History VideoGame / ARMA

** To some degree, all shotguns in the game have this apply to them, as they're only really meant for close-range combat, self-defense, or as a tool for mine-clearing, [[TruthInTelevision which is more or less how they're used in actual modern warfare]]. However, the Promet SG's underbarrel shotgun is attached to a proper gun and is clearly meant to be used alongside said proper gun, the ''Western Sahara'' Creator DLC's AA-40 accepts attachments and ''drum magazines'', and the ED-1 Mini UGV's Disruptor shotgun can be used both for mine-clearing and as a weapon with the ability to raise and orient itself. The Kozlice offers none of these traits, mind you.

* DangerRoomColdOpen: ''ARMA III''[='=]s ''First Contact'' campaign begins {{In Medias Res}}, with a NATO squad in combat with the Livonian Defense Force.[[note]]([[FiveSecondForeshadowing who are themselves part of NATO]])[[/note]] After losing their APC and continuing on foot to disable LDF [=UGVs=], the player, a drone specialist, enters a control facility to disable them when he is held at gunpoint by a Livonian soldier. The specialist quips about them getting extra points for shooting them in the back, so the Livonian soldier shoots the specialist in the front—with training rounds. Cut to the exercise debriefing.

* DoomedByCanon: The Loyalists in the ''Beyond Hope'' mini-campaign. Though you play as them and they win, it's made very clear from ''The East Wind'' and pretty much every other campaign and scenario set on Altis that they ultimately lose, with the AAF junta being accepted as the legitimate government of Altis while the Loyalists become labeled as terrorists by both NATO and CSAT, forcing them to reorganize as the FIA.

** Tweaked in ''ARMA III'', where you can't sprint/run with a raised gun but you can do a "''combat pace''" jog with your weapon raised... not much faster than the walk and the most fatigue-building short of sprint, but the closest ever in the series to other shooters' "''hipfire''" movement speed.

** BIS adopted a different approach in the third installment to avoid breaking the player base: basically every DLC is an update with many features (such as advanced flight model for ''Helicopters'' or bipods for ''Marksmen'') and the Premium content (actual new weapons and vehicles) is available only if the purchase is made, but you can share the same servers with players who ''do'' have it.

* EarthquakeMachine: In ''ARMA III''[='=]s ''The East Wind'' campaign, [[spoiler:the Eastwind Device is implied to be one, and the ''Apex Protocol'' campaign confirms it, though it is never seen used as a weapon onscreen. It is eventually revealed that it is what caused the tsunami humanitarian crisis in Tanoa]].

** Played straighter in ''Apex Protocol'', where you play as a member of a NATO special forces team tasked with assisting the local government in ending the threat of the Syndikat. The DLC also introduces the "Vipers", a CSAT special forces group with high-tech gear sporting a decidedly ninja-esque look. [[spoiler: However, Miller appears in the DLC as well, and it's eventually revealed that the player characters are in the CTRG, the same unit Miller is in. The DLC also reveals that said unit [[CassandraTruth is indeed NATO special forces.]] This places the ''Apex'' NATO cast firmly within [[BlackAndGrayMorality the gray]] compared to the Vipers.]]
** In the ''Contact'' DLC, the main OPFOR faction is the Russian Spetsnaz, which seems to suggest they're enemies of NATO, a BLUFOR faction, as well as the Livonian Defense Force, an INDFOR faction that is part of NATO in canon. [[spoiler:Except they're not: the ''First Contact'' campaign has them covertly assist NATO and reluctantly fight the LDF, as they know what would happen if the LDF were to destroy the alien core.]]
** The CTRG return again in the ''Old Man'' mini-campaign, and despite returning to Tanoa, they're not the shade of grey they were there. [[spoiler:Group 14, to be specific, is deployed to the region to investigate "Atrox", the malaria super-strain unleashed there, and Miller serves as Santiago's handler. Ultimately, CSAT is treated as the grey this time around, as Group 14 chooses to abandon the Horizon Islands after getting the Atrox counteragent. Admittedly, their reasoning is sound this time around; they only have a small sample of it, and they don't have the facilities needed for production, though the ending that follows the CTRG does have NATO return with full production of the counteragent, and combined with the evidence Santiago dug up, CSAT is left on the backfoot, though at the cost of substantial causalities before NATO's arrival.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''ARMA III''[='=]s ''Laws of War'' campaign, one of the flashbacks centers around what was supposedly a CSAT Viper Team unit called in by the AAF to break the guerrillas' stronghold with a cluster bomb. A optional objective centers around a IDAP doctor who'd gone out in the fighting, requiring you to wait for a bit before he heads back to the church. If done, Nathan mentions the doctor was lucky given that they couldn't have delayed the strike just for him. [[spoiler:To add to the decision, the Viper Team unit is implied at the end to have been CTRG Group 14, led by Miller, who is normally shown to be rather willing to let people die if necessary.]]

* FutureCopter: ''ARMA III'' is full of these, with the ''UH-80 Ghost Hawk'' and ''AH-99 Blackfoot'' looking the most futuristic. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] because all them are based on real-life prototypes. The only exception played straight with the ''Apex'' DLC's CSAT Pacific faction's futuristic VTOL aircraft ''Y-32 Xi'an'', looking something straight out of a MilitaryScienceFiction setting.
* GameMaster: Introduced with the ''Zeus'' free DLC for ''Arma 3'', multiplayer missions created with Zeus support (by placing a module in the Editor) can have a player in the role of "''Zeus''", either alongside or separately from other players; in the latter mode s/he can't exit the interface but isn't represented in the game world[[note]]although an eagle tends to soar overhead of where s/he's looking[[/note]] and is therefore invulnerable.

* InstantDeathBullet: Averted - unless you get shot point-blank in the head or are hit with a powerful round at very close range depending upon armor configuration. You can die very easily, in just a few shots, but you usually only get injured in certain parts of your body, which affects your overall combat abilities. Getting shot in the legs makes you unable to walk.

* JungleWarfare: Tanoa in ''ARMA III''[='=]s ''Apex'' DLC is a South Pacific island covered by a lush jungle. However, the map also includes a lot of open areas, small hamlets, a somewhat big city with buildings for UrbanWarfare, and a specific place has a ''coriferous forest'', probably grown for the sawmill in the middle of it.

* LandMineGoesClick: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by [[spoiler:Adams' death]] in ''ARMA III''. The mine goes "beep" when stepped on . . . and then explodes ''instantly'' with no chance of survival.

** Syndikat in the ''Apex'' DLC is a [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized darker and more brutal example]] of this and is one of the two main antagonists of the ''Apex Protocol'' campaign, though they're initially just smugglers who are more interested in gaining power and getting the Gendarmerie off their back. By the ''Old Man''mini-campaign however, the new Horizon Islands government becomes LesCollaborateurs to CSAT, so Syndikat reforms into L'Ensemble, which is ''ostensibly'' an anti-imperialist revolutionary popular front fighting against the pro-CSAT government, but is for the most part outright stated to be the exact same as Syndikat but with a political veil to justify their actions.

** AI squadmates under the player's command rarely follow orders and tend to . AT soldiers don't seem to have much awareness as to where you are, and will usually blow up a vehicle ''you are standing right next to and are trying to blow up with explosives''.
** ''ARMA II''[='=]s AI has problems with waypoint finding, and requires some tweaking for patrolling soldiers to acknowledge that their comrades are suddenly dying from ''your own sniper shots''.

** Lt. James uses a [=Mk18=] ABR with an RCO scope. While the setup isn't in gameplay terms (in fact, it's quite practical), do note that this is a marksman rifle with an assault rifle scope; other units use the [=Mk18=] ABR with more powerful long-range scopes such as the MOS. Also note that the [=Mk18=] ABR hasn't been a NATO weapon since Update 1.04, making this more unusual to most players since then.

''ARMA'' is well-regarded as one of the most realistic tactical shooter game series on the market today. Set on various intricately-detailed {{Ruritania}}s in PresentDay, NextSundayAD, and TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture time frames, most games in the ''ARMA'' series follow NATO military forces as they respond to (or get caught up in) threats and crises across the world, whether they be enemy nations, rebel paramilitaries, or rival peer-power alliances—and often, there's [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye more to the conflict than what's being told]]. The games are held high as well-researched, true-to-life, unrelentingly-realistic military simulators that [[ReferenceOverdosed often reference previous titles]] and can balance being [[AffectionateParody fairly]] [[PlayedForLaughs funny]] and seriously awe-inspiring while appropriately addressing the [[WarIsHell negative aspects of war]]. So highly-regarded is ''ARMA'''s commitment to military realism that modified versions of the games are used by actual militaries for tactical and organizational training, titled ''Virtual Battlespace'' and developed by now-separate studio Bohemia Interactive Simulations.

* ''ARMA: Armed Assault / [[MarketBasedTitle Combat Operations]]'' (2007): SpiritualSuccessor and de-facto sequel to ''Operation Flashpoint'', developed by BIS (the original developers of Operation Flashpoint), using an updated engine called Real Virtuality 2 ([=RV2=]). ''ARMA: Armed Assault'' takes place on the fictional island of Sahrani, divided between two nations: the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Democratic Republic of Sahrani]] in the north, and an oil-rich (and U.S.-backed) Kingdom of South Sahrani. U.S. forces have been training the South Sahrani military and are just starting to leave (in a trend of the series in which a predominantly American force prepares to leave a destabilized country only to get caught up in the fighting; see ''ARMA III''). You see where this is going. With most of the U.S. military gone, the North invades the South. A few remaining American soldiers get caught in the middle of it, and they then aid the South in defeating the North.

* ''ARMA: Cold War Assault'' (2011): A free {{Remake}} (or refurbishing if you will) mega patch for the original ''Operation Flashpoint'', released in celebration of the game's 10th anniversary by the developers. Because of the whole legal debacle with Codemasters, applying this patch to an installed copy of ''OFP'' will rename the game to ''ARMA: Cold War Assault''. '''NOTE:''' Please '''[don't confuse''' the original ''Operation Flashpoint'' with the ARMA series proper - it's only a predecessor and set in the same universe, but otherwise completely separate. The [[InsistentTerminology new title]] [[ScrewedByTheLawyers is there only because BIS can't release the patch under the original name of the game, since it's now owned by Codemasters]]. The synopsis is that there are some islands, one of which is run by the Soviets, one by the U.S., and the last is independent. Guba, the commander of the Russian forces, wants to remove Gorbachev from power, so he schemes to get the U.S. and the USSR in a [[WorldWarIII war]]. He uses his forces to invade the independent island, and defeat counterattacking U.S. forces. You have to stop Guba's plans.

* AmbiguousSituation: ''ARMA III'''s "Cultural Property" showcase [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in a section where the player, deployed to a town to defeat AAF holdouts after the events of ''The East Wind'' campaign, is rerouted from their current mission to deal with [[AIIsACrapshoot an AAF UGV that went haywire and is shooting everyone in sight]]. Upon destroying the UGV and investigating the scene for a potential cause, the player finds the UGV operator's terminal, learns the operators have already been killed by a NATO artillery strike, then finds an FIA guerilla with a jammer device. MissionControl realizes that it will be impossible to conclusively prove who or what caused the UGV to malfunction: the NATO artillery strike killing its operators, the FIA guerilla interfering with the signal, or the UGV operators themselves.
* ArtificialBrilliance: ''ARMA III'''s AI is ''really'' good in combat. The AI may not be perfect 100% of the time (see below), especially when vehicles and waypoints are a factor, but considering the "Normal" difficulty preset allows [=NPCs=] to detect hostility, take a hard-to-hit stance in cover, snap onto a target, and land shots from a couple hundred meters away, the combat AI is quite skilled out of the box. In fact, it's a common recommendation among players to manually ''reduce'' AI accuracy and skill in difficulty settings for more interesting shootouts, as setting it too high means [=NPCs=] will practically always have pinpoint accuracy and superb tactical maneuvering.

** AI pathfinding has been an infamous issue across the ''ARMA'' series. The AI tends to prefer rather odd routes to waypoints, and vehicles can occasionally freeze up, crash into objects, or inexplicably run offroad when faced with a mere intersection or curve, then take it completely fine at speed when the waypoint is moved a smidge. It doesn't get better on foot, where units can stagger through combat zones at best or ''walk through walls'' at worst, and units can even drop off ledges and die if set to traverse a surface where the terrain itself slopes beneath it (e.g. the Lijnhaven boardwalk in ''ARMA III'''s Tanoa).

** ''ARMA II'''s AI has problems with waypoint finding, and requires some tweaking for patrolling soldiers to acknowledge that their comrades are suddenly dying from ''your own sniper shots''.
** ''ARMA III'''s AI is host to many of these issues, but it is far more noticeable in the ''Zeus'' gamemode. What may have seemed like artificial brilliance as a soldier on the ground is now shattered and shown as the AI bugging out tremendously as you can now see them from overhead. Soldiers ''never'' follow Zeus' orders once they get locked into combat, and once they are locked in the only way to get them out is by having every enemy soldier die and having them sound the "all clear".

* AnyoneCanDie: Almost every important character in ''ARMA III'' can die, [[spoiler:especially if you go for ''The East Wind'''s Miller ending.]]

** The Bergen Backpack, introduced in ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC, is the largest backpack in the game in terms of both storage space and size, allowing you to loot and carry gear to your heart's content. It's also quite possibly the heaviest backpack in the game, and will more often than not cut your stamina down enough that you'll be forced to walk. Nevermind that its large profile also lets enemies know exactly who to aim for.

** The Kozlice is a 12 gauge double-barrel shotgun introduced in ''ARMA III'''s ''Contact'' DLC that comes with a sawn-off version. More specifically, the Kozlice is an over-under hunting shotgun that has a very short effective range of roughly 150 meters, loads a munition considered quite uncommon in modern warfare (especially seeing the only other shotgun uses a magazine, not loose shells), and doesn't accept attachments. That it's only used by civilian hunters and looters in the ''First Contact'' campaign says a lot.

* BottleEpisode: ''ARMA III'''s ''Laws of War'' DLC's ''Remnants of War'' campaign takes place exclusively in the town of Oreokastro and its countryside, showing chronically through playable flashbacks the different time periods from the cheerful pre-war peace time, to its ruined, mine-infested post-war present.

** The [=Mk14=] Classic from ''ARMA III'''s ''Contact'' DLC is a classic M14 rifle with a Picatinny rail mounted on top.

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: ZigZagged by Lieutenant Collins and Sergeant Sturrock in ''ARMA III'''s ''Tac-Ops'' DLC's ''Steel Pegasus'' campaign. Collins is [[EnsignNewbie a just Crewman]] who [[YouAreInCommandNow ends up being the highest officer alive]] in the [[spoiler:botched]] invasion, and given his blatant inexperience he's adamant of following his orders to the letter, no matter what. He is told to gather up the survivors in some RV point, and move them up to a safe zone. Sturrock is a SergeantRock solely by virtue of being technically outranked despite being TheLeader of a spec-ops team and having vastly more field experience, who is forced to disobey often. [[spoiler:Their first interaction is Sturrock and his team requesting some manpower to help fend off the attack on the RV flank, with collins refusing since his orders are simply to bring everybody to the RV]]

** Karzeghistan, a small oil-rich nation located south of Takistan that appears only in ''ARMA II'''s backstory, is clearly a stand-in for Kuwait.

* DangerRoomColdOpen: ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign begins {{In Medias Res}}, with a NATO squad in combat with the Livonian Defense Force.[[note]]([[FiveSecondForeshadowing who are themselves part of NATO]])[[/note]] After losing their APC and continuing on foot to disable LDF UGVs, the player, a drone specialist, enters a control facility to disable them when he is held at gunpoint by a Livonian soldier. The specialist quips about them getting extra points for shooting them in the back, so the Livonian soldier shoots the specialist in the front—with training rounds. Cut to the exercise debriefing.

** ''ARMA II'''s ''Harvest Red'' campaign starts off with the player controlling an unnamed Chernarussian soldier. This is eventually revealed to be a dream of Matthew Cooper, the actual protagonist.
** In ''ARMA III'''s ''Prologue'' campaign, as well as some showcases, the player controls several named characters with specific roles (marksman, machinegunner, scout) and ranks. Most of these same characters return as supporting characters or cameos in ''The East Wind'', although since your interactions with [=NPCs=] is very limited there, it's hard to notice.

** ''ARMA III'' has this, sort of: while the only desert terrain is Sefrou-Ramal from the ''Western Sahara'' Creator DLC, Altis has the Almyra salt flats, which are ''sort of'' desert-like and were more or less the closest thing to a desert until ''Western Sahara'''s release.

* DudeNotFunny: The AAF soldiers in ''ARMA III'''s ''Prologue'' campaign are not amused that their NATO-led firing drills are using CSAT targets. Adams claims it's all they have on hand, [[{{Troll}} though it's Sgt. Adams we're talking about here]]. Keep in mind that, at the time, CSAT and NATO are basically in a bidding war to secure an alliance with the AAF.

** Averted in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign both in gameplay and plot. In the first act, ''Survive'', the player is the survivor of a small decommissioned Task Force, while in the second, ''Adapt'', he's a full member of the local guerrillas. Not only half the missions in both acts consist of securing supplies such as weapons and fuel (as well as moving camps to avoid detection) but the armory is limited: there are only standard rifles and small calibers, small and weak optics and almost no AT or AA capabilities, no thermal binoculars, etc. Forcing you to scavenge weapons, attachments and ammo in raids and side missions. The third act, ''Win'', is a little less so, but it's clear in the briefings and debriefings that the invasion is taking a heavy toll on the damaged Western economy which limits the heavier elements available and command's willingness to expose them to combat, not to mention that the arrival of those elements to the theater of operations must wait until the landing zone is secured.

* EarthquakeMachine: In ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, [[spoiler:the Eastwind Device is implied to be one, and the ''Apex Protocol'' campaign confirms it, though it is never seen used as a weapon onscreen. It is eventually revealed that it is what caused the tsunami humanitarian crisis in Tanoa]].

* EliteMooks: CSAT is this to the AAF in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, as their soldiers are more well-trained and their equipment more advanced. When they are seen in the last mission of ''Survive'', the reaction of everyone is a MassOhCrap.
* EnemyMine: The final mission of ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign has the stranded NATO troops fighting alongside [[spoiler:Russian Spetsnaz against the TooDumbToLive LDF]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''ARMA III'''s ''Laws of War'' campaign, one of the flashbacks centers around what was supposedly a CSAT Viper Team unit called in by the AAF to break the guerrillas' stronghold with a cluster bomb. A optional objective centers around a IDAP doctor who'd gone out in the fighting, requiring you to wait for a bit before he heads back to the church. If done, Nathan mentions the doctor was lucky given that they couldn't have delayed the strike just for him. [[spoiler:To add to the decision, the Viper Team unit is implied at the end to have been CTRG Group 14, led by Miller, who is normally shown to be rather willing to let people die if necessary.]]

* FailedAttemptAtDrama: "Warm Welcome", the first mission of ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex Protocol'' campaign, is meant to be a sort of ColdOpen to introduce the players to the campaign and the new terrain. To its credit, it works pretty well: the players are meant to travel on foot to an objective through the Tanoan fauna, with the [[CueTheSun sun rising]] [[SceneryPorn over the beautiful landscape]] while [[NearVictoryFanfare the new version of the main theme slowly swells up]] creating a beautiful and breathtaking organic scene, all in-game without cutscenes or gameplay interruptions. [[FailedASpotCheck However]], you're still deep in a warzone where enemies are everywhere, so many players are either too focused on sneaking through to notice, or they're too busy taking in the scene that they don't notice they're [[RecordNeedleScratch about to cut the moment short]] by walking straight into an enemy patrol.

* FalseFlagOperation: [[spoiler:The final mission of the ''Black Gauntlet'' campaign for ''ARMA II'''s ''Private Military Company'' DLC ends in this. When the team discovers that the Takistani nuclear arms program was supported by China, the executives of ION Security order the team to disguise themselves as Insurgents and ambush the UN nuclear inspectors before they can publish the evidence.]]
* FasterThanLightTravel: Averted on a macroscopic scale in ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign. In the credits, scientists speculate how the aliens were able to arrive on earth so soon after the initial release of encoded neutrino messages by Exercise Electron. One theory states that the aliens had begun their journey hundreds of thousands of years ago, and were able to time their arrival for just after the neutrinos began to be released by the root network. A second theory, based on the idea of neutrino time travel, speculates that the aliens were acting in response to acausal information—that the neutrinos were traveling backwards in time from the moment of their release and so reached the alien homeworld prior to being sent. Either way, the aliens themselves were restricted to light speed when traveling.
* AFatherToHisMen: Brian Frost from ''ARMA II'''s ''British Armed Forces'' and ''Private Military Company'' [=DLC=] expansions says that the troops he was commanding were like sons to him.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Perceptive players may notice several discrepancies in ''Survive'', the first act of ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, that may be weird but are quickly overshadowed by more greater concerns such as survival or new events, before coming back to light at the end of the campaign. [[RewatchBonus They may require a second playthrough to notice]] that something major is going down behind the scenes, such as how [[spoiler:the AAF attacked minutes after an unknown NATO force landed on an already decommissioned base, or that tremors began just after CSAT units were spotted on the island.]].

