpolished and incomplete, leading to mixed reviews. Players are hopeful for future improvements and developer commitment, recognizing the small studio size, but are concerned about slow progress or potential abandonment.
- Improve multiplayer systems (weight 0.1): The multiplayer experience needs refinement, with calls for dedicated queues for solo and party players, as well as distinct ranked and unranked modes. Players also demand stricter, escalating penalties for leavers and easier ways to team up with friends or AI allies.
- Improve balance and communication (weight 0.08): Faction balance is a contentious issue, with players demanding fairer and more unique factions through consistent updates. They also expect clearer and more frequent communication from developers regarding game direction and balancing efforts.
- Improve anti-cheat systems (weight 0.08): Player experiences with cheaters vary, but many demand more robust anti-cheat measures. Concerns exist about current anti-cheat effectiveness and client-side authority, leading to calls for server-side calculations and a replay system to verify incidents.
- Add more factions and content (weight 0.07): Players consistently express a desire for new factions, specifically naming China, Germany, and other European nations, to expand the game's diversity. They also hope for additional maps, scenarios, and single-player missions to enhance replayability and overall content.
- Enhance UI and core mechanics (weight 0.05): Numerous requests focus on improving the game's user interface and core gameplay mechanics. Key demands include a comprehensive replay system, more intuitive unit controls, detailed unit statistics, and advanced features like veterancy mechanics and larger maps for strategic depth.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.28): Players are frustrated by pervasive technical issues including constant bugs, crashes, server instability, poor optimization, and anti-cheat problems that prevent gameplay. This is compounded by severe balance issues, particularly perceived excessive nerfs to one faction and overpowered units in another, alongside a prevalent cheating problem and uncooperative teammates in multiplayer. Developer inaction or seemingly ineffective 'balancing' efforts further fuel this frustration.
- Disappointment (weight 0.23): Disappointment largely stems from the game failing to live up to its initial potential or a promising beta, often perceived as worsening since release. This includes a decline in overall quality, persistent technical flaws, and a lack of essential features, leading to the game feeling unfinished or not worth its price. Developer mismanagement, slow updates, and a perceived inability to address core problems contribute to a sense of unfulfilled expectations.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.11): Satisfaction comes from the engaging core gameplay, which includes strategic depth, unit customization, and fast-paced tactical combat. Players appreciate the high-quality graphics, immersive sound design, and detailed unit models. Perceived developer support, continuous updates, and effective resolutions to critical issues like anti-cheat and balance also contribute to overall player contentment.
- Anger (weight 0.09): Anger is primarily directed at developers for perceived incompetence, illogical balance decisions, and biased treatment of factions, especially when feedback is ignored or updates worsen the game. Outrage is also expressed over rampant technical failures, persistent cheating problems that developers fail to address, and unfair penalties incurred due to game issues. This often results in players feeling scammed or betrayed.
- Hope (weight 0.05): Players express hope for the game's significant potential to become a great RTS title, despite current issues. There is a strong desire for developers to properly address existing technical problems, fix balance issues, introduce new content like factions and modes, and implement quality-of-life features. This hope is often tied to a continued belief that developers will listen to feedback and actively work towards improving the game's state.
- Excitement (weight 0.03): Excitement is generated by the game's fast-paced, challenging, and strategically deep RTS gameplay, which often includes extensive unit customization and diverse tactical possibilities. Players are also thrilled by the high-quality graphics, immersive sound design, and unique features, such as a zombie mode or its role as a spiritual successor to beloved titles. Anticipation for the game's continued development and future content further adds to this excitement.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.03): Players find enjoyment in the game's fundamental RTS mechanics, tactical depth, and strategic combat, particularly its fast-paced and addictive qualities. Engaging single-player campaigns, PvE modes, and deck building also contribute to this enjoyment, with playing alongside friends enhancing the social aspect. The game's appealing graphics, sound, and immersive qualities are key contributors to a positive overall experience.
