Updated: October 10, 2025
Okay. So, ArmA 3 remains the finest first person shooter and war simulator ever made, despite the fact it was released back in 2013. If you wanna do some serious military team work in the comfort of your home, you launch a server, and you and your friends embark on a Dynamic Recon Ops (DRO) mission. Automatically generated each time, this scenario offers an endless number of possible fighting situations. Sometimes you need to find and eliminate an HVT, sometimes clear an area, destroy a weapons cache, defend an area, and then some. The options are limitless. And always unpredictable and fun.
I've been playing various DRO missions for years now, and they have resulted in some rather spectacular articles. If you're interested, then you might want to check my Normandy report, my Alamo article or perhaps the Chernarus Winter story. All highlight the colorful nature of recon ops, each attempt similar and yet so vastly different from one another. Well, as it happens, my buddies and I just recently successfully finished another DRO adventure on Altis. Perhaps the most chaotic, hardest we've ever had. Now, perhaps most people would rather watch a clip than read an article about this (the video would take some two hours), but if you're inclined to gobble some words, then read on.
Objective
We were supposed to clear an area. A simple task. No expectation of heavy reinforcements or such. Expecting some random havoc, we chose a colorful array of weapons. I usually play as the commander and combat medic. My buddies like machine guns, or if pressed, they will carry some AT launchers on their back. Then, for good measure, I like to arm the remaining AI units with lots of ammo, lots of spare first aid kits, a satchel charge or two just in case there's something that needs blowing up, a toolkit in case something needs fixing, plus the usual assortment of rockets and support weapons.
We had ordinary 4x4 vehicles for transport, plus artillery (60mm mortars). We made progress into the combat zone, and very quickly, the things unraveled. First, there was a layer of fog over the battlefield, making any sort of long-range shooting hard. Second, the terrain was quite tricky, limiting the field of view.
Chaos
We also got fired upon first. The first half an hour of fighting turned out to be a morass. Slow, exhausting morass, with sporadic shooting. Extremely frustrating, as we often could not see where the fire was coming from. That meant a lot of crawling, and a lot of extra work for me as the medic.
Slowly but surely, we cleared a bunch of bunkers and made it half way through the area. I stumbled upon a dead enemy combatant with an Igla SAM launcher at his side. Perhaps it was a hunch, perhaps pure luck, I decided to strap the heavy round onto my back, even though it affected my mobility and aim. Lo and behold, not five minutes later, a Mi-24 showed up, firing. Maybe the mission decided to spawn the craft because I had found a suitable weapon, or maybe it was just part of the randomness formula.
Bounty
Whatever's the case, I managed not to die, obtained a lock, and shot the Igla. The Mi-24 was in a low-altitude hover, and it crashed without exploding! We realized we might have won ourselves an amazing gift. So we crawled toward the downed helicopter. We had to fight the crew, who had bailed out, and were firing at us. Then, with a toolkit in hand, we managed to repair some of the Mi-24 damage. Most of the indicators were still amber, but the Hind was flyable. We figured the mission could become really fun.
Lo and behold, we got ourselves a helo!
Greed
We fought for another quarter of an hour, trying to fend of the enemy infantry. Here and there, I called in our mortar squad, careful not to drop the rounds too close to our damaged but functional prize. Once the noise settled down a little, we decided to be adventurous. We would take off.
This proved to be an erroneous choice. Within just a few seconds, the Mi-24 experienced a second SAM hit, and it went down in a ball of fire. Both the pilot and myself (as a gunner) needed rescuing from the crash, plus a good dose of medical help from the remaining team. Luckily, we survived the engagement, but we had to continue on foot.
Rain, thunder, and two more helos
If we thought the worst part was behind us, we soon realized that the real mess had only just begun. To start us off, the DRO mission generator decided to add an extra objective. Then, two Mi-8 showed above the combat zone, dropping paratroops. We had no effective ways of shooting them down. Taunting us, one of the Hips decided to remain above us, the rear ramp machine gun showering us with leaden love. We finally managed to chase it off with some rigorous machine gun fire of our own.
Mortar rounds trying to stop an enemy wave. I only have a lowly pistol to defend myself at this point.
At this time, we had almost completely run out of ammunition. And our resupply depot was behind a thick belt of enemy troops. We had also ran out of HE mortar. Out of desperation, I asked for some smoke rounds, to at least add some confusion to the enemy troops. I found myself using the side weapon, trying to survive. To make things even worse, a UAZ-469, armed with a heavy machine fun, rolled into the battle, blasting. I took a screenshot of me lying severely injured, waiting for someone on my team to come by and patch my wounds.
Then, it started raining. Bad visibility became worse visibility. But ArmA 3 models the weather beautifully. You'd see a lightning flash, and several seconds later, there'd be a rumble of thunder. Good, accurate ambient sound. And the enemies still kept coming.
Once I've come about, I eventually managed to rearm myself at the resupply depot. The fighting remained so intense I had to do it twice! I had run out of my first stock of some ten 30-round clips, ran out of the second helping, and then filled my pockets with bullets a third time. Overall, I had fired some 800 rounds, probably the highest I've ever done in any engagement, plus about twenty 40mm grenades, plus about half a dozen hand grenades, plus some pistol ammo.
Rain, haze, thunder, and the enemy you can barely see.
The combat was so intense that we lost one of the team members. I couldn't get to them in time to do my medic role, and everyone else had run out of first aid kits. Whatever the scenario had generated, it maxed out our resources fully and completely. But two hours later, sweaty and exhausted, we were done.
With the rain getting thicker, and still a handful of enemy soldiers alive and hiding, we extracted on an Mi-8 of our own. It wasn't the cleanest of missions, but we were totally spent. It was time to go back to base. Once we regrouped, I checked the score. We had engaged a total of 126 enemy soldiers, plus three helicopters and a light vehicle. That's quite a lot for one casual recon ops. Ah, DRO. Fun, gritty fun.
Conclusion
I am not going to say that sitting comfortably behind a computer screen and fighting with your mouse and keyboard comes close to the real thing. But as far as pixel action goes, ArmA 3 demands your full dedication and concentration. You really have to be focused, work as a team, not try any overly Rambo maneuvers like taking off in a helicopter in the middle of a shooting match, cough cough, and be prepared for a long, slow, frustrating slog.
But at the end of the day, it's rewarding. The game challenges your senses, your ability to cooperate and communicate. Wifey tells me, from the side, my ArmA 3 session sound like a nonstop two-hour rant. It's enemy here, enemy there, call the artillery, medic, report status, swear words, where are you, and so on. You have to know where your mates are at all times, and you call out every single engagement. It's the only way to succeed, because ArmA 3 sure does not brook solo machoism. Anyway, if you want to play this fine simulation, make sure you set up a DRO session. It's the best way to enjoy some hard action. Well, there you go. If you read this piece, I hope you have half as much fun I had playing it. Until next time.
Cheers.