* FriendlySniper: Lt. James in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign. For Miller's [[TheLancer right hand man]], he's quite friendly with Kerry and the Task Force survivors, and uses his signature [[CoolGuns Mk14 EBR]] marksman rifle. Although he uses combat optics rather than a sniper scope, he still fulfills the role. [[spoiler:Unless you see Miller as the bad guy, which means he's TheDragon.]]
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: NATO '''really''' doesn't like the AAF as allies given their brutality, incompetence, and overly inflated ego, and CSAT is only backing them up to [[spoiler:develop their new weapon safely. Once it is completed, they don't even doubt for a second in abandoning the island and leaving their "allies" to deal with NATO]]. Predictably without the support of either, they surrender instantly.

* GasLeakCoverUp: In ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign, after the incident involving the drone strike and the roots, the old factory where the training exercise was held is quarantined by the LDF, who claim the factory was built on a landfill and that the drone strike caused toxic chemical compounds from said landfill to be released through the air. But as Stype points out, that factory was built on the site of an old sawmill, not a landfill, so it's probably not the real story. [[spoiler:It is in fact a fabrication to keep people away from the alien artifact the explosion uncovered without blowing the whole thing wide open.]]

** CSAT in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign. Most of the immediate fighting you do in the campaign is against the AAF, with only the occasional skirmish against CSAT.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Definitely the case for ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign. The LDF is [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned]] but is motivated by misguided beliefs to prevent alien incursion on their country. And NATO [[spoiler: and Russians]], who know better, are trying to stop them from destroying the alien core that would potentially led to the devastation of a large chunk of Europe ''at best'' and the entire Earth at worst. While the aliens are mostly keeping by themselves and only retaliates against NATO and LDF forces after the latter mistaking them to be hostile and opens fire.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: It's implied in one of the endings to ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign that [[spoiler:Stavrou's death by friendly fire]] was engineered on purpose due to this trope. If you also play the ''Remnants of War'' campaign and ''Tac-Ops'' DLC mini-campaigns, it is pretty clear to see why.

* HowWeGotHere: ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex Protocol'' campaign starts {{In Medias Res}} with the raider teams in the first mission attempting to secure... ''something'', without knowing if they succeeded or not. The next few missions fall under this trope.

** While Colonel Akhanteros looks like a GeneralFailure most of the time, in ''ARMA III'''s ''Remnants of War'' campaign, it is said that Major Gavras is actually the one that has been doing most of the work and what allowed the AAF to hold out for three days rather than one. Gavras also used his command staff, including himself, as a decoy to draw NATO-FIA forces away from his retreating troops.

** In ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex Protocol'' campaign, the CTRG is shown to not really fond of NATO, its assets, or its personnel, despite being part of them and using their assets and personnel. NATO regulars, on the other hand, have no idea [[UnknownRival who the hell these CTRG guys are]].

* JungleWarfare: Tanoa in ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC is a South Pacific island covered by a lush jungle. However, the map also includes a lot of open areas, small hamlets, a somewhat big city with buildings for UrbanWarfare, and a specific place has a ''coriferous forest'', probably grown for the sawmill in the middle of it.

* JustPlaneWrong: There are some glaring issues with ''ARMA III'''s larger UAV. For starters, there's already an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk MQ-4]] UAV (''ARMA III'''s is the MQ-4A) and they don't share much similarity. Second, it looks like it was made using riveted sheets of metal, when practically all [=UAVs=] are made with composite materials. Lastly, the engine cowl has a label that reads "DANGER: JET INLET", yet the UAV is a prop plane.
* KingIncognito: Kerry's first meeting with the guerrillas in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign is being the chauffeur for a small team of resistance fighters and being bossed around by a laid back dude full of tattoos, scruffy beard, a ponytail and a condescending attitude. [[spoiler:That's [[FrontlineGeneral commander]] Stavrou to you, leader of the northern Altis FIA cell, member of the FIA High Command and all around cool guy.]]

*** ''ARMA III'''s ''Tac-Ops'' DLC shows that the FIA is more than just a bunch of idealistic guerillas. They are born from the ashes of the loyalists of the previously overthrown democratic government. That and [[spoiler:James and some CTRG operatives were already with them since the start]].

* LegionOfLostSouls: Santiago, the protagonist of ''ARMA III'''s ''Old Man'' mini-campaign, is a Tanoan native and former French Legionnaire.

* MadLibsDialogue: ''ARMA: Armed Assault'''s and ''ARMA II'''s radio voiceovers of the individual soldiers kind of inherited this quality from ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint''. Naturally, the somewhat unnatural sounding style of the voiceovers is caused by the daunting task of having to record each possible combination of a voiceover line separately (it would take ages and require thousands of voice files). There are some community-made [[GameMod mods]] in the works for replacing the original voice files with better dubbed ones, and ''ARMA III'' has done a little to smooth it out, though it's still there to a point.

* MacGuffin: ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' and ''Apex Protocol'' campaigns have [[spoiler:the Eastwind Device]].

*** Interestingly subverted in ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact' campaign. [[spoiler: The tensions between NATO and LDF regarding what to do with the alien ship in Nadbór as well as Russian intrusions into the Livonian territory seems to be building up for a three way confrontation between NATO, LDF and Russia. However, when the whole situation goes completely FUBAR, both NATO and the Russians realized that they have to [[EnemyMine put aside their differences and work together]] in order to stop the LDF, which led to the final confrontation of the campaign with NATO ''and'' Russia on one side against the Livonians on the other.]]

** ''ARMA III'' goes full-blown TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, into an alternate timeline where China and Iran have formed CSAT, a coalition similar to the old Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which not only rivals NATO, the European Union and the U.S., both military and economically, but it has actually forced them into a new pseudo cold war in which the West is all but stated to be unable to win if it goes hot.

** You'll have to do your best imitating RealLife military tactics to win the game, and no one ever says their jobs are easy. ''ARMA III'' takes it up a notch with its '''tutorials'''[[note]]officially "Showcases"[[/note]] oftentimes being insane one-man commando missions, such as the "Night" showcase, where you're tasked with single-handedly causing as much havoc (specifically "going loud") and building destruction as possible all by your lonesome self ''without nightvision goggles''.

** ''LZ Nowhere'', the first mission of the ''Steel Pegasus'' campaign from ''ARMA III'''s ''Tac-Ops'' DLC. While there are some rifles nearby, you can only find a couple of spare magazines in the starting point. The player is also an APC crewman, not an infantry soldier, so the only armor available at the start is a lightly-armored crew helmet. And you'd best not linger for too long in the crash site, or an AAF squad will arrive searching for survivors.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: A particular brutal example in the finale of the "Win" episode of ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign. To elaborate: during the campaign you end up assisting a British SIS taskforce while taking part in a resistance movement with local guerrillas. After rejoining NATO you are instructed to not to get anywhere near any members of the taskforce if you ever see or hear of them, and disregard any communication you get. Right before NATO's final attack on the enemy HQ a wounded SIS soldier (whom you befriended) calls you to meet him in a location in the middle of nowhere. You can choose: Do you leave him to die and follow the orders? The attack succeeds, [[EarnYourHappyEnding enemy forces surrender, Altis is free, war is over, roll credits]]. Do you go [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight help him against the orders]]? [[spoiler:You find him dying in the aftermath of a botched SIS assault on a secret compound, he asks you to fight your way through remaining enemy troops and retrieve and deliver what is implied to be an EarthquakeMachine to the rest of the taskforce. [[FromBadToWorse That's not the bad part.]] After delivering the device, the captain proceeds to extract the weapon, but promises you answers if you wait there for his return. Night falls and you are informed that they can't (or won't) come back, meaning you are left stranded in the countryside, forcing you to find your way to the bulk of the army you just deserted earlier. [[RuleOfThree It gets worse:]] not only was the main attack a failure, but now, besides NATO scrambling to regroup and evacuate the island, the two enemy armies that used to be allies are fighting each others as well as NATO which means you're gonna have to make your way singlehandedly through the free for all clusterfuck of a warzone that the country has become, in order to find a way of the island. Have fun!]]

* NoodleIncident: In ''ARMA III'', on the whiteboard, there's a list of NATO goat ROE (rules of engagement). The list goes like this.

** In ''ARMA II'''s campaign, a USMC MCIA officer has a British accent.

* PoliceAreUseless: The Gendarmerie from ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC. They only appear in one mission in the ''Apex Protocol'' campaign, and are severely underequipped, armed with basic P07 pistols and Protector submachine guns (both 9mm, the latter being one of the worst-performing SMGs in the game), wearing basic ballistic vests to protect themselves (only caps and berets as headgear), and driving completely unarmored pickup trucks and vans. Mind you, they're going up against Syndikat, who regularly pack [=AKs=], [=RPG-7s=], and technicals, and during ''Apex Protocol'' manage to whoop the Gendarmerie so badly that they lose control of several areas of Tanoa and see several high-ranking gendarmes targeted by Syndikat. Their weaknesses are somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] though, seeing the Gendarmerie is merely the police force of a small archipelago and not a proper military equipped for warfighting, the Horizon Islands had just been devastated by a natural disaster, and [[spoiler:Syndikat is being funded and armed by CSAT]].

** Sergeant Adams and Sergeant Conway from ''ARMA III'''s ''Prologue'' campaign are supporting characters in ''The East Wind''. On the inverse, Ben Kerry, ''The East Wind'''s protagonist, makes a cameo in ''Prologue'' as the Hunter MRAP driver who chauffeurs Sgt. Adams and Conway through Kavala.

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: The protagonists in the ''Royal Flush'' campaign in the ''ARMA: Queens Gambit'' expansion are part of the Royal Flush team of the "Black Element" corporation. The corporation later rebrands as "ION Services, Inc." and became the subject of ''ARMA II: Private Military Company''. ION Services also appears in ''ARMA III'' through advertisements and as a security detail in ''The East Wind'''s epilogue, and ION Services teams are the focus of the ''Western Sahara'' Creator DLC.

* RevisitingTheRoots: ''ARMA III'''s ''Global Mobilization'' and ''Iron Curtain'' Creator [=DLCs=] are set in a "1980s Cold War gone hot" scenario reminiscent of the original ''Operation Flashpoint''.

* RunningGag: The PlayerCharacter of ''ARMA III'''s ''Tac-Ops'' DLC's ''Steel Pegasus'' campaign, Corporal Barklem, constantly has to put up with his superiors calling him with wrong names like Barkley, Barker, and Barlem.

** Livonia in ''ARMA III'''s ''Contact'' DLC borders Russia[[note]]Specifically Kaliningrad Oblast[[/note]] and uses Polish as the official language. The way on how they recently joined NATO and are a stepping-stone for a Russian invasion of NATO makes them a very clear stand-in for Baltic countries and Poland. The LDF even uses the "Promet" rifle, based on the Polish "MSBS Grot B" model adopted as Poland's service rifle in 2018.
* SceneryPorn: '''God yes'''. While earlier entries of the series weren't the prettiest on the graphics side of business (on account of the maps being so damn big), they were always massive, richly detailed and thoughtfully designed, that presented a large variety of enviroments and situations. Things got progresively better, bigger and prettier when the advent of more powerful hardware meant that the size of the map was no longer an obstacle for textures and details. Perfectly exemplified in the aptly named ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC, which featured Tanoa (called "the crown jewel of the ''ARMA'' series" in the achievements). A massive map consisting of a chain of tropical south pacific island surrounding a mainland which on release was widely hailed as the best in the series.
** On June 22nd, 2017, the Malden 2035 terrain was released for free, a remake of one of the ''OFP'''s islands (the eponymous Malden). Not only does it look amazing, but it was also praised for being an excellent design for infantry and light armor fighting.

* SchmuckBait: Averted in ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' campaign. When Rudwell finds [[spoiler:a glowing root in the area cordoned off by the LDF]], he radios Stype to ask "Okay, now what?" When Stype suggests he "get a sample, or some shit," Rudwell replies "You can fuck ''right'' off if you think I'm touching that!"

* SemperFi: ''ARMA II'''s ''Harvest Red'' campaign stars a U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance team. The USMC are the default BLUFOR faction for the game, and thus many BLUFOR assets .

** 'ARMA III'''s main theme, "This Is War", is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9FIl924vO4 a remix/remake of the original Operation Flashpoint theme music]].
** While the initial loading screen of the first mission in ''ARMA III'''s "''Prologue''" mini-campaign is an obvious adaptation of ''ARMA III'''s own load-up sequence, there are subtler references such as the split-second line "''Loading Poseidon Core''"[[note]]the original name for the Real Virtuality engine used in the first OFP was Poseidon[[/note]] and the concluding "''Launching [[RedundantDepartmentOfRedundancy Virtual Real Virtuality 4]]''"[[note]]''ARMA III'''s engine is officially Real Virtuality 4[[/note]].

* ShooOutTheClowns: As noted in MildlyMilitary, ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign starts fairly lighthearted, with several jokes, banter and, overall, things are ok and relaxed. Sgt. Adams in particular seems like a very nice guy to have as a NCO and keeps makling light of the situation. [[spoiler:Once shit hits the fan, all humour goes to hell and Adams is one of the first ones to die onscreen.]]

* SoMuchForStealth: Averted to hell and back in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign. Stealth and subterfuge are often a guerilla's best friend, and while being compromised doesn't fails the mission, the best option is simply to engage and dissapear again. To paraphrase the Official Guide: if the enemy knows where you are, he will simply bring stronger and stronger forces to the fight until he wins.
* SpannerInTheWorks: In ''ARMA III'''s ''Prologue'' campaign, peace talks are underway to ensure lasting peace between the AAF and the FIA, so that NATO can finally end their peacekeeping mission. But then, an AAF patrol guns down unarmed civilians while searching for FIA hideouts, and the FIA retaliates by ambushing a convoy, so the AAF proceeds to their standard KickTheDog procedure by shooting ''supposed'' FIA soldiers in the capital city and detaining half the population for interrogation, basically telling NATO to shove the peace treaty up their asses. It's unclear how much of it was intentional or not, since everything regarding [[spoiler:Miller's activities]] in the early game is [[AmbiguousSituation really fishy]]. But in ''The East Wind'''s third act "Win", you can hear soldiers complaining how the destroyed radar station is slowing the invasion down and screwed up their intel. [[spoiler:Thing is, Miller ordered that facility be destroyed on the excuse of denying it to the enemy. But we never see the enemy hampered by its loss, so his motives to do so remain suspect at best.]]
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''ARMA: Armed Assault'' was a sucessor to ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', as Bohemia and Codemasters had a falling out. Codemasters went to make ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]], but BIS kept ''Operation Flashpoint'''s Real Virtuality engine, and upgraded to to their new ''ARMA'' series.

* TemptingFate: The first mission of ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, "Drawdown", begins with the NATO [=NPCs=] that Cpl. Kerry encounters sounding rather derogatory about the prowess of the AAF, with multiple references to them as "''Greenbacks''" and Sgt. Adams being particularly negative even when they're within possible earshot. Problem is, the AAF aren't going to wait for NATO to leave and are all too happy to ''push'' them out... and very early into the second mission [[spoiler:Adams trips a land mine—quite possibly [[KarmicDeath planted by]] the AAF—forcing Kerry to hike it to the rendezvous point solo]].

** The devs have recently started referring to the setting by the (somewhat more Czech-sounding) term "[=ARMA=]versum" as well as "the Armaverse". Given the continuity, ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint OFP]]'''s setting belongs under the umbrella term as well. An overview of the setting's timeline is available [[http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Armaverse_Timeline here]].

* UrbanWarfare: Most terrains have one or two big towns mostly covered by buildings and houses, and fighting over them will probably turn into this. While many of them are fairly small and mostly consist of houses and small shops, some settlements such as Novigrad from ''ARMA II'''s Chernarus and Georgetown from ''ARMA III'' ''Apex'' DLC's Tanoa are very built-up cities featuring multi-story buildings, commercial properties, and infrastructure.

** In ''ARMA III'''s ''Remnants of War'' campaign, it is heavily implied (but not confirmed and just left hanging) that the ones wiping out the guerillas in the castle and calling the airstrike on Oreokastro were not CSAT but rather [[spoiler:Miller and his CTRG team]].

** EnemyExchangeProgram is in full force and you can borrow any enemy equipment if you're out of your own or running low on it, save for their actual uniforms (it is a war crime, after all). The second act of ''ARMA III'''s campaign encourages this, where CSAT weapons are more powerful and enemy depots, outposts and other positions are the best way to secure high-end gear like thermal optics, vests, suppressors, long range scopes and weapons, etc. Just be careful if you're playing multiplayer, as making the same sound as enemy weapons can lead to [[TeamKiller friendly fire]] or at least wasting time sorting things out.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: In ''ARMA III'''s ''Tanks'' DLC's ''Altis Requiem'' mini-campaign, if you kill any civilian during the missions, the ending cutscene show that the player character was identified as a war criminal after the war and executed.

** Between the ObviouslyEvil AAF, a half-butchered/half-displaced local population, and the countryside being almost completely abandoned, save for the scattered resistance camps and AAF patrols, things don't look pretty for anyone in Altis during and even after ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign.

** ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign has scouting in-between missions, where you roam Altis and do small side objectives.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: A couple of missions have you reach your objective only to find that the game moved the goalposts. Particularly "Bingo Fuel" in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, in which you are simply meant to go retrieve a fuel truck; by the end, [[ASimplePlan Kerry had sneaked through an enemy armored division, looted a vehicle depot, raided a base, ambushed an armored convoy, and assassinated the enemy's highest-ranking officer in quick succession before he actually finds the fucking thing]].

* ''ARMA 4'' (TBA): The fourth entry has been

confirmed to be in development by Bohemia Interactive. It will use the new Enfusion engine and ''Reforger'' will serve as a foundation for it.

[[caption-width-right:350:'''[[{{Tagline}} This is war]].''' ]]

''ARMA'' is well-regarded as one of the most realistic tactical shooter game series on the market today. Set on various intricately-detailed {{Ruritania}}s in PresentDay, NextSundayAD, and TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture time frames, most games in the ''ARMA'' series follow NATO military forces as they respond to (or get caught up in) threats and crises across the world, whether they be enemy nations, rebel paramilitaries, or rival peer-power alliances—and often, there's [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye more to the conflict than what's being told]]. The games are held high as well-researched, true-to-life, unrelentingly-realistic military simulators that [[ReferenceOverdosed often reference previous titles]] and can balance being [[AffectionateParody fairly]] [[PlayedForLaughs funny]] with addressing the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]]. So highly-regarded is ''ARMA'''s commitment to military realism that modified versions of the games are used by actual militaries for tactical and organizational training, titled ''Virtual Battlespace'' and developed by now-separate studio Bohemia Interactive Simulations.

* ''ARMA: Armed Assault / [[MarketBasedTitle Combat Operations]]'' (2007): SpiritualSuccessor and de-facto sequel to ''Operation Flashpoint'', developed by BIS (the original developers of Operation Flashpoint), using an updated engine called Real Virtuality 2 ([=RV2=]). [=ArmA=]: Armed Assault takes place on the fictional island of Sahrani, divided between two nations: the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Democratic Republic of Sahrani]] in the north, and an oil-rich (and US-backed) Kingdom of South Sahrani. The US forces have been training the South Sahrani military and are just starting to leave (in a trend of the series in which a predominantly US force prepares to leave a destabilized country only to get caught in the fighting; see [=ArmA III=]). You see where this is going. With most of the US military gone, the North invades the South and a few remaining US soldiers get caught in the middle of it, and they then aid the South in defeating the North.

* ''Virtual Battlespace 2'' (2007): Bohemia Interactive Simulations' Real Virtuality engine, and the Armed Assault game based on it, were so successful and lauded as so realistic that this warranted an update to the game engine ([=VBS2=] used [=RV2=]), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBS2#VBS2_customers also sold to the same real military organizations as VBS]]; in 2012 ''[=VBS2=] 2.0'' was released, based on the [=RV3=] engine used by ''ARMA 2''.
* ''ARMA II'' (2009): The successor to ''Armed Assault'', based on the Real Virtuality 3 engine. It takes place in South Zagoria, a province of a destabilizing {{Ruritania}} called Chernarus. The current, US-aligned government is desperately fighting a war against communist rebels called the [=ChDKZ=]. Of course, the USA intervenes with the [[SemperFi Marine Corps]] to save the failing government forces and launches attacks on the [=ChDKZ=]. After a bombing in Moscow - which the rebels blame on a group of anti-[=ChDKZ=] guerrillas called the National Party - the Kremlin steps up and tells the US to leave. Not wanting to risk all out war, they do so, and the Russians, under the flag of the UN, deploy into the region, but in a reoccurring trope, the player's squad Razor Team is left behind in the confusion, and is now stuck trying to prove the Red Square bombing was actually a false flag operation by the rebels.
** ''Operation Arrowhead'' (release date June 29, 2010): A standalone expansion pack set in a new country, with new locations and a new campaign; it can be installed into the ''ARMA 2'' directory (or run with ''ARMA 2'' through Steam) to allow for a "Combined Operations" install where both games' content are accessible through the OA client. It is set in Takistan, and the plot is a blatant copy of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Basically, the dictator of Takistan is said to have nuclear weapons, so the US invades, occupies it, and has to fight an insurgency. It features the US Army (rather then US Marines from the base game), the Takistan Army, local Takistani militias and Insurgents, and United Nations peacekeepers (which is a slight reskin of the Chernarus Defense Forces from base game).

