One of the most promising PC RTS titles to come along in a good while, Broken Arrow from Russian developer Steel Balalaika rekindles the spirit of 2007 RTS World In Conflict for an all-new generation of tactical gamers. From its contemporary setting to its focus on combined arms, supply lines and unit customisation, here’s how Broken Arrow redefines large-scale, real-time modern warfare tactics on PC.
A Modern Setting For A Modern RTS
Both Broken Arrow’s cinematic single-player campaign and its various game modes are entirely wrapped around its very modern setting. Depicting a traditional armed conflict between the United States and the Russian Federation in the present day, Broken Arrow allows players to engage with a wide range of conventional warfighting apparatus, including tanks, helicopters, aircraft, artillery, drones, and long-range missiles.
Broken Arrow’s choice of a modern war setting also somewhat predictably permeates its various maps and battlefields. Whether you’re waging war across rural expanses, urban areas that are thick with complex structures or sprawling harbours, Broken Arrow offers up a veritable smorgasbord of unique map types for its particular brand of modern war to be waged across. To be clear then, this isn’t your dad’s RTS, this is your RTS for the time that you presently live in, and while I don’t know if that’s especially scary or not (it is a little bit, I guess), Broken Arrow certainly manages to capture the current landscape of traditional warfare with aplomb.
Bringing Combined Arms To The Fore In An RTS Played At Scale
As part of Broken Arrow’s embrace of a modern theatre of war, combined arms is very much at the forefront of its tactical design. In essence, this means that as a battlefield commander, you have to be adept at weaving together different unit types to create tactical synergies across land, sea and air. Another aspect of Broken Arrow’s modern setting is the sheer scale at which its numerous battles and skirmishes play out. With over 300 authentically designed military units and technologies to choose from, resulting in greater than 1,500 different combinations of squad and grouping types and with six key roles broadly spread across each faction, there is no shortage of creative latitude for wannabe armchair generals to wage war on their unfortunate foes.
In-Depth Per Unit Customisation Allows You To Personalise Your War
Beyond all of these unit types and combinations, Broken Arrow invites players to tweak, adjust and customise entire armies, whole squads and even individual units to their liking. In practice, this means that you can swap out things like different firearms and weapons for your boots on the ground, assign different missile types to your helicopters and even specify the sort of armour packages you would like your tanks to use. Put simply, Broken Arrow is all about making the player feel entirely in control of every aspect of the battle, and the extent to which customisation plays a key role cannot be understated.
Managing Battlefield Resources Is All Part Of The Fun
Akin to World in Conflict, so many years before it, Broken Arrow also places a firm emphasis on resource management. In Broken Arrow, much like other RTS efforts, each unit has a very specific resource point value which the player must have to purchase and use them, while ‘recycling’ these units also allows a portion of the original unit value to be returned to your war chest. So far, so RTS 101 then.
Where Broken Arrow looks to change things up a bit, however, is in its upkeep system, which seeks to balance out power and cost. Essentially, this means that the more units you have deployed on the battlefield at any one time, the lower the income for your coffers will be and as such, is a good mechanic for encouraging digital generals to spend and deploy more frugally, rather than just spitting out hundreds of units into battle without any kind of cost attached.
Another key aspect of how Broken Arrow deals with resource management is through its rather neat logistics and supply systems. Not only do units need to be close to your supply vehicles to be topped off with ordnance or health, but those vehicles which carry the lifeblood of your war effort must also be manually transported to where they are needed, adding an extra layer of tactical consideration to the whole process. In the end, this helps to shift Broken Arrow away from the traditional RTS model of building a base, spamming units into existence and then marching all of it towards the other side of the map, and instead impresses upon the player the need for shrewd resource management, tactical decision making and the fostering of an effective risk appetite for war.
A Powerful Scenario Editor That Separates Broken Arrow From The Competition
One of the biggest aces that Broken Arrow has up its digital sleeves when compared to its genre peers is its comprehensive scenario editor. A powerful tool indeed, Broken Arrow’s scenario editor allows players to create entire story-driven scenarios and missions complete with dialogue and cutscenes. Better yet, developer Steel Balalaika has said that the tool will require absolutely zero code to be written, essentially making the barrier nice and low for just about anybody to jump in and create their own war scenarios.
Not only will Broken Arrow’s scenario editor use existing maps (this is not a map editor, to be clear), but the unit placements, objectives, triggers, cutscenes and more are all entirely dictated by the player. Better yet, not only can these scenarios be used across Broken Arrow’s competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes, but all of this player-generated content can be uploaded to the Steam Workshop for ease of discovery by other players. Going forward, it certainly looks like this hugely ambitious scenario editor will give Broken Arrow some substantial legs in the weeks, months and even years after release. Huzzah!
Broken Arrow stands as a bold and thoughtful evolution of the real-time strategy genre. With its emphasis on modern combined-arms tactics, in-depth unit customisation, and resource management systems that reward strategic thinking over brute force, it offers a fresh yet familiar experience for veterans and newcomers alike. Coupled with a robust scenario editor that empowers players to craft and share their own missions, Broken Arrow is built with longevity in mind, positioning itself as a dynamic and enduring platform for tactical creativity and strategic mastery for years to come.