- Optimism (weight 0.02): Optimism stems from observing developers actively working on fixes, balancing, and improvements, which suggests a positive trajectory for the game. There is a belief that the game will continue to improve with future patches and content, eventually reaching a 'good state' and fulfilling its potential. This confidence is often reinforced by visible progress in addressing issues like anti-cheat or server stability.
- Concern (weight 0.01): Players are concerned about the game's long-term viability due to declining player counts, growing negative reviews, and the potential for it to 'die' if critical issues are not addressed. Persistent technical problems, ongoing balance issues, and developers' perceived inaction or mismanagement of feedback further fuel worries about the game's future and health. This concern is often tied to the game's unaddressed core flaws.
- Joy (weight 0.01): Joy in the game is often found through playing casually or cooperatively with friends, creating shared positive experiences and camaraderie. The addictive nature of the core gameplay, strategic depth, and diverse tactical options contribute significantly to this positive emotion, often leading to players feeling completely absorbed. Successfully executing clever tactics and experiencing the thrill of combat also brings immense delight.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Players appreciate the game's perceived realism, detailed graphics, immersive sound design, and unique niche within the modern warfare RTS genre. Gratitude is also extended to developers for their ongoing efforts, constant patches, and commitment to improving game quality, balance, and actively addressing issues. This acknowledgment of hard work and unique design contributes to a positive sentiment.
- Sarcasm (weight 0.01): Sarcasm is frequently used to highlight perceived absurdity or incompetence in developer balance changes, anti-cheat implementation, and overall game management, often implying a bias or lack of understanding. It also serves to underscore the discrepancy between the game's potential or stated quality and its actual problematic state, such as unplayability or specific unit issues.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a strong desire for additional game content, such as new factions, nations, PvE modes, and essential features like a replay system, detailed statistics, or AI teammates. There is also a wish for further polish, bug fixes, and specific technical solutions, like dedicated servers, to enhance the overall gameplay and social experience.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance arises from persistent technical and quality-of-life flaws, including missing basic features like save functions, poor optimization, and inconvenient anti-cheat solutions that often require workarounds. Players are also irritated by developer communication, frequent and impactful balance changes, and negative community behaviors such as unrealistic expectations or dishonest reviews. Specific unengaging game design choices, like overly long matches without surrender, also contribute to this feeling.
- Relief (weight 0.01): Relief is primarily felt when significant, long-standing problems such as cheating, server instability, frequent leavers, or critical bugs are finally addressed and effectively resolved. This often coincides with developers listening to feedback and implementing solutions, which contributes to a sense of improved gameplay experience and a more stable environment.
- Regret (weight 0): Regret stems from the perception that the game was not worth the financial investment, often due to its current problematic state or unfulfilled promises. Players express regret for the time and money invested, as the game has declined in quality or failed to deliver an enjoyable experience, making it unrecommendable to others.
- Confusion (weight 0): Confusion often arises from seemingly arbitrary or questionable developer decisions regarding unit balancing, game design (e.g., exclusive focus on 5v5, absence of basic UI), and update implementation. Players are also perplexed by opaque game mechanics, persistent bugs that hinder playability, or the apparent ease with which cheating is possible or unaddressed.
- Confidence (weight 0): Confidence is rooted in a strong conviction that the game's core mechanics are sound, balance is either good or manageable, and common negative criticisms are exaggerated or already resolved. This confidence often comes from personal mastery of the game, a high win rate, or trust in developers' ability to maintain and improve the game based on data-driven decisions.
- Understanding (weight 0): Players express understanding by acknowledging the reasons behind other players' frustrations and unmet expectations, often stemming from shared experiences. They also show understanding by recognizing the challenges faced by the development team, such as studio size or financial limitations, which may explain certain game issues. Grasping the game's deeper mechanics, like a steep learning curve or asymmetrical balance, also contributes to this understanding.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0): Enthusiasm is driven by the game's engaging RTS mechanics, strategic depth, and extensive unit customization and deck-building features. Players are excited by the game's fun factor, overall quality, and its potential to be a standout title in the genre, especially when enjoyed with friends or as a fresh experience for newcomers.}