** ''Army of the Czech Republic'' (release date August 1, 2012): A DLC expansion pack for a ''Combined Operations'' install (that is, both ''ARMA 2'' and ''Operation Arrowhead'' must be installed) that adds [[UsefulNotes/BohemiansWithBombers Czech military]] small arms and vehicles, [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht German KSK commandos]], two new 'maps' ("terrains"), a new fifteen-mission single-player campaign, new premade scenarios and more Editor scenario templates.

* ''ARMA: Cold War Assault'' (2011): A free {{Remake}} (or refurbishing if you will) mega patch for the original ''Operation Flashpoint'', released in celebration of the game's 10th anniversary by the developers. Because of the whole legal debacle with Codemasters, applying this patch to an installed copy of ''OFP'' will rename the game to ''ARMA : Cold War Assault''. '''NOTE :''' Please '''[don't confuse''' the original ''Operation Flashpoint'' with the ARMA series proper - it's only a predecessor and set in the same universe, but otherwise completely separate. The [[InsistentTerminology new title]] [[ScrewedByTheLawyers is there only because BIS can't release the patch under the original name of the game, since it's now owned by Codemasters]]. The synopsis is that there are some islands, one of which is run by the Soviets, one by the US, and the last is independent. Guba, the commander of the Russian forces, wants to remove Gorbachev from power, so he schemes to get the US and the USSR in a [[WorldWarIII war]]. He uses his forces to invade the independent island, and defeat counterattacking US forces. You have to prevent a World War.
* ''VideoGame/TakeOnHelicopters'' (2011): This [=RV3=]-powered game [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is about piloting helicopters]], and takes place within the ARMA-verse ("Armaversum").
* ''Take On Mars'' (2013): This game is about customizing and controlling a drone on Mars to do scientific missions and make a profit. Unlike all other publicly-released VBS & RV-engine games so far, ''Take On Mars'' is nonviolent and has no physical conflict against other living things.
* ''ARMA II: Firing Range'' (2011): a mobile spin-off where you shoot targets at a firing range.
* ''ARMA III'' (2013): Announced for a summer 2012 release (subsequently pushed back to winter 2012 then to 2013, where it was finally released after a long Alpha and Beta) and using the Real Virtuality 4 ([=RV4=]) engine, this game extends the ARMA gameplay with underwater operations (scuba diving, etc.), and other features. It features Israeli military equipment (such as the Merkava tank), US Future Warrior equipment, and the military of a resurgent Iran. It takes place on the two Mediterranean islands of Altis and Stratis (based of real life Lemnos). There has just been a bloody civil war followed by, of course, NATO intervention. NATO trains and equips the Altis Armed Forces (AAF) but prepares to leave after the Altisian government starts getting backing by CSAT (a coalition of Eastern countries) and their mandate comes to an end. But as NATO starts leaving their bases on the island of Stratis, things go awry as the AAF suddenly attacks the NATO forces. It is then a desperate struggle to hold back the AAF and get in contact with the rest of NATO with only a small, battered force. It is later revealed that CSAT is helping to provoke the attacks.
** Karts, Helicopters, Marksman, Jets and Tanks. Small optional DLC additions with new assets to play which are accompanied by plataform updates such as bipods and ejection systems. Karts was an April Fools joke turned official. "Art of War" was a smaller DLC that added some fan-made assets made in a contest organized by Bohemia interactive. The income of the DLC was donated to UsefulNotes/TheRedCross.
** ''ARMA III: APEX'' (2016): The first major expansion for ''ARMA III''. Set on the island of Tanoa, it features Pacific Expeditionary Forces for both NATO and CSAT (Representing the combined taskforce in NATO's case, and a Chinese deployment in CSAT's case), new vehicles and weapons, and a brand new faction named Syndikat. The plot is about an elite CTRG team that is deployed to Tanoa to help government forces fight off Syndikat, a rebel group formed from the remnants of a failed coup a decade prior. Things soon prove to be more complicated than first thought, as elements that were LeftHanging from the main campaign make a comeback.
*** ''Old Man'': A free mod (released later in the game through an update) for the owners of ''Apex''. Set after the events of ''Apex Protocol'', the scenario follows Santiago, a Tanoan native and [[LegionOfLostSouls ex-legionnaire]] who returns back home to discover the origin of a mysterious malaria super-strain who is ravaging the country, and together with a familiar CTRG operative – attempts to avert a catastrophic CSAT power play on the island of Tanoa. Differently from the other official scenarios, ''Old World'' is a WideOpenSandbox campaign, with features such as free roam, fast-travel, buying and selling weapons, passing time and a full reputation system.
** ''Laws Of War'' (2017): A smaller scale DLC developed in collaboration with the International Red Cross, revolving around Explosive Ordinance Disposal, humanitarian aid, and the more unpleasant sides of war and its aftermath. The campaign involves an EOD technician doing clean-up in an abandoned village after the Eastwind campaign while being interviewed by a reporter about the village's history during the Altis civil war and the circumstances surrounding the death of a civilian from an unexploded landmine.
** ''Tac-Ops'' (2017): Adds three single-player mini-campaigns. ''Beyond Hope'' is a prequel set in the beggining of the civil war between the AAF and the loyalists (later FIA). ''Stepping Stone'' is set concurrently with the events of the main campaign, the US Navy is moving towards Altis and must secure the island of Malden; resulting in them fighting a "rogue" North African CSAT regiment. ''Steel Pegasus'' follows an IFV crew during the invasion of Southern Altis after the failed assault on the airport.

** ''Creator'' DLC: A program of [=DLCs=] produced by third-party companies (former modding teams) and published by Bohemia.

*** ''Western Sahara'' (2021): Set in the main ARMA universe in the year 2036, in the fictional province of Sefrou-Ramal in the country of Argana, in the Western Sahara. The region has been divided between different tribal militant groups and foreign militaries. New factions added include the Sefrawi Freedom and Independence Army, Tura tribe insurgents, desert NATO forces, UNA [[note]]the United Nations with SerialNumbersFiledOff to avoid legal problems[[/note]] peacekeepers and the return of the Ion PMC. The DLC also includes new multiplayer modes and an open-world scenario “Extraction”, where an Ion PMC must search the region for a kidnapped journalist.

* ''ARMA Tactics'' (2013): A spinoff developed in the Unity 3D engine. It has nothing in common with the main ARMA series except for visuals and voice acting.

* ''ARMA 4'' (TBA): The fourth entry has been confirmed to be in development by Bohemia Interactive. It will use the new Enfusion engine and ''Reforger'' will serve as a foundation for it.

** Aiming for center mass is the primary go to when engaging hostile npcs as aiming for the head is very difficult and just wastes valuable time, so it would make sense to avoid aiming for the head unless you've got time to kill and plenty of ammunition to spare.

** Most high-caliber weapons, including machine guns, anti-materiel rifles, and turrets. Sure, they pack [[MoreDakka a lot of dakka]], can penetrate vehicle armor, and can strike fear into the hearts of the enemies... but I hope you weren't planning on standing while firing, or running with the rest of your team, or going solo, or doing anything aside from going prone with your bipod down or standing still at your turret. And that's not even considering carrying ammunition and equipment; there's a reason why "Ammo Bearer" is a role in TheSquad.[[note]]Most machine guns use ammo boxes, which are so big that most vests can only carry one or two, with more boxes requiring a backpack. These reduce stamina significantly.[[/note]])
** The Bergen Backpack, introduced in ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC, is the largest backpack in the game in terms of both storage space and size. It's also the heaviest, and more often than not it'll nullify your ''entire'' stamina bar and force you to walk. Nevermind that its large profile also lets enemies know exactly who to aim for.

* BottleEpisode: ''ARMA III'''s ''Laws of War'' campaign takes place exclusively in the town of Oreokastro and its countryside, showing chronically through playable flashbacks the different time periods from the cheerful pre-war peace time, to its ruined, mine-infested post-war present.

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: ZigZagged by Lieutenant Collins and Sergeant Sturrock in Steel Pegasus campaign. Collins is [[EnsignNewbie a just Crewman]] who [[YouAreInCommandNow ends up being the highest officer alive]] in the [[spoiler:botched]] invasion, and given his blatant inexperience he's adamant of following his orders to the letter, no matter what. He is told to gather up the survivors in some RV point, and move them up to a safe zone. Sturrock is a SergeantRock solely by virtue of being technically outranked despite being TheLeader of a spec-ops team and having vastly more field experience, who is forced to disobey often. [[spoiler:Their first interaction is Sturrock and his team requesting some manpower to help fend off the attack on the RV flank, with collins refusing since his orders are simply to bring everybody to the RV]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''ARMA III'''s ''Laws of War'' campaign, one of the flashbacks centers around what was supposedly a CSAT Viper Team unit called in by the AAF to break the guerrillas' stronghold with a cluster bomb. A optional objective centers around a IDAP doctor who'd gone out in the fighting, requiring you to wait for a bit before he heads back to the church. If done, Nathan mentions the doctor was lucky given that they couldn't have delayed the strike just for him. [[spoiler:To add to the decision, the CSAT team is implied at the end to actually have been CTRG Group 14, led by Miller.]]

* FutureCopter: ''ARMA III'' is full of these, with the ''UH-80 Ghost Hawk'' and ''AH-99 Blackfoot'' looking the most futuristic. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] because all them are based on real-life prototypes. The only exception played straight with ''Apex'' exapansion's CSAT Pacific futuristic VTOL aircraft ''Y-32 Xi'an'', looking something straight out of a MilitaryScienceFiction setting.

** The by-far most famous and possibly most influential of all though is the ZombieApocalypse mod called ''VideoGame/DayZ''... it's about as realistic as a zombie-infested, fictional Eastern European country can get, single-handedly caused a spike in ''ARMA II'' sales, and its modder (a contractor who did mo-cap/MP mission design for ''ARMA III'') was hired and made project lead of a standalone game version of the mod. Ironically, he initially kept his involvement in the project under wraps from his Bohemia Interactive co-workers, feeling that the subject matter was embarrassingly unlike what the company was known for.

** Former President of the DSR Ramirez/Richardicz, the supposedly died before the events of ''Armed Assault''. [[spoiler:Who was actually alive and hiding in Rahmadi, directing the invasion from the shadows.]]
** Colonel (later President) Muhammad R. Aziz, a pretty obvious Saddam Hussein {{expy}}. He led a socialist coup to overthrow the old Takistani monarchy. Ruling the country for two decades with an iron fist. After the country's lucrative oil wells and refineries are sabotaged by CIA-backed pro-royalist rebels, he attempts to invade the southern neighbour country of Karzeghistan and results into a UN-sanctioned NATO invasion and in his death.

** The CSAT infantryman in III has little armor (no bulletproof vest, just pouches and a heavy armor helmet) which means more stamina and speed, however they carry heavier [=LMGs=] and 3 rounds grenade launchers. Their vehicles also follow the same pattern of faster but with ligher armor than their NATO counterparts.
** Tanks in the first ARMA and ARMA 2, which would blow up with a couple hits from even an RPG.

** In ''Black Gauntlet'' campaign for ''ARMA 2: Private Military Contractors'', [[spoiler: China is revealed to be this as not only they're the main benefactors for the Takistani nuclear program but they're also the who orders ION and Mark Reynolds to put the lid on the discovery by assassinating the UN inspectors]].
** CSAT in the III campaign. Most of the immediate fighting you do in the campaign is against the AAF, with only the occasional skirmish against CSAT.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Definitely the case for ''First Contact'' DLC campaign. The LDF are [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]] who are motivated by misguided beliefs to prevent alien incursion on their country. And the Americans [[spoiler: and Russians]] who know better are trying to stop them from destroying the alien core that would potentially led to the devastation of a large chunk of Europe ''at best'' and the entire Earth at worst. While the aliens are mostly keeping by themselves and only retaliates against NATO and LDF forces after the latter mistaking them to be hostile and opens fire.

** Thanks to various [[GameMod addons]], the games can include everything from [[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} Gauss Rifles]], G11s, and [[Film/{{Aliens}} Pulse Rifles]]. The basic list of the firearms already present in the vanilla version of the game [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/ArmA_II is also pretty extensive]]; a lot of the ''Arma 2'' list consisted of variants with attachments though (i.e. [=M16A4=], [=M16A4=] ACOG, [=M16A4=] [=M203=]), while the weapons list in ''Arma 3'' is smaller due to its mostly modular attachment system[[note]]with the notable exception of underbarrel grenade launcher variants[[/note]].
** Although with mods, the list expands considerably. The CUP (Community Upgrade Project) for starters, has upgraded the entire arsenal (vehicles and gear included) of the previous Arma games to Arma 3, with the modular attachment system perfectly functional, to official items quality levels. That alone triples the amount of content, and its just one mod.[[note]]The RHS mods add the entirety of the USA and Russian army,(weapons, vehicles, gear and uniforms, all divided by army branch and unit), just to name a few.[[/note]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: It's implied in one of the endings that [[spoiler:Stavrou's death by friendly fire]] was engineered on purpose due to this trope. If you also play Tac Ops and Laws of War, it is pretty clear to see why.
* HighTechHexagons: The CSAT faction in ''Arma 3'' is seriously obsessed with hexagons: its logo is [[http://arma3.com/assets/img/features/factions/csat_flag.jpg a hexagon made of smaller hexagons,]] and its vehicles even adopt a hexagonal camo pattern, which overall contrasts the plainer colour schemes of NATO gear.
* HollywoodDarkness: Averted with a ''vengeance'' in ''Arma II'' and ''3''. Darkness means just that: pitch-black darkness. If your character has neither NV capable equipment (NVG, rangefinder/designator, NV capable scopes) nor an attached flashlight, and you're far from any artificial light sources at night (meaning: practically every location outside a city/settlement or military camp, particularly about 80% of Takistan and Stratis), you will not be able to see ''anything'', period.
* HollywoodSilencer: Played straight in ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead''. Averted completely in the third game, although the degree of effectiveness varies between weapons and size of bullets. Suppressors only make it harder for the enemy to find the direction the shot is coming from, but it will not remove the bullet whiz sound.

* HowWeGotHere: The Apex campaign starts {{In Medias Res}} with the raider teams in the first mission attempting to secure... something without knowing if they succeeded or not. The next few missions fall under this trope.

** While Colonel Akhanteros looks like a GeneralFailure most of the time, in ''Laws of War'', it is said that Major Gavras is actually the one that has been doing most of the work and what allowed the AAF to hold out for 3 days rather than 1. Gavras also used his command staff, including himself, as a decoy to draw NATO-FIA forces away from his retreating troops.
** Kael Mavros, is a former Rebel (precursor to the AAF) and defector to the loyalists. Being high ranked, having a ton of experience and spec op training, he ends up being able to fulfill whatever role the loyalist need him to.
* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted. As in ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint OFP]]'', you can only carry as much equipment, weaponry and ammo as your webbing or backpack allows[[note]]and in ''Arma 3'' your uniform as well[[/note]]. Too big or heavy weapons take up a far bigger slot[[note]]or in ''Arma 3'', more weight[[/note]] than a combination of several smaller ones and they also slow you down a little if you're running.

** Invoked in the first game, where army soldiers express embarrassment at having to be rescued by USMC air power.
** In the Apex campaign, [=CTRG=] is not really fond of NATO, it's assets or it's personnel. US and British army regulars on the other hand, have no idea [[UnknownRival who the hell these [=CTRG=] guys are]].

** This accounts also for the WWI era [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0TZXbC6HE Sopwith Camel]] biplane included in ''[=ArmA=]''[[note]]''Armed Assault''[[/note]], which is quickly gunned down even by ''handguns'' and mainly serves for fun dogfights in multiplayer; ditto for the [=DC-3=], a classic airliner.

*** LethalJokeCharacter: the FIA has even worse equipment and weapons, yet consistently comes out on top of them, with clever planning and the population backing them up.

* JustPlaneWrong: There are some glaring issues with ''ARMA III'''s larger UAV. For starters, there's already an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk MQ-4]] UAV (ARMA 3's is the MQ-4A) and they don't share much similarity. Second, it looks like it was made using riveted sheets of metal, when practically all [=UAVs=] are made with composite materials. Lastly, the engine cowl has a label that reads "DANGER: JET INLET", yet the UAV is a prop plane.
* KingIncognito: Kerry's first meeting with the guerrillas in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign is being the chauffeur for a small team of resistance fighters and being bossed around by a laid back dude full of tattoos, scruffy beard, a ponytail and a condescending attitude. [[spoiler:That's [[FrontlineGeneral commander]] Stavrou to you, leader of North Altis FIA cell, member of the FIA High Command and all around cool guy.]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Brian Frost (protagonist of ''ARMA II: British Armed Forces'' and ''Private Military Company'') becomes this, fully succumbing to cynicism by the time of ''PMC'', and [[spoiler:in ''Take On Helicopters'' he's implied to have participated in the cover-up with Mark Reynolds by assassinating UN inspectors, and moved on to become a head of operations for the ION PMC]].

* MadLibsDialogue: ''Armed Assault''[='s=] and ''ARMA II''[='s=] radio voiceovers of the individual soldiers kind of inherited this quality from ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint''. Naturally, the somewhat unnatural sounding style of the voiceovers is caused by the daunting task of having to record each possible combination of a voiceover line separately (it would take ages and require thousands of voice files). There are some community-made [[GameMod mods]] in the works for replacing the original voice files with better dubbed ones, and ''ARMA III'' has done a little to smooth it out, though it's still there to a point.
* MeaningfulName: In the first campaign mission of ''ARMA II'', you and your squad are ordered to mark an enemy communication centre in the remote coastal town of Pusta for aerial bombardment. In the process, you will find that the rebels who occupied the town, [[spoiler:massacred most of the townsfolk, and ditched them in mass graves on the outskirts]]. Now, for everyone who speaks [[BilingualBonus Russian]], the town's name foreshadows this unfortunate turn of events - as ''Pusta'' means "[[spoiler:[[GhostTown empty]]]]" in Russian.

* MeleeATrois: The scenario editor in all games (including ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'') makes it possible to deliberately invoke this. There are two sides that are always hostile, ''BLUFOR'' and ''OPFOR'', and a third called "Indepedents" (Sometimes refered to GREENFOR or INDFOR) which can be set to be allied with either the BLUFOR, OPFOR, neither, or neutral to all. All games in the series have at least one faction for each of the three sides:
** ''ARMA: Armed Assault'' has the US forces as ''BLUFOR'', the [[DirtyCommunists Sahrani Liberation Army]] as ''OPFOR'' and the Royal Army Corps of Sahrani as the Indepedent faction. It should be noted that in the story mode the US Forces and the RACS are allied trough the entire campaign.
** ''ARMA II'' has the US Marine Corps and the local {{Ruritania}}'s army, the Chernarus Defense Forces as ''BLUFOR'' fighting against the communist insurgents of the [[DirtyCommunists CHDKZ]] (And later the [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets Armed Forces of the Russian Federation]]) as OPFOR, the indepedents are represented by the ''National Party'', a small [[WesternTerrorists nationalistic guerilla]] fighting against both CHDKZ and the Government forces (which can be recruited later to fight against the CHDKZ).
** ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead'' has the US Army, the British Armed Forces, [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht German]] ''[[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht Bundeswehr]]'' and the [[UsefulNotes/BohemiansWithBombers Army of the Czech Republic]] as ''BLUFOR'', fighting the [[{{Qurac}} Takistani Army]] as well [[MiddleEasternTerrorists pro-government militias]] as ''OPFOR'', while INDFOR is formed by Indepedent Militias (a PaletteSwap of the OPFOR militias), a Chernarusian contigent of UN Peacekeeping, and [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Ion Services, Inc.]]
** ''ARMA III'' again has NATO as the BLUFOR faction, CSAT as OPFOR faction and the Altis Armed Forces as the Indepedent force. In the Prologue and very beggining of the game, both AAF and NATO are allied but after CSAT invades the island [[spoiler:they convince the AAF leave their alliance with NATO in exchange of military and economical support.]] If the "Loyalty" ending is chosen [[spoiler:CSAT evacuates and leaves the AAF behind, resulting in their surrender]], however if the "Miller" ending is chosen [[spoiler:the CTRG steals the device which leads to CSAT become desperate and attack both NATO and ''the AAF'' in retaliation]].
*** Interestingly subverted in ''ARMA III'''s ''First Contact'' DLC campaign. [[spoiler: The tensions between NATO and LDF regarding what to do with the alien ship in Nadbór as well as Russian intrusions into the Livonian territory seems to be building up for a three way confrontation between NATO, LDF and Russia. However, when the whole situation goes completely FUBAR, both NATO and the Russians realized that they have to [[EnemyMine put aside their differences and work together]] in order to stop the LDF, which led to the final confrontation of the campaign with NATO ''and'' Russia on one side against the Livonians on the other.]]
** Interesting enough, the FIA can be placed as BLUFOR, OPFOR, ''and'' INDFOR. This is probably so they can be used both as a friendly resistance faction or an Enemy insurgent group.

* MildlyMilitary: Gameplay aside (where you can go as [[BunnyEarsLawyer bunny ears]] as the server and game mods allow) the story mode of ''ARMA III'' is one of the few justified and believable examples. Early in the campaign, the Task Force stationed at Stratis are mostly what remains of a larger contingent deployed on a political maneuver, lazily doing grunt work at a snail pace to dismantle everything, pack up and go home. Discipline is lax, work is slow, the troops joke and mock each other, the superior officers (within earshot, who then snark right back), and ''especially'' their AAF allies. Then shit hits the fan, the task force is betrayed and after the survivors regroup, [[LetsGetDangerous they proceed to]] [[spoiler:almost]] take back the island in a single day, with no supplies network, no backup, no mechanized or aerial support and zero contact with the outside world.
* MilitaryScienceFiction: Arma 3 has some elements of this: Most of the equipment is slightly futuristic, although mostly based in working prototypes or plausible equipment, [[spoiler:not to mention the Eastwinde Device, a machine that causes earthquakes]]. It gets full-blown Military Sci-Fi with the ''Contact'' DLC, where aliens show up.

** ''ARMA III'' goes full-blown TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, into an alternate timeline where China and Iran have formed CSAT, a coalition similar to the old Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which not only rivals NATO, the European Union and the US, both military and economically, but it has actually forced them to a new pseudo cold war in which the West is all but stated to be unable to win if it goes hot.

** Averted for unguided rockets in ''Arma 3''.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Averted somewhat in ''Arma 3'', where you get to play [[DeathFromAbove a CSAT gunship pilot]] in a couple of Showcases. And sort of a retroactive example with the bootcamp update: The guerrillas that take you in as a member in the second act of the campaign are the same you were aiding the local government (your former allies) to hunt until they betrayed your taskforce, [[EnemyMine forcing you to join guerrilla ranks in order to survive]]. Inverted in ''Tanks'' as in the mini campaign that comes with the DLC, you play as an AAF NCO since the campaign is there mainly to showcase the new Angara tank.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The ''Art of War'' collection (which consists exclusively of ARMA fan art) is stated in-universe to be borrowed from several renowned (but fictitious) museums like the Royal War Museum of UsefulNotes/{{London}} (alluding the Imperial War Museum) or the Andere Pinakothek of UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} (alluding to either the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek or the Pinakothek der Moderne).

** The first level of the second act is [[spoiler:waking up ashore as the sole survivor of the task force]] with zero gear in an unknown location. to make matters worse, there is CSAT-AAF full scale counter offensive on the nearby city (patrol boats, [[TankGoodness Tanks]],[[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]], Planes, Helicopters, Infantry, fortified outpost, etc.) and you have to cross it to reach some friendlies across the mountains.
** ''LZ Nowhere'', the first mission of the Steel Pegasus campaign in Tac-Ops DLC. While there are some rifles nearby, you can only find a couple of spare magazines in the starting point and being mainly an APC crew, the player character doesn't start with any armor other than the helmet. And you'd best not linger for too long in the starting area because a large group of AAF soldiers will come and investigate the crash site.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: A particular brutal example on the final level of the third game. To elaborate: during the campaign you end up assisting a British SIS taskforce while taking part in a resistance movement with local guerrillas. After rejoining NATO you are instructed to not to get anywhere near any members of the taskforce if you ever see or hear of them, and disregard any communication you get. Right before NATO's final attack on the enemy HQ a wounded SIS soldier (whom you befriended) calls you to meet him in a location in the middle of nowhere. You can choose: Do you leave him to die and follow the orders? The attack succeeds, [[EarnYourHappyEnding enemy forces surrender, Altis is free, war is over, yaaay. Roll credits]]. Do you go [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight help him against the orders]]? [[spoiler:You find him dying in the aftermath of a botched SIS assault on a secret compound, he asks you to fight your way through remaining enemy troops and retrieve and deliver what is implied to be an EarthquakeMachine to the rest of the taskforce. [[FromBadToWorse That's not the bad part.]] After delivering the device, the captain proceeds to extract the weapon, but promises you answers if you wait there for his return. Night falls and you are informed that they can't (or won't) come back, meaning you are left stranded in the countryside, forcing you to find your way to the bulk of the army you just deserted earlier. [[RuleOfThree It gets worse:]] not only was the main attack a failure, but now, besides NATO scrambling to regroup and evacuate the island, the two enemy armies that used to be allies are fighting each others as well as NATO which means you're gonna have to make your way singlehandedly through the free for all clusterfuck of a warzone that the country has become, in order to find a way of the island. Have fun!]]
** [[spoiler:What's even worse is that in the Apex Protocol campaign, the aforementioned EarthquakeMachine is recovered by NATO forces, so not only is that ending non-canon, even if it were canon, it would have meant that [[AllForNothing Sgt. Kelly's actions, which robbed NATO of their victory over the AAF and presumably got him labelled as a deserter, would have been for nought]] because ''it would have been recovered a month later anyway.'']]

* NoodleIncident: In III, on the whiteboard, there's a list of NATO goat ROE (rules of engagement). The list goes like this.

** While ''OFP'' featured exceptional voice acting (MadLibsDialogue notwithstanding) for the American characters by American or at least American-sounding [=VAs=] (Russians...not so much), the ARMA series features very few American voices. Several men in the player's unit in ARMA I, as well as the playable tank commander in ''Operation Arrowhead'' are quite obviously British, and the Marine intelligence officer in ARMA II is definitely an Australian who gave up trying to sound otherwise, and one of the Force Recon Marines is played by a Canadian. In ARMA III, Kerry himself [[OohMeAccentsSlipping occasionally exhibits some bizarre pronunciation]]. Rather jarring, given the [[ShownTheirWork attention to detail]] everywhere else.

** In ArmA 2's campaign, a USMC MCIA officer has a British accent.

* OutOfGenreExperience: Several missions in the series are less tactical shooters and more [[EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Environmental Narrative Games]] in their own right: The ''Art of War'' mission is a prime example: Here the player visits the (fictional) Lars Blanken Gallery in Amsterdam. That's it. They're left to explore a sizeable collection of some really good art (ARMA fan creations, presented in a lore-friendly environment) and to deliberate on the nature of war, the increasingly dehumanising future of warfare, and - most importantly - what can be done to make war as just and humane as possible.

** The Altis Goverment is more lowkey about its supposedly democratic nature, but no less bloodthisrty. Played straight in the Tac Ops DLC, showing who they really were and how they came to power.
* PoliceAreUseless: The Gendarmerie from ''ARMA III'''s ''Apex'' DLC. They only appear in one mission in the ''Apex Protocol'' campaign, and are severely underequipped, armed with basic P07 pistols and Protector submachine guns (both 9mm, the latter being one of the worst SMGs in the game), wearing basic ballistic vests to protect themselves (only caps and berets as headgear), and driving completely unarmored Offroad pickup trucks as patrol cars. Mind you, they're going up against Syndikat, who regularly pack [=AKs=], [=RPG-7s=], and machine gun-equipped technicals. Their weaknesses are justified though, seeing by then the Horizon Islands had just been devastated by a natural disaster [[spoiler:and Syndikat is being supported by CSAT]].

** Sergeant Conway, the protagonist of the ''Prologue'' campaign, is seen at various points during ''The East Wind''. This example gets weird when consider that ''Prologue'' was added ''after'' the game's launch in a later patch, and Kerry, Arma 3's protagonist, also has some cameos in the mini-campaign.
** Sergeant Sturrock is one of the two possible player characters in the ''Stepping Stone'' campaign, and makes an appearance in the ''Steel Pegasus'' campaign.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: The protagonists in the ''Royal Flush'' campaign in the ''Arma: Queens Gambit'' expansion are part of the Royal Flush team of the "Black Element" corporation. The corporation later rebrands as "Ion Services, Inc" and became subject of the ''Private Military Company'' DLC for Arma 2. The ION PMC also makes a cameo in III in one of the epilogues as a security detail.
* ProductPlacement: The MX series rifles in ''ARMA III'' are designed and modelled by CMMG Inc themselves, based on a real prototype weapon they made. There is even an obvious CMMG brand label on them, normally [[AKA47 filed off on most other weapons]].
* PsychoForHire: Dixon in ''ARMA II: Private Military Company''. He even suggests shooting at US Army soldiers to expedite some processes.
* {{Qurac}}: Takistan in ''ARMA II : Operation Arrowhead'', a generic Middle Eastern nation set as a mix between Iraq—as it is invaded by the US trying to topple the authoritarian regime with [=WMDs=]—with Afghanistan, mostly on the geography and local population.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Originally ''ARMA III'' was supposed to be set in Greece involving Iran, but after some of the studio's developers were arrested and jailed while on holiday in Greece, the setting was changed to a fictional country and the Iranians replaced with CSAT.

* RevisitingTheRoots: The "Global Mobilization" and "Iron Curtain" Creator [=DLCs=] are set in a "1980s Cold War gone hot" scenario reminiscent of the original ''Operation Flashpoint''.

** And of course, Altis and Stratis from ''ARMA III'' are - despite being former British Greek colonies that just had a bloody civil strive and have to be supervised by British and American peacekeepers and are invaded by a Near Eastern power - [[SarcasmMode are in no way related to]] UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}} or UsefulNotes/NorthCyprus.[[note]]Geographically they're actually modeled on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnos Lemnos]] -- which was outright called Limnos -- and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agios_Efstratios Agios Efstratios]], but the former underwent a name change to Altis -- and the CEO made sure to emphasize that the islands were ''not'' to scale.[[/note]]

** Takistan from ''Arma II: Operation Arrowhead'' is an obvious {{Qurac}}, mostly based on Iraq and some elements of Afghanistan with a name that's a blatant send-up of Pakistan.
** The Republic of Altis and Stratis in III is an interesting example. The maps are based on the real life Greek islands of Lemnos and Agios Efstratios (although the game makes it clear they're ''not'' the islands with a different name - having been renamed from "Limnos" during development - but [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield an entire separate location]]), the general theme of the islands is very similar to the countries of UsefulNotes/{{Malta}} and UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}} in that it's an independent Mediterranean island republic, with the history begin closer to that of Cyprus than of Malta: both Altis and Cyprus were colonized by various nations, such as the Phoenicians, Greeks and Arabs, both nations are mostly famous for their tourist attractions, both nations became indepedent recently from the British, both suffered at the hands of a bloody civil war (altough Cyprus' case was mostly ethnic), both became overseen by foreign peacekeepers and were invaded by a Near Eastern power. The AAF is also very similar to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_Malta armed forces of Malta]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypriot_National_Guard Cypriot National Guard]], and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenic_Armed_Forces Hellenic Armed Forces]].

** The scenario editor makes it possible to deliberately invoke this - the editor has a set range of years it can be set to (between 1990 and 2015 in ''2'', 1980 to 2020 in ''Operation Arrowhead'', and then 1982 to 2050 in ''III''), but setting a scenario as early as possible doesn't make it any less possible to use weapons or vehicles that didn't exist at that point in time. Mods can also allow you to pit UsefulNotes/WorldWarII [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece T-34s]] against modern (and future!) military equipment, like the T-100 Varsuk (based off of T-95s and the "Black Eagle" concept tank).
** In-Universe, this is somewhat the case with the FIA and Syndikat, who noticeably use older, simpler and cheaper weapons in general. This is perfectly justified given they're respectively a resistance group and a criminal/terrorist organization. That said, Syndikat also has access to prototypes for the AK-12 alongside older [=AKMs=] and the like; they don't, however, have any of the other weapons that were supposed to be based on the AK-12, like the AKU-12 carbine or RPK-12 machine gun, both of which only became accessible with the arrival of Russian Spetsnaz in the ''Contact'' DLC.

* SemperFi: The default ''ARMA II'' campaign stars a Force Reconnaissance team, and therefore the USMC are the default "BLUFOR" for the game - hence Marine Corps weapons, Marine Corps vehicles and so on.

** The Jets DLC is chock-full of nods to ''Film/TopGun''. From the trailer ending with a jet buzzing the tower (coffee spill included), to the intro text ending with Iceman's "wingman" line. Even the release dates are the same (May 16th).

* SightedGunsAreLowTech: Like its predecessor, ''ARMA'' averts this to hell and back: unless you've just spawned and haven't so much as moved, firing without lining up the sights means you're spraying and praying. That being said, scopes and collimators are more common than not, so you don't have to rely solely on the iron sights. ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead'' introduced the ability to sight along backup sights on some scopes, and ''III'' allows you to switch optics on the fly.
* SimulationGame: It's a bad idea to approach this game series as [[FirstPersonShooter just another shooter]]; rather, it should be viewed as what ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is to Franchise/{{LEGO}}s, or the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' version of an FPS. As the official video guides for ''ARMA III'' put it, "If you can do it in RealLife military, you can probably do it in ARMA". Just the vanilla games allow you to create and experience almost any kind of combat situation, in land, sea and air, as an infantryman, vehicle pilot, etc. All in a way that most approaches the real life function of whatever it is you're playing as. Meaning that imitating real life is usually the most likely way to succeed.
* SniperScopeSway: Dear god... long story short, there's a lot of it. The good news is that there are so many factors in it that you can always do something to mitigate it: change stances, rest your weapon against something, deploy a bipod if you have one, move slowly, equip lighter weapons, use less attachements, and a million other little trade secrets.
* SnipingMission: Averted in the campaign. There are no missions exclusively for sniping and if you do need an ocassional long distance target taken out, you have a marksman in your squad, precisely for that task. You can browse the Steam Workshop however to find hundreds of player-made sniping scenarios and missions that range from amazing to mediocre. Also, there are several shooting range competitions with many weapons, among them, sniper rifles.
* SoMuchForStealth: Averted to hell and back in the first and second act. Stealth and subterfuge is often a gerrilla's best friend, and while being compromised doesn't fails the mission, the best option is simply to engage and dissapear again. To paraphrase the Official Guide: if the enemy knows where you are, he will simply bring stronger and stronger forces to the fight until he wins by overwhelming the guerrilla.
* SpannerInTheWorks: In ''ARMA III'''s ''Prologue''campaign, peace talks are underway to ensure lasting peace between the AAF and the FIA, so that NATO can finally end their peacekeeping mission. Then an AAF patrol guns down unarmed civilians, the FIA retaliates by ambushing a convoy, and the AAF proceeds to their standard KickTheDog procedure by shooting ''supposed'' FIA soldiers in the capital city and detaining half the population for interrogation, basically telling NATO to shove the peace treaty up their asses. It's unclear how much of it was intentional or not, since everything regarding [[spoiler:Miller's activities]] in the early game is [[AmbiguousSituation really fishy]]. But in the third act you can hear soldiers complaining how the destroyed radar station is slowing the invasion down and screwed up their intel. [[spoiler:Thing is, Miller ordered that facility be destroyed on the excuse of denying it to the enemy. But we never see the enemy hampered by its loss, so his motives to do so remain suspect at best.]]
* SpiritualSuccessor: The first Arma was a sucessor to ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', as Bohemia and Codemasters had a falling out. Codemasters went to make ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]], but BIS kept ''Operation Flashpoint'''s Real Virtuality engine, and upgraded to to their new ''ARMA'' series.

* SurveillanceDrone: In ''Arma 2: Combined Operations'' there are three drones available, four with the addition of ''Private Military Company''. This is extended in ''ARMA III'' with [[TheTurretMaster automated turrets]], the unarmed quadrotor UAV, a UGV called the Stomper and the fixed-wing Greyhawk UAV, both of which have both armed and unarmed versions.

** ''ARMA III'' even adds underwater combat (rebreather and a dedicated underwater weapon required).
* SwissArmyWeapon: You'd be surprised to see how many uses one can find for an under-barrel grenade launcher when you're not limited to explosive grenades. smoke and flares for cover, lightning and communications, IR grenade for tracking targets, You name it.

--->'''Ivan Ruce:''' It seems pretty obvious to me that no one wants to see a ''[[StealthPun Flashpoint Rising]]'' in the Green Sea Region.

** Subverted from ''ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead'' onwards: vehicles don't have a health bar but rather every component of the vehicle has a status indicator that shows the damage of that specific part, the amount of them depending on the vehicle in question (cars have hull, wheel and engine, tanks have right track, left track, turret, sensors, etc.) This means that despite the armor (that can shrug off ''a lot'' of damage and protect the crew), tanks are not an invincible gamebreaker, an AT soldier can disable its turret or knock off the main gun, while AT mines can blow up the tracks immobilizing it in an inconvinient location or away from the battlefield.
** Taken to the literal extreme in the campaign, with Kerry being a member of the 1rst armored division, amusingly at one point he ask where the hell are the tanks that should be supporting them.

* TemptingFate: The first mission of ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign, "Drawdown", begins with the NATO [=NPCs=] that Cpl. Kerry encounters sounding rather derogatory about the prowess of the AAF, with multiple references to them as "''Greenbacks''" and Sgt. Adams being particularly negative even when they're within possible earshot. Problem is, the AAF aren't going to wait for NATO to leave and are all too happy to ''push'' them out... and very early into the second mission [[spoiler:Adams trips a land mine -- quite possibly [[KarmicDeath planted by]] the AAF -- forcing Kerry to hike it to the rendezvous point solo after Adams' death]].

* TokenGoodTeammate: Major Gavras' 3rd Regiment in the AAF. Mostly consists of soldiers not willing to KickTheDog and the least trusted officers who are being ReassignedToAntarctica. They are also probably the only AAF regiment that is actually competent.

** The devs confirmed that their helicopter sim ''Take On Helicopters'' takes place in the Armaverse as well, with one of the characters having been a combat pilot around the time of ''Operation Arrowhead'', while Vrana Corp and [[PrivateMilitaryContractors ION]] make cameo appearances; notably, ''Take On Helicopters'' implies by [[spoiler:Brian Frost]]'s return that [[spoiler:his killing of Dixon, ambushing the UN investigators and participating in the cover up is the canonical ending of ''Private Military Company'']].

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: ''Operation Flashpoint'' takes place in 1985, with an epilogue in 1991, and was released in 2001. The first ''ARMA'' takes place a few months before the game was released. The game was released in November 2006 and takes place in June 2006.
* UrbanWarfare: Most maps have one or two big towns mostly covered by buildings and houses, fighting over them will probably turn into this.

** In ''Laws of War'', it is heavily implied (but not confirmed and just left hanging) that the ones wiping out the guerillas in the castle and calling the airstrike on Oreokastro were not CSAT but rather [[spoiler:Miller and his CTRG team]].
** In the end of the Eastwind campaign, Mark Cole implies that [[spoiler:Miller's failure to inform NATO that the guerrillas are at the target site, and Stavrou's death as a result, was this trope.]]

** Averted. You can only use magazines for two different weapons if they are of the same design family and use the exact same ammo and have the same magazine - for instance, the Mk 18 and the Rahim in ''Arma 3'' both use 7.62mm, however the Mk 18 is 7.62x51 while the Rahim is 7.62x54. Meanwhile, NATO's MX and CSAT's Katiba both use 6.5x39mm caseless rounds, but they use completely different, non-interchangeable magazines. The only real possibility for ammo sharing between NATO and CSAT weapons in the default game is with the [=P07=] and Rook-40 9mm pistols.
** Even within a family of weapons that does take the same ammunition, there are exceptions to what can be used together. Originally, for instance, both 30- and 100-round magazines for the MX exist, but while the support weapon version, the MXSW, can take the 30-round mags of the other variants, the non-support versions couldn't take the MXSW's 100-round ones. Updates have loosened the restrictions, allowing for more combinations of weapon and not-quite-matching magazines, including letting the non-SW versions of the MX use the hundred-rounders, using magazines of different colors in a non-matching version of its parent firearm (e.g. using a black MX mag in a sand-colored MX, rather than the magazine automatically changing color to match the gun you load it into) and allowing greater compatibility between weapons of the same caliber, within reason (e.g. loading magazines from ''Apex''[='=]s AKM in the AKU-12 or RPK-12 from ''Contact'', letting the Rook-40 and P07 take the straight 30-round mags for the [=PDW2000=]). The only exceptions still in the game are those that wouldn't be interchangeable in real life, such as the Mk 20 and TRG-21 being unable to take the dual-drum magazines available for the SPAR-16S (because the design of the guns means you can't use those kinds of drums with them), or Katiba magazines in the MX or vice-versa (since the magazines are of completely different designs, despite taking the same bullets).

* TheUnReveal: The true nature of the aliens and the strange roots found in ''Contact''. [[spoiler:Did the aliens create the root network as a Von Neumann Probe-based communications array? Did someone else create it, and the aliens decided to destroy it after one of the cores destroyed a drone mothership? Did the aliens arrive in response to the release of time-traveling neutrinos by the Electron Exercises, or did they begin their journey thousands of years ago in pursuit of the root network? What do the aliens really look like, and is Čapek correct in his belief that they created their drones in their own image?]] In all likelihood, we will never know.
* UselessUsefulStealth: When ''Armed Assault'' came out, one of the much-touted new features was the ability to use tall grass for stealthy incursions into enemy territory. Sadly, this only started properly working once the game got properly patched - until then, players had severe problems with aiming at enemies while lying in the grass and the enemy soldiers had ImprobableAimingSkills thanks to an annoying bug. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Guess how that ended]] for most players while they were trying to be sneaky?
** It is more viable in the third game, within reason. Silencers will not make a gun completely silent, but while an unsilenced weapon can be heard kilometers away, a stealthy approach and a silenced attack can keep firefights contained within a certain radius, and more importantly, it will keep the enemy ignorant of a lot of details that can aid him in the defense (number of attackers, distance, capabilities, potential targets). While a ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' or ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}''-like [[PacifistRun no-killing approach]] is impractical or outright impossible (depending on gamemode, mods, and mission type), real life stealth is not only possible, but actually recommended, where possible, to maximize success and keep casualties to a minimum.
* VagueHitPoints: If hit by a bullet that doesn't kill, you are wounded but not shown by what degree and are only shown the results of the attack. In case of vehicles, they do take damage but the exact status isn't always known to the passengers.

** Averted mostly on Arma 3, as friendly fire will usually result in a NonStandardGameOver, and if it doesn't then the AI will simply [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves turn on you if you repeatedly shoot a teammate]].
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: In the ''Altis Requiem'' campaign, if you kill any civilian during the missions, the ending cutscene show that the player character is identified as a war criminal by the FIA and executed.

* ViolentGlaswegian: Tanny in ''Arma II: Private Military Company''. The protagonist explicitly refers to bars in Glasgow when speaking of Tanny.

** The opening of the ''Prologue'' campaign is also set in virtual reality, as a way to demonstrate movement.

** ''[=OFP=]'' gives you a rifle, uniform and boots, a helmet and not much else. ''ARMA II'' put you in the role of a member of [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous an elite USMC Force Recon squad]], liberally adorned with fancy-looking high-tech gear (although not to the extent of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''). And in ''ARMA III'' you're a career soldier fighting alongside British special forces and local freedom fighters. Still it is anything but glamorous, not heartwarming nor awesome. When you die, unloved, unmourned, far away from home, there are no tears nor music, and your team doesn't even stop to look at you, the world goes on, the mission goes on and your body is left there on the ground to rot with a single message:
--->'''[PLAYERNAME]: K.I.A.'''
** Between the ObviouslyEvil AAF, a half-butchered/half-displaced local population and the countryside being almost completely abandoned, save for the scattered resistance camps and AAF patrols, things don't look pretty for anyone in ARMA III.
** The new DLC Laws Of War deals specifically with this. The campaign shows very clearly that in war, no matter how good your intentions, how professional your forces are, or how righteous your cause is, '''innocent people will suffer and die'''. And winning a war doesn't fix the problems the war itself creates, there are years of cleaning up remnants that can still hurt a lot of people.

** The subfactions of both CSAT and NATO aren't exactly on even terms with each other. The ''Tac-ops'' DLC showed a lot of what behind the scenes. The British were not exactly happy that NATO supports the new Altis government and [[spoiler:has their own operatives working with the previous government's loyalists to undermine the AAF]]. Also, the Chinese [[spoiler:CSAT and Viper (who are fought against in Apex)]] are so uninterested with direct conflict with NATO that they left the African CSAT Scimitar regiment to their fate in Malden.
** The Syndikat and Viper in Apex do not get along with each other and only treat each other as pawns in each of their own schemes. In a video feed, a Viper operative and a Syndikat officer are seen arguing after a failed attempt at ambushing the CTRG operatives which ended with the Viper operative [[YouHaveFailedMe shooting the officer]]. By the sixth mission, you will soon realized as you get into the mission that they just turned on each other with Solomon Maru personally gunning down some Viper operatives after learning their plans.

** Arma 3's campaign has scouting in-between missions, where you roam Altis and do little side objectives.
** The ''Old Man'' DLC is a full traditional sandbox, including new features to emulate those in several other sandbox games like waiting to pass time more quickly and fast-travel between unlocked safehouses.
* WonTheWarLostThePeace: Subverted. The new Altis government is specifically trying to avoid this, focusing on healing and rebuilding from the moment the AAF surrenders. It's stated, however, it will take a long time to prosper.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: A couple of missions, where you reach your objective only to find that the game moved the goalposts. Particularly, Bingo Fuel, in which you were simply meant to go retrieve a cistern truck, and by the end, [[ASimplePlan Kerry had sneaked through an armored division, looted a vehicle depot, raided a base, ambushed an armored convoy and assassinated the enemy highest-ranking officer in quick succession before he actually finds the fucking thing]].
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The FIA guerrillas see themselves like this, and truth be told, the sentiment seems acknowledged by NATO, despite being considered hostile. Indeed, while NATO is there to secure a foothold against CSAT and ensure a lasting peace treaty, the biggest obstacle to get everyone in the negotiating table seems to be the AAF themselves (your supposed allies, see SpannerInTheWorks)

** The SDAR 5.56x45 is an underwater rifle that can fire specialized ammo in underwater firefights. But on dry land, it's practically useless, with no attachment proxies and less range and stopping power than most ''pistols''. This drawback alleviated somewhat by the SDAR also being compatible with normal 5.56 magazines, but these cannot be used underwater, forcing players to choose which ammo type they should prioritize in taking with them, making it this trope.

** In-universe (and out) the [=AAF=] is widely seen as laughably incompetent and poorly armed.
*** LethalJokeCharacter: the [=FIA=] has even worse equipment and weapons, yet consistently comes out on top of them, with clever planning and the population backing them up.
* JungleWarfare: Tanoa in the ''Apex'' expansion is a South Pacific island covered by a lust jungle. However, the map also includes a lot of open areas, small hamlets, a somewhat big city with buildings for UrbanWarfare, and an specific place has a ''coriferous forest'', probably built for the sawmill in the middle of it.
* JustPlaneWrong: There are some glaring issues with ARMA 3's larger UAV. For starters, there's already an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk MQ-4]] UAV (ARMA 3's is the MQ-4A) and they don't share much similarity. Second, it looks like it was made using riveted sheets of metal, when practically all [=UAVs=] are made with composite materials. Lastly, the engine cowl has a label that reads "DANGER: JET INLET", yet the UAV is a prop plane.
* KingIncognito: Kerry first meeting with the guerrillas is being the chauffeur for a small team of resistance fighters and being bossed around by a laid back dude full of tattoos, scruffy beard, a ponytail and a condescending attitude. [[spoiler:That's [[FrontlineGeneral commander]] Stavrou to you, leader of North Altis FIA cell, member of the FIA High Command and all around cool guy.]]

** In ''ARMA 3'', there's the FIA, a CIA/SIS-backed resistance group on Altis fighting the Iranian presence. in a subversion, in the prologue they are resisting ''the player'', although the more you learn of your current allies, the more sympathetic they look, by mid game you're a full member.
*** Tac-ops DLC shows that the FIA is more than just a bunch of idealistic guerillas. They are born from the ashes of the loyalists of the previously overthrown government. That and [[spoiler:James and some CTRG operatives were already with them since the start]].
** The Syndikat in ''APEX'' is a [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized darker and more brutal example]] of this and is one of the two main antagonists of the APEX campaign. As of ''Old Man'' with the new Tanoan government become LesCollaborateurs to CSAT, the remaining Syndikat joined up with other movements to form the more political L'Ensemble which makes them antiheroic rather than outright villainous.
* LegionOfLostSouls: Santiago, the protagonist of ''Old Man'', is a Tanoan native and former French Legionnaire.
* TheLoad: Without the support of either CSAT or NATO, The AAF is pretty useless for anything else than brutalizing the local population. The poorly armed resistance constantly has the upper hand on them until NATO bails them out, and even the task force handful of survivors has little problems kicking them out of Stratis [[spoiler:until CSAT bails them out of that one too]]
* MadLibsDialogue: ''Armed Assault''[='s=] and ''ARMA II''[='s=] radio voiceovers of the individual soldiers kind of inherited this quality from ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint''. Naturally, the somewhat unnatural sounding style of the voiceovers is caused by the daunting task of having to record each possible combination of a voiceover line separately (it would take ages and require thousands of voice files). There are some community-made [[GameMod mods]] in the works for replacing the original voice files with better dubbed ones, and ''ARMA 3'' has done a little to smooth it out, though it's still there to a point.
* MeaningfulName: In the first campaign mission of ''[=ArmA=] II'', you and your squad are ordered to mark an enemy communication centre in the remote coastal town of Pusta for aerial bombardment. In the process, you will find that the rebels who occupied the town, [[spoiler:massacred most of the townsfolk, and ditched them in mass graves on the outskirts]]. Now, for everyone who speaks [[BilingualBonus Russian]], the town's name foreshadows this unfortunate turn of events - as ''Pusta'' means "[[spoiler:[[GhostTown Empty]]]]" in Russian.
* MacGuffin: The third ''Arma 3'' campaign episode ''WIN'' has [[spoiler:"''the Device''"]].
* MeleeATrois: The scenario editor in all games (including ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'') makes it possible to deliberately invoke this - there are two sides that are always hostile, ''BLUFOR'' and ''OPFOR'', and a third called "Indepedents" (Sometimes refered to GREENFOR or INDFOR) which can be set to be allied with either the BLUFOR, OPFOR, neither, or neutral to all. All games in the series have at least one faction for each of the three sides:

** ''ARMA 2'' has the US Marine Corps and the local {{Ruritania}}'s army, the Chernarus Defense Forces as ''BLUFOR'' fighting against the communist insurgents of the [[DirtyCommunists CHDKZ]] (And later the [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets Armed Forces of the Russian Federation]]) as OPFOR, the indepedents are represented by the ''National Party'', a small [[WesternTerrorists nationalistic guerilla]] fighting against both CHDKZ and the Government forces (which can be recruited later to fight against the CHDKZ).
** ''ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead'' has the US Army, the British Armed Forces, [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht German]] ''[[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht Bundeswehr]]'' and the [[UsefulNotes/BohemiansWithBombers Army of the Czech Republic]] as ''BLUFOR'', fighting the [[{{Qurac}} Takistani Army]] as well [[MiddleEasternTerrorists pro-government militias]] as ''OPFOR'', while INDFOR is formed by Indepedent Militias (a PaletteSwap of the OPFOR militias), a Chernarusian contigent of UN Peacekeeping, and [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Ion Services, Inc.]]
** ''ARMA 3'' again has NATO as the BLUFOR faction, CSAT as OPFOR faction and the Altis Armed Forces as the Indepedent force. In the Prologue and very beggining of the game, both AAF and NATO are allied but after CSAT invades the island [[spoiler:they convince the AAF leave their alliance with NATO in exchange of military and economical support.]] If the "Loyalty" ending is chosen [[spoiler:CSAT evacuates and leaves the AAF behind, resulting in their surrender]], however if the "Miller" ending is chosen [[spoiler:the CTRG steals the device which leads to CSAT become desperate and attack both NATO and ''the AAF'' in retaliation]].
*** Interestingly subverted in ''First Contact'' DLC campaign. [[spoiler: The tensions between NATO and LDF regarding what to do with the alien ship in Nadbór as well as Russian intrusions into the Livonian territory seems to be building up for a three way confrontation between NATO, LDF and Russia. However, when the whole situation goes completely FUBAR, both NATO and the Russians realized that they have to [[EnemyMine put aside their differences and work together]] in order to stop the LDF, which led to the final confrontation of the campaign with NATO ''and'' Russia on one side against the Livonians on the other.]]
** Interesting enough, the FIA guerilla group can be placed as any of the sides, BLUFOR, OPFOR or Indepedent. This is probably so they can be used both as a friendly resistance faction or an Enemy insurgent group.

* MilitaryScienceFiction: Arma 3 has some elements of this: Most of the equipment is slightly futuristic, although mostly based in working prototypes or plausible equipment, [[spoiler:not to mention the Eastwinde Device, a machine that causes earthquakes]]. It gets full-blown Military Sci-Fi with the ''Contact'' expasion, where aliens show up.

** The third game goes full blown TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, into an alternate timeline where China and Iran, have formed CSAT, a coalition similar to the old Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which not only rivals NATO, the European Union and the US, both military and economically, but it has actually forced them to a new pseudo cold war in which the West is all but stated being unable to win if it goes hot.

** You'll have to do your best imitating RealLife military tactics to win the game, and no one ever says their jobs are easy. ''ARMA 3'' takes it up a notch with its '''tutorials'''[[note]]officially "Showcases"[[/note]] oftentimes being insane one-man commando missions, such as the Night showcase... where you're tasked with single-handedly causing as much havoc (specifically "going loud") and building destruction as possible all by your lonesome self ''without nightvision goggles''.
** Picking up enough UrbanWarfare experience in the third game will make you realize that is not so much your shooting but your movements patterns and habits that will help you get through. A skill that is not taught anywhere in the game. So you better have somewhere to learn how to check corners, cover angles, which windows you should be careful of and so on, otherwise you're gonna be seeing that "You died" screen pretty often.

* OldSoldier: Santiago, the titual protagonist of the ''Old Man'' scenario, an experience ex-legionnaire.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: In ''[=ArmA=] II'', one of the British soldiers pronounces the letter "Z" as "Zee" instead of "Zed" as Britons usually do it.
* OrphanedSeries: The first ''ARMA'' game (a.k.a. ''Armed Assault'') eventually became this when BIS decided not to create any more official content for it and moved on to produce a more polished and improved sequel. Many fans and reviewers felt that this was fairly justified, since the game was still too much like the original ''OFP'', despite implementing several new features and technical improvements[[note]]the CEO later admitted that ''Armed Assault'' was essentially itself an attempt to put out ''something'' within budget and ''on time'', and ''not'' a labor of love[[/note]]. The fact that some of the new stuff was often pretty buggy to begin with and not always well thought out (particularly the implementation of actual tall grass for stealth and the oft overcompetent enemy AI) all added to the game prematurely fading in popularity and not gaining as big a modder base as ''OFP'' or ''ARMA II''. The sequel was also launched less than two years after ''AA'', so most of the fanbase made the hop to ''ARMA II'' fairly quickly. On the other hand, given how buggy ''ARMA II'' was on release (and still is to some extent), the problems are not completely endemic to ''Armed Assault''.

* PresentDay: ''ARMA: Combat Operations'' was released in late 2006 and set in mid-2006.

** Sergeant Conway, the protagonist of the tutorial mini-campaign ''Prologue' is seen at various points during the main campaign. This example gets weird when consider that Prologue was added ''after'' the game's launch in a later patch, and Kerry, Arma 3's protagonist, also has some cameos in the mini-campaign.

* ProductPlacement: The MX series rifles in Arma 3 are designed and modelled by CMMG Inc themselves, based on a real prototype weapon they made. There is even an obvious CMMG brand labels on them that are normally [[AKA47 filed off on most other weapons]].

* {{Qurac}}: Takistan in ''ARMA II : Operation Arrowhead'', a generic middle-eastern nation set as a mix between Iraq -- as it is invaded by the US trying to topple the authoritarian regime with [=WMDs=] -- with Afghanistan, mostly on the geography and local population.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Originally ''ARMA 3'' was supposed to be set in Greece involving Iran, but after some of the studio's developers were arrested and jailed while on holiday in Greece, the setting was changed to a fictional country and the Iranians replaced with CSAT.
* RealTimeStrategy: Not only is there at least one ''Arma 2'' mod that allows this, but the ''[[GameMaster Zeus]]'' DLC for ''Arma 3'' was confirmed to support "''Zeus vs. Zeus''", and the basic Zeus system already involves a Resources bar that can regenerate at different rates if at all, and objects (characters, vehicles, modules, etc.) costing a certain amount of Resources to place.

** And of course, Altis and Stratis from ''Arma 3'' are - despite being former British Greek colonies that just had a bloody civil strive and have to be supervised by British and American peacekeepers and are invaded by a Near Eastern power - [[SarcasmMode are in no way related to]] UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}} or UsefulNotes/NorthCyprus.[[note]]Geographically they're actually modeled on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnos Lemnos]] -- which was outright called Limnos -- and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agios_Efstratios Agios Efstratios]], but the former underwent a name change to Altis -- and the CEO made sure to emphasize that the islands were ''not'' to scale.[[/note]]

** The description for any [=M16A4=] with an attached M203 in ''Arma 2'' reads "Assault rifle with grenade ''luncher''".
** There is also the description of the [=M60E4=] in ''Arma 2'', which lists it as a "Medium ''machie'' gun"
** There's also multiple typos in some of the scripting commands and config parameters under the hood, such as ''Arma 2'' having at one point "''[[=Incoming=]Miss'''lie'''[=DetectionSystem=]]''".
*** The scripting command "setDammage" existed for ''years'', from ''OFP'' all the way through ''Arma 3''. When they finally corrected it well after the release of ''Arma 3'', they added the correct spelling as an ''alternative'' rather than replacing the original typo because deprecating the incorrect spelling would have broken thousands of user-created missions.
* RunningGag: The PlayerCharacter of the Steel Pegasus campaign, Corporal Barklem, constantly have to put up with his superiors calling him with wrong names like Barkley, Barker, and Barlem.

** Livonia in ''Contact'' has borders with Russia[[note]]Specifically Kaliningrad Oblast[[/note]] using Polish as the official language. The way on how they recently joined NATO and are a stepping-stone for a Russian invasion of NATO makes them a very clear stand-in for Baltic countries and Poland. The LDF even uses the "Promet" rifle, based on the Polish "MSBS Grot B" model adopted as Poland's service rifle in 2018.
* SceneryPorn: '''God yes'''. While earlier entries of the series weren't the prettiest on the graphics side of business (on account of the maps being so damn big), they were always massive, richly detailed and thoughtfully designed, that presented a large variety of enviroments and situations. Things got progresively better, bigger and prettier when the advent of more powerful hardware meant that the size of the map was no longer an obstacle for textures and details. Perfectly exemplified in the aptly named Arma III '''Apex''' expansion, which featured Tanoa (called "the crown jewel of the Arma series" in the achievements). A massive map consisting of a chain of tropical south pacific island surrounding a mainland which on release was widely hailed as the best in the series.
** On June 22nd, 2017, Malden 2035 was released for free, a remake of one of the original game's islands (the eponymous Malden). Not only does it look amazing, but it was also praised for being an excellent design for infantry and light armor fighting.
** It should be noted that the Community Upgrade Project ([=CUP=] for short) ported all of the maps from the series (that is Arma I and II, ''plus all of Videogame/OperationFlashpoint and its expansions'') to be playable in the third game, with top quality. This add on is a must have for almost all forms of online play, and practically makes every type of terrain on earth playable (mountains, jungles, deserts, oceans, underwater, etc.).

** In-Universe, this is somewhat the case with the [=FIA=] and Syndikat, who noticeably use older, simpler and cheaper weapons in general. This is perfectly justified given they're respectively a resistance group and a criminal/terrorist organization. That said, Syndikat also has access to prototypes for the AK-12 alongside older [=AKMs=] and the like - they don't, however, have any of the other weapons that were supposed to be based on the AK-12, like the AKU-12 carbine or RPK-12 machine gun, both of which only became playable with the arrival of proper Russian special forces in a later DLC.
* SchmuckBait: Averted in ''Contact''. When Rudwell finds a glowing root in the area cordoned off by the LDF, he radios Stype to ask "Okay, now what?" When Stype suggests he "get a sample, or some shit," Rudwell replies "You can fuck ''right'' off if you think I'm touching that!"
* SelfDeprecation: ''ARMA 3'' features a corrupt arms company that cares more about profit than integrity and held no real allegiance to both NATO and CSAT, only seeking to enrich themselves from the proxy conflicts by selling deadly weapons to both sides. The company's name? ''Bohemia Interactive Industries''.

** In the ''ARMA II Private Military Company'' DLC, Reynolds pulls out a grenade launcher and says, [[Film/{{Inception}} "You mustn't be afraid to think a little bigger, boys."]]
** The ''Arma 3'' main menu theme music is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9FIl924vO4 a remix/remake of the original Operation Flashpoint theme music]].
** While the initial loading screen of the first mission in ''Arma 3''[='=]s "''Prologue''" mini-campaign is an obvious adaptation of ''Arma 3''[='=]s own load-up sequence, there are subtler references such as the split-second line "''Loading Poseidon Core''"[[note]]the original name for the Real Virtuality engine used in the first OFP was Poseidon[[/note]] and the concluding "''Launching [[RedundantDepartmentOfRedundancy Virtual Real Virtuality 4]]''"[[note]]Arma 3's engine is officially Real Virtuality 4[[/note]].
** A loading screen for the island of Tanoa in ''Arma 3 Apex'' mentions [[Film/{{Predator}} native men going missing in the jungle during hot summers]]. To make it worse, sometimes when deep in the jungle, you'll hear a familiar cackling sound.

* ShooOutTheClowns: As noted in MildlyMilitary, the game starts fairly lighthearted, with several jokes, banter and, overall, things are ok and relaxed. Sgt. Adams in particular seems like a very nice guy to have as a NCO and keeps makling light of the situation. [[spoiler:Once shit hits the fan, all humour goes to hell and Adams is one of the first ones to die onscreen.]]
* SightedGunsAreLowTech: Like its predecessor, ''ARMA'' avert this to hell and back: unless you've just spawned and haven't so much as moved, firing without lining up the sights means you're spraying and praying. That being said, scopes and collimators are more common than not, so you don't have to rely solely on the iron sights. ''Operation Arrowhead'' introduced the ability to sight along backup sights on some scopes, and ''III'' allows you to switch optics on the fly.
* SimulationGame: It's a bad idea to approach this game series as [[FirstPersonShooter just another shooter]]; rather, it should be viewed as what ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is to Franchise/{{LEGO}}s, or the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' version of an FPS. As the official video guides of the third game puts it: "if you can do it in RealLife military, you can probably do it in Arma". Just the vanilla games allow you to create and experience almost any kind of combat situation, in land, sea and air, as an infantryman, vehicle pilot, etc. All in a way that most approaches the real life function of whatever it is you're playing as. Meaning that imitating real life is usually the most likely way to succeed.
* SniperScopeSway: Dear god... Long story short, there's a shitload of it. The good news is that there are so many factors in it that you can always do something to mitigate it: change stances, rest your weapon against something, deploy a bipod if you have one, move slowly, equip lighter weapons, use less attachements, and a million other little trade secrets.
* SnipingMission: Averted in the campaign. There are no missions exclusively for sniping and if you do need an ocassional long distance target taken out, you have a marksman in your squad, precisely for that task. You can browse the workshop however to find hundreds of player-made sniping scenarios and missions that range from amazing to mediocre. Also, there are several shooting range competitions with many weapons, among them, sniper rifles.

* SpannerInTheWorks: At the begining of the third game peace talks are underway to ensure lasting peace between the AAF and the FIA, so that NATO can finally end the intervention. Then an AAF patrol guns down unarmed civilians, the FIA retaliates by ambushing a convoy, and the AAF proceeds to their standard KickTheDog procedure by shooting ''supposed'' FIA soldiers in the capital city and detaining half the population for interrogation, basically telling NATO to shove the peace treaty up their asses. It's unclear how much of it was intentional or not, since everything regarding [[spoiler:Miller's activities]] in the early game is [[AmbiguousSituation really fishy]]. But in the third act you can hear soldiers complaining how the destroyed radar station is slowing the invasion down and screwed up their intel. [[spoiler:Thing is, Miller ordered that facility be destroyed on the excuse of denying it to the enemy. But we never see the enemy hampered by its loss, so his motives to do so remain suspect at best.]]
* SpiritualSuccessor: The first Arma was a sucessor to ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', as Bohemia and Codemasters had a falling out, Codemaster went to make ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]], but BI kept the ''Operation Flashpoint'' engine, and upgraded to to their new ARMA series.
* SprintMeter: ''Arma III'' adds one. Its maximum size is dependent on how much the infantryman is carrying, with heavier loads resulting in a smaller bar than lighter loads. Different actions deplete the bar at different rates: sprinting and climbing up steep hills will deplete it quickly, walking at a jog will deplete it slowly, and standing or sitting still will restore it quickly. The primary consideration is that depleting your stamina will leave you winded, gasping for breath and that in turn will [[SniperScopeSway wreck attempts at fine aiming]] until you can get your breathing back under control.
* TheStoic: In ''Arma 2'', all characters in-game show no emotions (no eyebrow movement) at all, which is especially noticeable when they are supposed to be smiling, laughing, crying, etc.
* SurveillanceDrone: In ''Arma 2: Combined Operations'' there are three drones available, four with the addition of ''Private Military Company''. This is extended in ''Arma 3'' with [[TheTurretMaster automated turrets]], the unarmed quadrotor UAV, a UGV called the Stomper and the fixed-wing Greyhawk UAV, both of which have both armed and unarmed versions.

* SyntheticPlague: The ''Old Man'' DLC introduces [[spoiler: the Atrox strain, a CSAT-engineered, variant of malaria that can be targeted at specific human genotypes. It is "harmless" to non-targeted genotypes, and afflicted hosts can be quickly treated by conventional anti-malaria medication. For those that fall within the strain's scope however, only specific vaccines - created by CSAT scientists - are able to cure the disease. The prime use of the strain is fabricate crises that favour CSAT intervention. Where others have failed to treat the infected, CSAT doctors - acting under the pretence of providing humanitarian aid, appear as the only "saviours" who are able to cure the super-strain with their special vaccines.]]

** The decidedly incompetent and constantly dog kicking depiction of Altis Armed Forces in the campaign may have something to do with the creative director and environmental lead having spent four months in Greek jail after being accused of espionage.

** Subverted from ''Operation Arrowhead'' onwards: vehicles don't have a health bar but rather every component of the vehicle has a status indicator that shows the damage of that specific part, the amount of them depending on the vehicle in question (cars have hull, wheel and engine, tanks have right track, left track, turret, sensors, etc.) This means that despite the armor (that can shrug off ''a lot'' of damage and protect the crew), tanks are not an invincible gamebreaker, an AT soldier can disable its turret or knock off the main gun, while AT mines can blow up the tracks immobilizing it in an inconvinient location or away from the battlefield.

** In III, the general feeling among the Americans towards the AAF seems to be "Why the hell are we helping these assholes?". Before shit hits the fan NATO is supposedly on a peace-keeping force, yet the AAF seems intent on doing its best to brutalize the local population, just because they can. Sargeant Adams and Conway, especially, make no attempt to hide their contempt for their incompetence and constant bravado.
** The ''Bootcamp'' mini-campaign reveals that Adams had been hating on the AAF for about a year by Drawdown, and not without good reason, either.
** The Syndikat and Viper in Apex aren't even attempting to hide their dislike of each other. They even turn on each other at times when NATO forces aren't looking.
* TemptingFate: The first Arma 3 campaign mission "''Drawdown''" begins with the NATO [=NPCs=] that Cpl. Kerry encounters sounding rather derogatory about the prowess of the indigenous military, the Altian Armed Forces, with multiple references to them as "''Greenbacks''" and Sgt. Adams being particularly negative even when they're within possible earshot. Problem is, the AAF aren't going to wait for NATO to leave and are all too happy to ''push'' 'em out... and very early into the second mission [[spoiler:Adams trips a land mine -- quite possibly [[KarmicDeath planted by]] the AAF -- forcing Kerry to hike it to the rendezvous point solo after Adams' death]].

** The devs confirmed that their helicopter sim ''Take On Helicopters'' takes place in the Armaverse as well, with one of the characters having been a combat pilot around the time of ''Operation Arrowhead'', while Vrana Corp and [[PrivateMilitaryContractors ION]] makes cameo appearances; notably, ''Take On Helicopters'' implies by [[spoiler:Brian Frost]]'s return that [[spoiler:his killing of Dixon, ambushing the UN investigators and participating in the cover up is the canonical ending of ''Private Military Company'']].

** EnemyExchangeProgram is in full force and you can borrow any enemy equipment if you're out of your own or running low on it, save for their actual uniforms (it is a war crime, after all). The second act of ''Arma 3''[='=]s campaign encourages this, where CSAT weapons are more powerful and enemy depots, outposts and other positions are the best way to secure high-end gear like thermal optics, vests, suppressors, long range scopes and weapons, etc. Just be careful if you're playing multiplayer, as making the same sound as enemy weapons can lead to [[TeamKiller friendly fire]] or at least wasting time sorting things out.

* VirtualTrainingSimulation: It was added to Arma 3, as part of the Bootcamp Update, in order to help newbies learn about various parts of gameplay such as material penetration. It comes in three flavors: an actual tutorial, with objectives, instructions and explanations on the how and why of everything; a [[VirtualPaperdoll Virtual Arsenal]] that allows you to see and test every possible loadout combination and vehicle available (with detailed information on weapons and gear specifications); and the ability to load the virtual space into the level editor like any other map.

** The "firing from vehicles" Showcase shows NATO clearing a populated town from guerrilas and rescuing two kidnapped pilots. Once the town is cleared and the pilots are rescued and only the civilian population remains, [[spoiler:the AAF razes the town with an artillery attack, just because.]]

** The Kozlice is a 12 gauge double-barrel shotgun introduced in ''ARMA III'''s ''Contact'' DLC that comes with a sawn-off version. ''Except this isn't VideoGame/Doom.'' The Kozlice is, more specifically, an over-under hunting shotgun that has a very short effective range of roughly 150 meters, loads a munition considered quite uncommon in modern warfare (especially seeing the only other shotgun uses a magazine, not loose shells), and doesn't accept attachments. That it's only used by civilian hunters and looters in the ''First Contact'' campaign says a lot.

* BottleEpisode: The Laws Of War campaign takes place exclusively in the town of Oreokastro and its countryside, showing chronically through playable flashbacks the different time periods from the cheerful pre-war peace time, to its ruined, mine-infested post-war present.

* FairWeatherFriend: CSAT is very clearly not in Altis out of the goodness of their hearts. Though they assist the AAF a handful of times, they ultimately leave the AAF out to hang when NATO invades Altis during ''The East Wind'' campaign, falling back to a [[spoiler:supposedly empty region]] before ultimately forcing the AAF's remnants to fight a last stand just so they can hold a better seat in postwar negotiations. [[spoiler:CSAT is really on Altis to test their experimental Eastwind Device, a tectonic weapon of mass destruction, and is merely using the AAF as a meat shield to buy more time for their operation.]]

* LandMineGoesClick: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by [[spoiler:Adams' death]] in ''III''. The mine goes "beep" when stepped on . . . and then explodes ''instantly'' with no chance of survival.

* PoliceAreUseless: The Gendarmerie of Tanoa in the ''Apex Protocol'' expansion. They only appear in one mission. They are severely under-equipped (their primary weapon being the Heckler and Koch [=MP5K=]), so they don't stand much of a chance against Syndikat, who use [=AKs=] and M249s. Their weaknesses are justified, because Tanoa recently suffered from a natural disaster [[spoiler:and Syndikat have recently been recieving arms and funding from CSAT, as well as support from CSAT's elite Viper unit]].

** Subverted from''Operation Arrowhead'' onwards: vehicles don't have a health bar but rather every component of the vehicle has a status indicator that shows the damage of that specific part, the amount of them depending on the vehicle in question (cars have hull, wheel and engine, tanks have right track, left track, turret, sensors, etc.) This means that despite the armor (that can shrug off ''a lot'' of damage and protect the crew), tanks are not an invincible gamebreaker, an AT soldier can disable its turret or knock off the main gun, while AT mines can blow up the tracks immobilizing it in an inconvinient location or away from the battlefield.

** Averted in ''ARMA III'''s ''The East Wind'' campaign both in gameplay and plot. In the first act, the player is the survivor of a small decommissioned task force, while in the second, he's a full member of the local guerrillas. Not only half the missions in both acts consist of securing supplies such as weapons and fuel (as well as moving camps to avoid detection) but the armory is limited: there are only standard rifles and small calibers, small and weak optics and almost no AT or AA capabilities, no thermal binoculars, etc. Forcing you to scavenge weapons, attachments and ammo in raids and side missions. The third act is a little less so, but it's clear, in the briefings and debriefings, that the invasion is taking a heavy toll on the damaged western economy which limits the heavier elements available and command's willingness to expose them to combat, not to mention that the arrival of those elements to the theater of operations must wait until the landing zone is secured.

*** In the first chapter, Miller and his team openly admit to be special forces and performing clandestine operations in the country (as in, they're there illegally). While this is no secret to the survivors of the original task force, who are just low rank grunts, the Brits also make it clear that they're not telling them their real mission objectives, nor what exactly are they doing there, which makes the rest of the troops uneasy on their presence and the shady dealings with the local guerrillas, even though they have no choice but to work with them.
*** In the second chapter [[spoiler:when the task force is no more, and only Kerry remains alive,]] it is revealed that not only they have worked with the resistance before (as in when NATO and the AAF were allies) but that they're more in numbers and have been active longer than previously thought, their true motives still not established (the locals think they're there to help and Miller doesn't confirm nor deny this but it is implied from the start that it is not the case). Even then Kerry is not allowed to join them and is just subtly dumped with the guerrillas, still being kept in the dark. It culminates in the third and last chapter when Kerry finds out that [[spoiler:NATO doesn't have any British special forces team operating in the area, and doesn't even have any Captain Miller on record. So Kerry is accused of having deserted, and Miller and his team are not recognized as friendlies]]. All in all, the black ops come looking pretty badly here, with Miller in particular [[spoiler:having sociopathically sent the entire task force survivors to their deaths, and sacrificing the resistance high command to cover his tracks.]]

* EliteMooks: CSAT is this to the AAF in ''The East Wind'' campaign, as their soldiers are more well-trained and their equipment more advanced. When they are seen in the last mission of ''Survive'', the reaction of everyone is a MassOhCrap.
* EnemyMine: The final mission of the ''First Contact'' campaign has the stranded NATO troops fighting alongside [[spoiler:Russians against the TooDumbToLive LDF]].

** Not counting the bootcamp prequel mini-campaign, the AAF's first appearance sets the tone for what you can expect from them: massive incompetence (they forgot to bring a map on patrol, and now they are lost in the countryside), needless brutality (raiding a compound and killing five unarmed civilians on the mere suspicion they were FIA guerillas, without checking for evidence), and a severe overreliance on foreign assistance (calling for preoccupied American training instructors to assist, while barely bothering to secure the scene themselves).

** In some cases, even higher than in ''Operation Flashpoint'' (which is saying something). Of course, several mods exist to tweak these values. Most notably is the need for zeroing your aim even with Small arms and not just sniper rifles (I.E. Pistols have a zero of 50 meters, which means that if the target is beyond that, you'll have to compensate for bullet drop, ''with a pistol'').
* FactionCalculus: Similar to its predecessor, the games typically feature 3 factions in the gameplay, usually with different gear at their disposal. Although it is somewhat lessened due to the fact that the games use real factions and vehicles (even ''[=ArmA III=]'' Despite its futuristic setting, as most of the vehicles and weapons are just rebrandings or updates of existing ones)
** In ''[=ArmA II=]'' it went like this:
*** The US forces are Powerhouse, Russia and the CDF qualify as Balanced, and the [=ChDKZ=] are subversive. For Operation Arrowhead, US is again powerhouse, the Takistani military is Balanced, and the Insurgents are subversive.
** In ''[=ArmA III=]'' it is a bit muddier, as the three main factions (NATO, AAF, and CSAT) all have equal vehicle equivalents, but roughly speaking NATO is more of a Balanced Cannons (because of their better artillery), CSAT is Balanced Powerhouse (Arguably better helicopter gunships and [=AFVs=]), AAF is Balanced, and FIA is Subversive, although as stated this is a very loose interpretation and for the most part the factions are on equal footing compared to [=ArmA II=].
* FailedAttemptAtDrama: The first mission in the Apex Campaign works as a sort of ColdOpen to introduce the players to the new expansion gameplay and map (the mission description reads "the sun rises over the Horizon Islands") and to its credit, it works pretty well, [[FailedASpotCheck mostly]]. After taking down an isolated outpost you must trek a few hundred meters to the next objective through the countryside of the beautiful map, and the [[CueTheSun sun rises]] [[SceneryPorn over the beautiful landscape]] while [[NearVictoryFanfare the new version of the main theme slowly swells up]] creating a beautiful and breathtaking organic scene, all in-game with no need of cutscenes or interrupting the player experience. Except you're still in a warzone, deep in enemy territory with patrols and isolated tangos scattered all over the damn island, so chances are you'll be distracted focusing on sneaking through, or worse, you'll be so taken in by the moment than you may screw up and be spotted, [[RecordNeedleScratch cutting the moment short]] with a hail of gunfire heading your way or just plainly dropping dead with a bullet between the eyes.
* FairWeatherFriend:: It's obvious near the end, that CSAT is not in Altis out of the goodness of their hearts. At first they bail out the AAF a couple of times. but when NATO invades in force, they simply let the AAF take the brunt of the attack while they quietly defend and retreat to a northern [[spoiler:seemingly empty]] region. [[spoiler:Turns out they're developing an experimental new weapon in that region and the AAF has been essentially a meatshield to buy them time while they develop it and cover their tracks.]]
* FalseFlagOperation: [[spoiler:The final mission of the ''Black Gauntlet'' campaign for the ''Private Military Company'' DLC ends in this. The team discovers that the Takistani nuclears arms program was supported by China, the executives of Ion tell the team to disguise themselves as Insurgents and ambush the UN inspectors before they can publish the evidence.]]
* FasterThanLightTravel: Averted on a macroscopic scale in Contact. In the credits, scientists speculate how the aliens were able to arrive on earth so soon after the initial release of encoded neutrino messages by Exercise Electron. One theory states that the aliens had begun their journey hundreds of thousands of years ago, and were able to time their arrival for just after the neutrinos began to be released by the root network. A second theory, based on the idea of neutrino time travel, speculates that the aliens were acting in response to acausal information - that the neutrinos were traveling backwards in time from the moment of their release and so reached the alien homeworld prior to being sent. Either way, the aliens themselves were restricted to light speed when traveling.
* AFatherToHisMen: Brian Frost from the ''British Armed Forces'' and ''Private Military Company'' [=DLC=] expansions says that the troops he was commanding were like sons to him.
* {{Fauxrrari}}: The British Armed Forces in ''Operation Arrowhead'' get the "offroad" vehicle, a ''Hand Over Offender''. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Totally not]] a ''Land Rover Defender''.
* FictionalFlag: The game is usually set in fictional nations and conflicts, and has flags to accompany those fictional factions:
** ''[=ArmA=]: Armed Assault'' - the flag of the Kingdom of Sahrani ("South Sahrani") features a vertical Triband with the country's coat of arms in the middle, an grifon circled by a laurel wreath; "North Sahrani" (the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Democratic Republic of Sahrani]]) has a flag divided between a diagonal line from the bottom right side, with black on the left and orange on the right, with the country's crest in the middle, a socialist star circled by weat and cogs.
** ''Arma 2'' (and its SpinOff ''VideoGame/DayZ'') set in the nation of [[{{Ruritania}} Chernarus]] features a complex flag, its all green, with a big yellow star circled by smaller stars in the canton, and in the bottom half features divergent white stripes; the country's military (The Chernarus Defense Forces) have a simple horizontal bands, yellow at the top and green at the bottom. The [=ChDKZ=] rebels have a horizontal tricolor of green, black and red with a red star in the middle; and the indepedent NAPA guerrilas have a flag with a black smaller hoist and green fly, with crossed swords where the colors meet.
** ''Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead'' shifts the setting to [[{{Qurac}} Takistan]]. The country (and their army) have an horizontal tricolour of white, black and green, with a stylized star-and-crescent; the Takistani Rebels have a flag with a black smaller hoist and green fly divided by a serrated line, while Takistani Militia has asimple black flag with a star-and-crescent.
** ''Arma 3'': The Republic of Altis and Stratis is a green flag with a yellow isosceles triangle superimposed on the larger white-edged black triangle, both based on the hoist-side, pointed toward the fly-side. The Altis Armed Forces (AAF) have a flag with the Altis flag in the canton, and the coat-of-arms of the military (a lion with two-swords below it) in the center; the rebel FIA faction use a flag similar to Altis', but with cyan blue and a lion in the host side. The CSAT faction uses a red flag with [[HighTechHexagons six black hexagons in the form of a larger hexagon]].
** ''Arma 3: Apex'': The flag of Tanoa is a blue field with the Southern Cross in the canton and a green, white and yellow rays coming from the bottom left.
** ''Arma 3: Contact'': The nation of Livonia has a blue, white and yellow triband with the country's coat-of-arms in the middle, a white stag inside a blue shield. The Livonian Defense Forces (LDF) have a blue field with said coat on arms in the middle, surrounded by laurelk wraths, two rifles and the motto "Si?a i Czujno??" ("Strength and Vigilance") on the bottom.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Perceptive players may notice several discrepancies in the first act of the campaign that may be weird but are quickly overshadow by events of greater/more immediate importance (survival being the main concern of the player at the time) but at the end of the campaign make perfect sense in hindsight. The first mission however, contains several clues (very subtle ones, to the point that [[RewatchBonus it may require a second playthrough to notice]]) that something major is going down behind the scenes, such as [[spoiler:the AAF attacking minutes after an unknown NATO force lands on an already decommissioned base, or that tremors start just after CSAT presence is spotted on the island]].
** In ''Contact'' it was discussed in an early briefing that the Russians may invade Livonia and most of the plan was for such defense with the US forces acting as the stand-in for invading Russians. [[spoiler:Later on they do invade Livonia but for [[EarthShaterringKaboom a very good reason]] with the stranded US soldiers instead having to fight for the Russians instead of helping the LDF. Of course in the previous 2 missions you can find Russians doing exactly what the stranded US troops are doing, except [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill they are much less]] [[StuffBlowingUp subtle about it]].]]

** In one of the few constants present in almost all games and gamemodes, choosing loadouts is usually up to every player who must balance between protection, firepower or mobility, with the defining factor ideally being his role in the team and his objectives in the mission.
* FriendlySniper: Lt. James in the third game, Miller's [[TheLancer right hand man]] is quite friendly with you and the Task Force survivors, and uses his signature [[CoolGuns Mk14 EBR]], a Marksman rifle. Although he uses combat optics rather than a sniper scope, he still fulfills the role. [[spoiler:Unless you see Miller as the bad guy, which means he's TheDragon.]]
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: NATO '''really''' doesn't like the AAF as allies given their brutality, incompetence and overly inflated ego, and CSAT is only backing them up to [[spoiler:develop their new weapon safely. Once it is completed, they don't even doubt for a second in abandoning the island and leaving their "allies" to deal with NATO]]. Predictably without the support of either, they surrender instantly.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: In 2035 CSAT is a coalition of governments comprised of China, Iran, and several smaller countries form northern and lower Asia
* FutureCopter: Arma 3 is full of those, with the ''UH-80 Ghost Hawk'' and ''AH-99 Blackfoot'' looking the most futuristic. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] because all them are based on real-life prototypes. The only exception played straight with ''Apex'' exapansion's CSAT Pacific futuristic VTOL aircraft ''Y-32 Xi'an'', looking something straight out of a MilitaryScienceFiction setting.

** Has a very dedicated worldwide modding community that can already rival that of the original ''Operation Flashpoint'', and some mods are even direct descendants of ''Operation Flashpoint'' versions. Arma 3 takes this to the logical extreme: the CUP project is a group that worked (and still does), to port the entirety of the Arma series content (weapons, vehicles, gear, and maps) to Arma 3. That is, the entirety of the game sans campaigns, for players and modders to use. [[StartMyOwn And almost any country with a certain amount of players is likely making or already has made a mod with it's own army as a playable faction]].
** The by-far most famous and possibly most influential of all though is the ZombieApocalypse mod called ''VideoGame/DayZ''... it's about as realistic as a zombie-infested, fictional Eastern European country can get, single-handedly caused a spike in ''[=ArmA=] II'' sales, and its modder (a contractor who did mo-cap/MP mission design for Arma 3) was hired and made project lead of a standalone game version of the mod. Ironically, he initially kept his involvement in the project under wraps from his Bohemia Interactive co-workers, feeling that the subject matter was embarrassingly unlike what the company was known for.
** Brendan "[=PlayerUnknown=]" Greene created two mods, ''[=DayZ=]: Battle Royale'' for Arma 2: [=DayZ=] and ''[=PlayerUnknowns=] Battle Royale'' for Arma 3, and later created ''VideoGame/PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds'' as a standalone version of his ARMA mods.
** The Arma III community has notably produced Battle royale, King of the Hill (a team based deathmatch with weapon purchasing, unlock and exp system) and [=ExileMod=] (a multiplayer mod with crafting, survival and base building, zombies depending on the server).
* GasLeakCoverUp: In the second mission of the ''Contact'' scenario, the area around the old factory where some guided munitions went off-target during the training exercise the previous mission has been evacuated off all personnel not wearing hazardous environment gear, citing an old landfill the factory was built over which contained a lot of toxic nasty compounds which are now aerosolized by the explosion. But as Stype points out, that factory was built on the site of an old sawmill, not a landfill, so that's not likely the real story. [[spoiler:It is in fact a fabrication to keep people away from the alien artifact the explosion uncovered without blowing the whole thing wide open.]]

** Prime-Minister Torrez of the Democratic Republic of Sahrani (DSR), who orders the invasion of the Southern monarchy.

*** ''Spearhead 1944'' (2023): Set in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII during Operation Cobra, an American offensive against German positions in Normandy. Includes the U.S. Army, [[LaResistance the French Resistance]], UsefulNotes/NaziswithGnarlyWeapons, and a campaign following the events of Operation Cobra. So far the oldest setting in the entire series.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Boy, that 1.35m long .50 BMG rifle sure looks awesome, but I hope you feel comfy laying down, 'cause you ain't gonna be running around too much with 14kg worth of weapon weighting you down (and that's not counting the spare magazines; there's a reason why a soldier in TheSquad has an ammo-bearer role[[note]][[MoreDakka Portable machineguns]] for example don't use magazines, but ammo boxes, which are so big that vest can only carry one spare, with more magazines requiring a backpack, but carrying two extra mags already reduces your stamina significantly[[/note]])
** The Phalanx CIWS-based Praetorian 1C defense system in ''ARMA III'' is great for keeping anything hostile away from wherever it is placed but should a UAV hacker get too close to it, it becomes a living nightmare for the side it was allied with.
** The GPMG as noted above is another. While light machine guns are already heavy, these things are a step above them since they fire what are essentially sniper rifle rounds, powerful enough to punch through MRAP doors and attack helicopter's windscreen and hit whoever hiding behind them. While they are powerful and accurate, getting your sights on the enemy can be another matter unless you already find a good spot to put the bipod down. Chances are you won't be able to carry anything else if you have one of these weapons since even the ammo are ridiculously heavy.
** As mentioned before, light machine guns are useful for ripping enemies to shreds, but they're ''heavy'' despite being lmgs which aren't supposed to be heavy.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Any player that actually stops to think for a second. Given that the game is a military simulator rather than a straight-up shoot-'em-up, if the enemy is half competent and knows what they're doing, then they'll likely act in predictable patterns: flightpaths and [=LZs=], positions to hole up and/or fortify, troops disposition. And just standing and looking at them tells a lot: loadouts and vehicles used can tell where they're heading, their targets, what they're planning to do, etc. Running head first into the fray is usually a guaranteed bullet in the head, however, being patient, thinking and planning what you're going to do beyond [[AttackAttackAttack running, shooting, repeat if necessary]] will actually multiply effectiveness to a surprising degree.

** The Mk14 Classic from ''ARMA III'''s ''Contact'' DLC is a classic M14 rifle with a Picatinny rail mounted on top.
* TheBully: The Altis Armed Forces of Arma III in a nutshell. Their modus operandi is basically either A) [[KickTheDog attack the local population]] (guerrillas or not be damned) and then being bailed out by their NATO allies or B) Being bailed out of a sticky situation by NATO ''and then'' lashing out on the civilian population.

* CodeName: Squads are often automatically assigned a greek letter identification, with ''ARMA III'' allowing for different code name systems. In story, squads receive callsigns themselves, such as Razor Team, Howlite, etc. These callsigns slightly confused Cooper when told about what happened to "Red Square".

** The Kozlice 12 gauge over-under shotgun is a civilian hunting shotgun that only loads two shells at a time and has a very short effective range of 150 meters. The sawn-off version provides even less range. It also doesn't accept attachments or modifications. That it's only used by random civilian hunters and looters in campaigns is telling.
*** To some degree, all shotguns in the game have this apply as well, as they're only really meant for close-range combat, self-defense, or as a tool for mine-clearing, [[TruthInTelevision which is how they're used in actual modern warfare]]. However, the Promet SG's underbarrel shotgun is attached to a proper gun and accepts six-shell magazines, the ''Western Sahara'' Creator DLC's AA-40 accepts attachments and ''drum magazines'', and the ED-1 Mini UGV's Disruptor shotgun can be used both for mine-clearing and as a weapon with the ability to raise and orient itself. The Kozlice offers none of these traits, mind you.

* DangerRoomColdOpen: The ''Contact'' scenario for ARMA III begins {{In Medias Res}}, with a squad of NATO troopers engaged with Livonian forces[[note]]([[FiveSecondForeshadowing who are themselves part of NATO]])[[/note]] after losing their APC and instructed to proceed on-foot to disable some Livonian [[AttackDrone UGVs]]. The squad fights their way to the local control station, the drone specialist goes into the building and overrides the [=UGVs=], then gunfire from outside, and the specialist turns to find a Lavonian rifleman in the door with a gun trained on him. He makes a quip about them getting extra points for shooting them in the back, so the rifleman fires a couple of training rounds into the specialist's chest and says, "There, I shot you in the front." Cue the debriefing from the exercise.

** In the beginning of ''ARMA II'', the player controls an unnamed Chernarussian soldier. This is quickly revealed to be a dream of Cooper, the actual protagonist.
** In the prologue missions of ''ARMA III'' (which act as a tutorial for the most part) and some showcases you will play as several named characters with a specific role (marksman, machinegunner, scout) and rank. Most of these same characters return as supporting characters or cameos in the main campaign in which you play only as Corporal Ben Kerry, although since your interactions with [=NPCs=] is very limited in the main campaign, it's hard to notice.

** ''ARMA III'' has this, sort of: while the only desert terrain is Sefrou-Ramal from the ''Western Sahara'' Creator DLC, Altis has the Almyra salt flats, which are ''sort of'' desert-like and were more or less the closest thing to it until ''Western Sahara'''s release.

** Perfected even more since the time of ''OFP''. ''ARMA II'' makes it ''impossible'' to shoot while running, as your character will start a jogging animation after moving for a second with their arms being occupied - to shoot while moving, you must either aim down your weapon sights (limiting your character to walking speed like many shooter games) or hold the walk button so that your character can "hipfire"; even then, there's considerable weapon/crosshair bobbing, so you don't get a stable point of aim unless the character is stationary.

* DudeNotFunny: The Altis Armed Forces are not amused that NATO has them use CSAT targets in their firing drills. Adams claims it's all they have on hand, [[{{Troll}} though it's Sgt. Adams we're talking about here]]. Keep in mind that, at the time, CSAT and NATO are basically in a bidding war to secure an alliance with the AAF.

* AceCustom: two flavors:
** In universe, Lt. James uses a Mk. 14 EBR with a RCO (a combat) scope, and while the setup is hardly unique in gameplay terms (in fact, it's quite practical) no other {{Non Player Character}}s are seen using it in any official campaign, which makes it very distinctive. It's basically a marksman rifle with an assault rifle scope. Other units, both [=NPCs=] and enemies, use it with the proper long range sniper scope.
** In a weird cross between in universe and MetaGame,it is not unusual to see experienced players specialize in a particular role with their own, custom made variations on loadouts, weapons and accessories, especially if they're part of a unit or group that regularly plays with mods that allow multiple combinations. It takes deep knowledge of the game engine and the performance of all the equipment to do this well, but some seemingly nonsensical loadouts can prove to be very effective.
* AlienSpaceBats: Actual aliens in the ''Contact'' expansion show up to fight the NATO-backed Livonian Defense Forces and Russian Spetsnaz. In a meta sense, some fans saw the announcement of the new expansion as this. [[spoiler: It turns out these aren't actually the aliens themselves but their drones, see FasterThanLightTravel for why.]]
* AKA47: ''ARMA III'' has as few proper names of anything as possible, although interestingly enough, quite a few of those are officially described as being descendants or successors—or even a ripoff of the originals, in the case of some weapons such as the Zafir[[note]]specifically, accused of being a Chinese copy of the Negev[[/note]]. The ''Apex'' DLC zig-zags this with the local Syndikat criminal faction; the various [=AKs=] they use go by their regular names, while their sidearm, a Makarov PMM, is identified as the earlier PM, and the Mk 46 goes as the "LIM-85".
* AmbiguousSituation: ''III'''s ''Laws Of War'' DLC mission [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this: Inside an AAF-held town besieged by NATO and the FIA, [[AIIsACrapshoot an autonomous AAF drone vehicle goes haywire and guns down a car full of civilians]], necessitating the player to destroy it. Upon investigating the scene further, the player finds the operator's terminal, and realises that that the AAF operators have already been killed by a NATO artillery strike. The player then stumbles upon the corpse of an FIA guerilla holding a jammer. MissionControl at that point realises that it will now become impossible to conclusively prove who or what caused the drone to kill those civilians: the NATO strike killing its operators, the FIA soldier interfering with the signal, or the AAF operators themselves.
* ArtificialBrillance: In ''Arma III'', the AI is extraordinary. The AI may not be perfect 100% of the time, but most of the time, you can expect to get dropped a million times in a row by AI. And this is just the ''vanilla game.'' In the dlcs, AI are a LOT smarter and accurate. Don't believe us, give the dlcs a try.
** AI will utilize vehicles to the point they're pinpoint accurate with their shots.
** There are many mods that turn the AI into this, in fact, there are more mods that make AI units smarter, making engagements realistically difficult or absurdly easy depending how you've tweaked the settings of the mods you're using.
** Speaking of mods, most AI mods are compatible with each other, so it's possible to have absurdly smart AI in custom scenarios and even in multiplayer scenarios.
** The ''Jets'' dlc offers this via new anti-air defense systems, including radars and a CIWS Anti-Aircraft weapon that is heavily based off of the real-life Phalanx CIWS, and they're autonomous and can be controlled by UAV operators as well.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** Practically a staple of the series. The AI is ''abysmal''. Pathfinding is always an issue, and the AI often takes very... ''odd'' routes to waypoints. AI squadmates under your control rarely follow orders, stopping every 5 feet to pick their nose (or whatever they are doing). AT soldiers don't seem to have much awareness as to where you are, and will usually blow up a vehicle ''you are standing right next to and are trying to blow up with explosives''. They also get immensely confused in tight spaces, which is something of a leftover from Operation Flashpoint. In truth, the AI has evolved little with each engine change.
** ''ARMA II'' has problems with waypoint finding, and requires some tweaking for patrolling soldiers to acknowledge that their comrades are suddenly dying from ''your own sniper shots''.
** ''[=ArmA III=]'' is host to many of these issues, but it is far more noticeable in the ''Zeus'' game mode. What may have seemed like artificial brilliance as a soldier on the ground is now shattered and shown as the AI bugging out tremendously as you can now see them from overhead. Soldiers ''never'' follow Zeus' orders once they get locked into combat, and once they are locked in the only way to get them out is by having every enemy soldier die and having them sound the "all clear".
** Most UAV capable objects can be hacked if an enemy unit happens to sneak up to one unnoticed and hack into it. Most of these objects can defend themselves if the enemy unit isn't close enough, but if the unit happens to be at an object's blind spot, then there's nothing the object can do about it.
* AnachronicOrder: The Apex story begins {{In Medias Res}}. The first mission is chronologically the fourth, after which it jumps back to show HowWeGotHere, before the rest of the story picks up where it left off from the fifth mission onward.
* AnyoneCanDie: Almost every important character in ARMA III can die [[spoiler:especially if you go for the Miller ending.]]
* AttackDrone: ''ARMA III'' offers many opportunities for violent robotic mayhem in fixed-wing, rotorcraft and landborne flavours.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: It's more than possible to defeat some vehicles using just small arms; for example, a helicopter can be forced into a crash landing by shooting out either of its rotors. It's still way harder than it sounds since it depends heavily on weapon caliber[[note]]the MX SW and the Zafir in ''III'' are both [=LMGs=] but the former is 6.5mm and the later is 7.62mm, meaning only the latter can actually damage vital vehicle parts[[/note]] and amazing skill[[note]]aiming at a moving vehicle will force you to compensate not only for bullet drop but also bullet travel time, and the variable distance means you'll have to do it on the fly, after each single shot[[/note]]. Particularly with the case of helicopters since, while they're in flight, there's little to no point of reference in the background to calculate their current distance or flight speed.
** This is ''vital'' when going against tanks, primarily in Arma III. While it's a general rule to never engage tanks if you don't have to, sometimes engaging a tank is necessary. Knowing the best places to hit a tank with rockets and other useable explosives is the only way you can actually take out a tank.

** The Navid and the SPMG are '''medium''' machine guns. Even the bullets they fire are so huge and heavy that you can't carry a second spare bullet box without getting too encumbered to run, and that's if you have enough room for more than one box magazine.

In 2005, Czech game studio Bohemia Interactive Studios, developer of 2001's ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', had an internal falling-out with the game's publisher Codemasters, prompting a split wherein Codemasters took the legal rights to the ''Operation Flashpoint'' name, while BIS took the rights to the game's assets and Real Virtuality engine. Still wanting to develop a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Operation Flashpoint'', BIS proceeded to make that game, and called it ''Armed Assault'', later shortened to ''ARMA''[[note]]alternatively (and [[WordOfGod officially]]) ''Arma''[[/note]]—[[MeaningfulName Latin for "war"]].

''ARMA'' is well-regarded as one of the most realistic tactical shooter game franchises on the market today. Set on various intricately-detailed {{Ruritania}}s in PresentDay, NextSundayAD, and TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture time frames, most games in the ''ARMA'' series follow NATO military forces as they respond to (or get caught up in) threats and crises across the world, whether they be enemy nations, rebel paramilitaries, or rival peer-power alliances—and often, there's [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye more to the conflict than what's being told]]. The games are held high as well-researched, true-to-life, unrelentingly-realistic military simulators that [[ReferenceOverdosed often reference previous titles]] and can balance being [[AffectionateParody fairly]] [[PlayedForLaughs funny]] with addressing the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]]. So highly-regarded is ''ARMA'''s commitment to military realism that modified versions of the games are used by actual militaries for tactical and organizational training, titled ''Virtual Battlespace'' and developed by now-separate studio Bohemia Interactive Simulations.

*** ''Spearhead 1944'' Set in the

Please keep in mind that despite having started as a mod of the second installment of this series, the zombie survival game ([[TropeCodifier that practically codified the genre]]) ''VideoGame/DayZ'' is a game on its own and as such, tropes exclusive to it go on its own page. On the same note, ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' and [[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Codemasters' brief continuation of that series]] are separate works and have their own pages, so tropes exclusive to them must go in their corresponding pages.

Now has a Characters' Page that needs work.

* AKA47: ''ARMA 3'' has as few proper names of anything as possible, although interestingly enough, quite a few of those are officially described as being descendants or successors -- or even a ripoff, in the case of the Zafir[[note]]specifically, accused of being a Chinese copy of the Negev[[/note]] -- of the originals. The ''Apex'' DLC zig-zags this with the local Syndikat criminal faction; the various [=AKs=] they use go by their regular names, while their sidearm, a Makarov PMM, is identified as the earlier PM, and the Mk 46 goes as the "LIM-85".

* AttackDrone: ''Arma 3'' offers many opportunities for violent robotic mayhem in fixed-wing, rotorcraft and landborne flavours.

** The developer behind the ''Zeus'' DLC also is known to be a fanboy of the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter -- which made it into ''Arma 3'' despite its real-world cancellation, renamed the AH-99 Blackfoot.

** The Phalanx CIWS-based Praetorian 1C defense system in ''Arma 3'' is great for keeping anything hostile away from wherever it is placed but should a UAV hacker get too close to it, it becomes a living nightmare for the side it was allied with.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Any player that actually stops to think for a second. Given that the game is a military simulator rather than a straight up shoot 'em up FPS, if the enemy is half competent and knows what they're doing, then they'll likely act in predictable patterns: Flightpaths and [=LZs=], positions to hole up and/or fortify, troops disposition. And just standing and looking at them tells a lot: loadouts and vehicles used can tell where they're heading, their targets, what they're planning to do, etc. Running head first into the fray is usually a guaranteed bullet in the head, however, being patient, thinking and planning what you're going to do beyond [[AttackAttackAttack running, shooting, repeat if necessary]] will actually multiply effectiveness to a surprising degree.

* BeneathNotice: In a way. The protagonists of the Apex campaign are running cyber warfare operations in the South China Sea, and NATO is there for a politically-motivated humanitarian mission. They're completely unaware of [[spoiler:the Viper unit. CSAT elite forces specializing in toppling goverments and destabilizing nations. They used the Eastwind device to cause the tsunami and they were funding the Syndikat terrorists until they stole the device for ransom, which Viper and CTRG now fight to recover.]] Indeed, they're packing up and ready to leave by the time NATO learns about their existence, their mission all but accomplished. Interestingly, it is explicitly stated that [[spoiler:Viper]] doesn't give two shits about CTRG or NATO, or their operations in the area, and indeed, they only engage them when they stand in their way [[spoiler:of recovering the Eastwind device.]]

** The Navid and the SPMG are '''Medium''' machine guns. Even the bullets they fire are so huge and heavy that you can't carry a second spare bullet box without getting ''too encumbered to run and that's if you have enough room for more than one box magazine.''
** The ASP-1 Kir doesn't look particularly big or imposing (it's kinda goofy looking with its oversized barrel), but the bullet is so big and heavy, and it hits '''so hard''' that shipping crates become concealment rather than cover.

** In ''ARMA 3'', there is a tactical vest that reads "Greek police", while the OPFOR faction officer's revolver is [[AKA47 a Chiappa Rhino under the name Zubr]]... which is Czech for bison... although also Arabic slang for a phallus.
** Also, "arma" is both the Latin term for "weapon" and the in-universe codename for "armed assault".
* BittersweetEnding: Two out of the three possible Old Man endings
** Escape with Miller and let the CTRG have the cure: [[spoiler:CSAT's Bioweapon program is exposed to the world and they are forced to withdraw from Tanoa under international pressure, in addition they are under even more scrutiny than ever before. However, the CTRG didn't manage to contact someone with good knowledge of the disease like Dr Drábek fast enough, leading to many deaths due to the late arrival of the cure.]]
** Give the cure to Dr Drábek: [[spoiler:Dr Drábek managed to reproduce the cure quickly and allowed a global organization to distribute it to the sick in the region, saving many lives. However with Miller dead nobody knows the truth about the origin of the disease and allows to CSAT rebuild the destroyed facility and continue their bioweapon program.]]

* BoringButPractical: Marksman rifles in the third game. Normally in games, assault rifles are used in around 100 meters and "sniping" consists of shooting around twice that distance. In ''ARMA'', snipers are actually supposed to engage in distances of kilometers, and assault rifles have effective ranges of 200 - 500 meters[[note]]which is the distance of an average firefight in the game[[/note]]. Marksman rifles are made to close that gap between the two types of gun by being able to engage at up to 900 meters without losing too much effectiveness in close quarters. With hybrid sights (a scope with a collimator on top), a larger caliber and more stopping power, plus the ability to reliably engage long distance targets, make these kind of weapons an all around good choice, its only drawback being the magazine size, usually capping at 20 rounds, but it's not really significant to a skilled user.

** In the editor, the Chernarussian resistance (the "guerrillas" faction) have access to [[TankGoodness the T-34 tank]], an iconic Soviet design from the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]]. Certainly quite an antique to field in the early 21st century. [[labelnote: note]] Although [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34#Operators according to]] Website/TheOtherWiki, the T-34 was in the service of quite a few ''regular'' militaries as late as 1996. [[/labelnote]]
** Interestingly, while most of the weapons and vehicles in 3 are based in existing designs, the [=AAF=]'s assets is entirely based on equipment currently in use by different armies, however, by the time of the game's setting, they have become 2nd rate technology, which is normal for low cost armies to have.

* CivilWar: The basic {{backstory}} behind most installments is that you're a foreign soldier helping restore peace and some semblance of order in war-torn countries. Subverted in III when the civil war is over by the time the time the game starts, but it starts again when NATO is forcefully kicked out of the country.

* CodeName: Squads are often automatically assigned a greek letter identification, with [=ArmA=] 3 allowing for different code name systems. In story, squads receive callsigns themselves, such as Razor Team, Howlite, etc. These callsigns slightly confused Cooper when told about what happened to "Red Square".
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Averted to hell and back in the third game. There are no man made impenetrable structures nor materials, although it depends heavily on caliber and distance, and the cover does help in deviating the bullets and slowing them down, making them less lethal. A 5.56 will barely penetrate even thin metal sheet, and not really do much damage to the target behind it. [[{{BFG}} A 9.3 caliber machine gun]], on the other hand will make short work of most covers up to 400m, and in close range or point blank? you might as well flight or fight, [[MoreDakka cause you sure as hell can't hide from her]].

** 'Operation Flashpoint'', and ''ARMA'', both take place in [[CanonWelding the same]] [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted mildly fictional]] AlternateUniverse. So aside of the most meta elements like the soundtracks, elements like the ION PMC, Vrana Corp. and a lot of details can be spotted if you look closed enough: The cyrus, for example, was made in Chernaurus.
** The Malden 2035 map, is not just a remake of the VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint map, but mission briefings on Malden directly acknowledge the events of the game and what happened afterwards, explaining how the island ended within CSAT sphere of influence.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Averted all around. While the different sides may have ''equivalents'' (all have service rifles, main battle tanks, transport helicopters, trucks, etc) all their equipment, vehicles and even the individual gear of the soldiers will have different stats from one another, and some might be objectively better. Some sides in various games (the FIA, [=ChDKZ=], NAPA, Syndikat and Takistani Militia) are guerrilla groups armed with outdate or improvised equipment.

** The second game features Takistan, a mash-up of Iraq and Afghanistan, ruled under obvious Saddam Hussein expy Muhammed R. Aziz.
** Karzeghistan, a small oil-rich nation located south of Takistan. It appears only in the backstory (although the map "Shapur" is said to be located in the border) as a stand-in for Kuwait.

* CripplingOverspecialization: A couple of weapons in the third game fall squarely into this, being ''very'' situational at best:
** The SDAR 5.56x45 is a rifle that can fire specialized ammo in underwater firefights, but is useless on the surface, on the surface its supercavitating rounds have worse range than even most pistols and are a contender for having the worst stopping power in the game. It is alleviated somewhat by being able to use normal 5.56 magazines, becoming a regular (if weak) assault rifle, although it forces players to choose which ammo type should they prioritize in taking with them, making it this trope.
** The ASP-1 Kir is a sniper rifle made specifically for heavy armor penetration in total silence by using a big and heavy bullet fired at subsonic velocity. So while it is ''completely'' silent in the truest sense of the word, it also means that the effective range is reduced to 200 meters at best, and the zero calibration (the distance in which the bullet will hit the center of the scope) must be extremely precise. The bullet, being heavier, will only travel a very short distance after the zero distance, and traveling slowly means that to reach the zero it must travel in a very high arc. In other words being five meters short or long of the target means the bullet will miss it completely.[[note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWjKx2wlgKs&hd=1 this video]] explains the mechanics of the weapon and illustrates as why it fits squarely into this trope [[/note]]
** Some gamemodes, and mods like the wasteland or the epochmod tends to turn many if not most loadouts into this, especially if you take a lone wolf approach. To elaborate, unless you camp and scavenge your enemies constantly (a gamble, at best), you will be roaming both countryside and cities in order to survive. The problem is that a loadout for urban warfare such as submachine guns and assault rifles is mostly useless when engaging in the long range countryside, and the long range sniper rifles with low rate of fire are a death sentence in CQB. The safest bet is being part of a group or using a marksman rifle with hybrid sights. A very JackOfAllStats loadout if used properly.

** In the beginning ARMA II player controls an unnamed Chernarussian soldier. It is actually revealed to be a dream of Cooper, the actual protagonist.
** In the prologue missions of Arma 3 (which act as a tutorial for the most part) and some showcases you will play as several named characters with a specific role (marksman, machinegunner, scout) and rank. Most of these same characters return as supporting characters or cameos in the main campaign in which you play only as Corporal Kerry, although since your interactions with [=NPCs=] is very limited in the main campaign, it's hard to notice.
* DesertWarfare: The maps introduced in Arma 2's ''Operation Arrowhead'' are desert maps inspired on Iraqi and Afghan geogrpahy. South Sahrani in Arma 1 has a big desert in a section of the map (as well South Sahrani troops use desert-based camouflage) but it also has semi-arid plains and coniferous forests.
* DoomedByCanon: The Loyalist Forces in the Beyond Hope scenario. The Mission ends with a substantial success and in a positive note. However, we know from the Eastwind campaign, and as the title screen is quick to remind you, the war would last for a decade, with the Loyalist destroyed after five years and five more of guerrilla warfare in which the AAF will rule with an iron fist and the civilian population would take the brunt of the attack.

** Tweaked in ''ARMA 3'', where you can't sprint/run with a raised gun but you can do a "''combat pace''" jog with your weapon raised... not much faster than the walk and the most fatigue-building short of sprint, but the closest ever in the series to other shooters' "''hipfire''" movement speed.

** BI adopted a different approach in the third installment to avoid breaking the player base: basically every DLC is an update with many features (such as advanced flight model for ''Helicopters'' or bipods for ''Marksmen'') and the Premium content (actual new weapons and vehicles) is available only if the purchase is made, but you can share the same servers with players who ''do'' have it.

** Averted in the Arma 3 campaign both in gameplay and plot. In the first act, the player is the survivor of a small decommissioned task force, while in the second, he's a full member of the local guerrillas. Not only half the missions in both acts consist of securing supplies such as weapons and fuel (as well as moving camps to avoid detection) but the armory is limited: there are only standard rifles and small calibers, small and weak optics and almost no AT or AA capabilities, no thermal binoculars, etc. Forcing you to scavenge weapons, attachments and ammo in raids and side missions. The third act is a little less so, but it's clear, in the briefings and debriefings, that the invasion is taking a heavy toll on the damaged western economy which limits the heavier elements available and command's willingness to expose them to combat, not to mention that the arrival of those elements to the theater of operations must wait until the landing zone is secured.
** On the vehicle side of things, these need to be refueled, rearmed and repaired as necessary and none of those can be done without personnel and facilities (fuel trucks and stations, ammo trucks and boxes, engineers with toolkits and repair trucks). Also no HyperspaceArsenal. Meaning you'll be backtracking to base often.
* EarthquakeMachine: In Arma 3, [[spoiler:"the device" is implied to be one, and the Apex expansion confirms it, though it is never seen used as a weapon onscreen. It is eventually revealed that it is what caused the tsunami humanitarian crisis in Tanoa]].

** In ''Arma II'', the main protagonists are members of "Razor Team", a squad of the [[SemperFi Marine Force Recon]]. In the ''Operation Arrowhead'' campaign, some missions you play as Sergeant First Class Terry Graves, a [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo Delta Force]] operator, although the rest of the campaign also involves a normal Infantryman, an attack helicopter pilot and a tank commander.
** Averted in III:
*** In the first chapter, Miller and his team openly admit to be Special Forces and performing clandestine operations in the country (as in, they're there illegally). While this is no secret to the survivors of the original Task Force, who are just low rank grunts, the Brits also make it clear that they're not telling them their real mission objectives, nor what exactly are they doing there, which makes the rest of the troops uneasy on their presence and the shady dealings with the local guerrillas, even though they have no choice but to work with them.

** Played straighter in ''Apex'', where you play as a member of a NATO special forces team tasked with assisting the local government in ending the threat of the Syndikat. The DLC also introduces the "Vipers", a CSAT special forces group with high-tech gear sporting a decidedly ninja-esque look. [[spoiler: However, Miller appears in the DLC as well, and it's eventually revealed that the player characters are in the CTRG, the same unit Miller is in. The DLC also reveals that said unit [[CassandraTruth is indeed NATO special forces.]] This places the ''Apex'' NATO cast firmly within [[BlackAndGrayMorality the gray]] compared to the Vipers.]]
** In the ''Contact'' campaign, the main enemy force introduced is the "223rd Special Purpose Detachment" of the Russian Spetsnaz. [[spoiler:Except they're not actually against you; outside of incidental encounters prior to their reveal, the 223rd is entirely allied to NATO forces for the duration of the ''First Contact'' campaign, knowing the threat of the alien core's detonation.]]
** The CTRG return again in ''Old Man'', and despite returning to Tanoa, they're not the shade of grey they were there. [[spoiler:Group 14, to be specific, is deployed to the region to investigate "Atrox", the malaria super-strain unleashed there, and Miller serves as 'Santiago''s handler. Ultimately, CSAT is treated as the grey this time around, as Group 14 chooses to abandon the Horizon Islands after getting the Atrox counteragent. Admittedly, their reasoning is sound this time around; they only have a small sample of it, and they don't have the facilities needed for production, though the ending that follows the CTRG does have NATO return with full production of the counteragent, and combined with the evidence Santiago dug up, CSAT is left on the backfoot, though at the cost of substantial causalities before NATO's arrival.]]
* EliteMooks: CSAT is this to the AAF in the Arma 3 campaign, as their soldiers are more well-trained and their equipment more advanced. When they are seen in the last mission of ''Survive'', the reaction of everyone is a MassOhCrap.
* EnemyMine: The final mission of ''Contact'' has the stranded US troops fighting alongside [[spoiler:Russians against the TooDumbToLive LDF]].
* EvilBrit: In one of the endings to ARMA 3's campaign, [[spoiler:Miller threatens to murder Kerry. When CSAT invades, he says he'll help get him off the island. He doesn't.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In Arma 3's ''Laws of War'' mini-campaign, one of the flashbacks centers around what was supposedly a CSAT Viper team called in by the AAF to break the guerrillas' stronghold with a cluster bomb. A optional objective centers around a IDAP doctor who'd gone out in the fighting, requiring you to wait for a bit before he heads back to the church. If done, Nathan mentions the doctor was lucky given that they couldn't have delayed the strike just for him. [[spoiler:To add to the decision, the 'CSAT' team is implied at the end to actually have been CTRG Group 14, led by Miller. Yes, the same Miller who abandons Kerry in the main campaign and continues his amoral behaviour beyond that.]]
* EvilCounterpart: The CSAT's Viper in APEX is this to the NATO's CTRG, relatively speaking.

** Not counting the bootcamp prequel minicampaign, the AAF first appearance sets the tone for what you can expect from them: Massive incompetence (they forgot to bring a map on patrol, and now they are lost in the countryside), needless brutality (five unarmed civilians gunned down solely on suspicions of being guerrillas), and a bad habit of calling for foreign help when trouble arises (despite being in supposed enemy territory and with a man bleeding to death, they haven't even secured the perimeter nor call for medevac, but simply called the american instructor to come and pick them up).
** For contrast, the British special forces make a subtle yet impressive entrance. Arriving to the rendezvous point you see an armored patrol (armored vehicle with a mounted grenade launcher plus five or six men) disable and AAF corpses everywhere. Realizing that the Brits must be near, your teammates warns them that they're coming and to hold fire. Cue massive OhCrap when you're welcomed (not on the radio) ''and five heavily armed soldiers emerge from hiding right next to you''.

In 2005, Czech game studio Bohemia Interactive Studios, developer of 2001's ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', had an internal falling-out with the game's publisher Codemasters, prompting a split wherein Codemasters took the legal rights to the ''Operation Flashpoint'' name, while BIS took the rights to the game's assets and Real Virtuality engine. Still wanting to develop a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Operation Flashpoint'', BIS proceeded to make that game, and called it ''Armed Assault'', later shortened to ''ARMA''[[note]]alternatively ''ArmA'' or, [[WordOfGod officially]], ''Arma''[[/note]]—[[MeaningfulName Latin for "war"]].

[[caption-width-right:350:'''[[{{Tagline}} This Is War]]''' ]]

Czech game developer Bohemia Interactive Studios' SpiritualSuccessor to their successful and legendary ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' series. Unlike the original, these installments take place in PresentDay, NextSundayAD and TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture time frames, not the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. The basic premise and game design philosophy of making a well-researched, true-to-life and unrelentingly realistic simulation of everyday military life is still there, though, as is the practice of using various [[AffectionateParody fairly]] [[PlayedForLaughs funny]] (and ReferenceOverdosed) {{Ruritania}}s [[LawyerFriendlyCameo as the setting]] for the games' campaigns and missions.

The story behind the conception of ''ARMA'' was one of a painful birth: After finishing their work on ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'', the developer Bohemia Interactive Studio and publisher Codemasters had a major falling-out and split ways. BIS took the rights to the Real Virtuality engine, Codemasters got the rights to the name. BIS has since released three sequels based on this engine, ''ARMA: Armed Assault'' (''[[MarketBasedTitle Combined Operations]]'' in North America), ''ARMA II'', and ''ARMA III'', while Codemasters developed its own "official" sequel, ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]]''. Essentially, the BIS sequels closely resemble the original, except they have much better graphics and improved gameplay, while ''Dragon Rising'' [[GenreShift feels, well, different from the original]] ''Flashpoint'', and a lot of old veterans seem to think that it suffers from NewAndImproved Syndrome.

*** ''S.O.G. Prairie Fire'' (2021): Set in the Vietnam War, with focus on the MACV-SOG's operations in Indochina. Featuring the MACV, the [[UsefulNotes/VietnameseWithKalashnikovs Viet Cong]], and the armies of North and [[UsefulNotes/SouthVietnameseWithSkyraiders South Vietnam]]; the map "Cam Lao Nam", which loosely resembles the geography of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam combined; as well as a co-op campaign following the MACV-SOG's operation in the Ho Chi Minh trail and a brand new multiplayer mode "MIKE Force", a counter-insurgency [=PvE=] mode.

Please keep in mind that despite having started as a mod of the second installment of this series, the zombie survival game ([[TropeCodifier that practically codified the genre]]) ''VideoGame/DayZ'' is a game on its own and as such, tropes exclusive to it go on its own page. On the same note, ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' is a separate work and it has its own page, tropes exclusive to it must go in the corresponding page.

* DangerRoomColdOpen: The ''Contact'' scenario for ARMA III begins {{In Medias Res}}, with a squad of NATO troopers engaged with Livonian forces[[note]]([[FiveSecondForeshadowing who are themselves part of NATO]])[[/note]] after losing their APC and instructed to proceed on-foot to disable some Livonian [[AttackDrone UGVs]]. The squad fights their way to the local control station, the drone specialist goes into the building and overrides the [=UGVs=], then gunfire from outside, and the specialist turns to find a Lavonian rifleman in the door with a gun trained on him. He makes a quip about them getting extra points for shooting them in the back, so the rifleman fires a couple of training rounds into the specialist's chest and says, "There, I shot you in the front." Queue the debriefing from the exercise.

** The Navid and the SPMG are '''Medium''' machine guns. Even the bullets they fire are so huge and heavy that you can't carry a second spare bullet box without getting ''too encumbered to run.''

** ''Operation Arrowhead'' (release date June 29, 2010): A standalone expansion pack set in a new country, with new locations and a new campaign; it can be installed into the ''ARMA 2'' directory (or run with ''ARMA 2'' through Steam) to allow for a "Combined Operations" install where both games' content are accessible through the OA client. It is set in Takistan, and the plot is a blatant copy of the UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Basically, the dictator of Takistan is said to have nuclear weapons, so the US invades, occupies it, and has to fight an insurgency. It features the US Army (rather then US Marines from the base game), the Takistan Army, local Takistani militias and Insurgents, and United Nations peacekeepers (which is a slight reskin of the Chernarus Defense Forces from base game).

*** ''Old Man'': A free mod (released later in the game through an update) for the owners of ''Apex''. Set after the events of ''Apex Protocol'', the scenario follows Santiago, a Tanoan native and [[LegionOfLostSouls ex-legionnaire]] who returns back home to discover the origin of a mysterious malaria super-strain who is ravaging the country, and together with a familiar CTRG operative – attempts to avert a catastrophic CSAT power play on the island of Tanoa. Differently from the other official scenarios, ''Old World'' is a WideOpenSandbox campaign, with features such as fast-travel, buying and selling weapons, passing time and a full reputation system.

* AlienSpaceBats: Actual aliens in the ''Contact'' expansion show up to fight the NATO-backed Livonian Defense Forces and Russian Spetsnaz. In a meta sense, some fans saw the announcement of the new expansion as this.

** The SDAR 5.56x45 is a rifle that can fire specialized ammo in underwater firefights, but is useless on the surface, being lethal only if both fighters are underwater and in short range. It is alleviated somewhat by being able to use normal 5.56 magazines, becoming a regular (if weak) assault rifle, although it forces players to choose which ammo type should they prioritize in taking with them, making it this trope.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Definitely the case for ''First Contact'' DLC campaign. The LDF are [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]] who are motivated by misguided beliefs to prevent alien incursion on their country. And the Americans [[spoiler: and Russians]] who knows better are trying to stop them from destroying the alien core that would potentially led to the devastation of a large chunk of Europe ''at best'' and the entire Earth at worst. While the aliens are mostly keeping by themselves and only retaliates against NATO and LDF forces after the latter mistaking them to be hostile and opens fire.

* InstantDeathBullet: Averted - unless you get shot point-blank in the head. You can die very easily, in just a few shots, but you usually only get injured in certain parts of your body, which affects your overall combat abilities. Getting shot in the legs makes you unable to walk.

* MyNameIsNotDurwood: The PlayerCharacter of the Steel Pegasus campaign, Corporal Barklem, constantly have to put up with his superiors calling him with wrong names like Barkley, Barker, and Barlem.

** One of the factions included in ''Operation Arrowhead'' is the Czech [=601st=] Special Forces Group, and the third/final of the ''ARMA II'' [=DLCs=] is named "Army of the Czech Republic". Ironically though, it's noticeably ''the'' [[ObviousBeta least polished and lowest-effort]] of the three.

* TooDumbToLive: The LDF in ''Contact'' probably put the AAF to shame in this department. [[spoiler: So much so that the stranded NATO soldiers opted to join forces with ''the Russians'' in order to stop them from detonating a core that would potentially extinguish all life on earth.]]

* FutureCopter: Arma 3 is full of those, with the ''UH-80 Ghost Hawk'' and ''AH-99 Blackfoot'' looking the most futuristic. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] because all them are based [[AluminumChristmasTrees on real-life prototypes]]. The only exception played straight with ''Apex'' exapansion's CSAT Pacific futuristic VTOL aircraft ''Y-32 Xi'an'', looking something straight out of a MilitaryScienceFiction setting.

* MilitaryScienceFiction: Arma 3 has some elements of this: Most of the equipment is slightly futuristic, although mostly based in [[AluminumChristmasTrees working prototypes]] or plausible equipment, [[spoiler:not to mention the Eastwinde Device, a machine that causes earthquakes]]. It gets full-blown Military Sci-Fi with the ''Contact'' expasion, where aliens show up.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Although a lot of people were shocked and complained about Arma 3's "futuristic" setting, most of its equipment is actually in use already, or at the very least in prototype form. Even the Viper suits, which seem straight out of sci-fi, are [[http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/05/21/firms-pitch-exoskeletons-and-body-armor-for-socoms-iron-man-suit.html based on a prototype]].
** The MX series of assault rifles commonly used by the NATO of ARMA III are based on a concept design by CMMG, a Missouri-based gunsmith and firearms manufacturer.

** Thanks to various [[GameMod addons]], the games can include everything from [[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} Gauss Rifles]], [[RareGuns G11s]], and [[Film/{{Aliens}} Pulse Rifles]]. The basic list of the firearms already present in the vanilla version of the game [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/ArmA_II is also pretty extensive]]; a lot of the ''Arma 2'' list consisted of variants with attachments though (i.e. [=M16A4=], [=M16A4=] ACOG, [=M16A4=] [=M203=]), while the weapons list in ''Arma 3'' is smaller due to its mostly modular attachment system[[note]]with the notable exception of underbarrel grenade launcher variants[[/note]].

** In the editor, the Chernarussian resistance (the "guerrillas" faction) have access to [[TankGoodness the T-34 tank]], an iconic Soviet design from the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]]. Certainly quite an antique to field in the early 21st century. [[labelnote: note]] Although [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34#Operators according to]] Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the T-34 was in the service of quite a few ''regular'' militaries as late as 1996. [[/labelnote]]

* PoliceAreUseless: The Gendarmerie of Tanoa in the ''Apex Protocol'' expansion. They only appear in one mission. They are severely under-equipped (their primary weapon being the Heckler and Koch [=MP5K=]), so they don't stand much of a chance against Syndikat, who use [=AKs=] and M249s. Their weaknesses are justified, because Tanoa recently suffered from a natural disaster.