When comparing Arma 3 vs Company of Heroes 2, the Slant community recommends Arma 3 for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Arma 3 is ranked 47th while Company of Heroes 2 is ranked 51st. The most important reason people chose Arma 3 is:
ARMA 3 is built as a simulation-type game and features rather tactical gameplay with a slow pace. [The developers use real-life military weapons, equipment and vehicles](https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/125727-is-arma-3-authentic/). Even some of the environments in the game are virtually indistinguishable from their real-life counterpart. ARMA 3's gameplay also encompasses more than a regular first person shooter, as military tactics such as water attacks, giving orders to squadmates and drone strikes are necessary in order to successfully complete a mission. Elements such as destruction are extremely important, as certain specific parts of a vehicle can be damaged.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Best in class authenticity
ARMA 3 is built as a simulation-type game and features rather tactical gameplay with a slow pace. The developers use real-life military weapons, equipment and vehicles. Even some of the environments in the game are virtually indistinguishable from their real-life counterpart. ARMA 3's gameplay also encompasses more than a regular first person shooter, as military tactics such as water attacks, giving orders to squadmates and drone strikes are necessary in order to successfully complete a mission. Elements such as destruction are extremely important, as certain specific parts of a vehicle can be damaged.
Pro Huge open maps
As ARMA 3 is an open-world experience, singleplayer missions are not as linear and take place in the same map area as the game's multiplayer mode. There are a couple of different islands to explore in ARMA 3, including Altis which has a size of over 100 square miles (270 km²). Stratis is the smallest island in ARMA but is still respectable in size but 7.7 square miles (20 km²). A new map - Tanoa - is scheduled to be included in the paid Apex Expansion pack, with a size of 38.6 square miles (100 km²).
Pro Huge amount of mods and add-ons available
The modding community of ARMA 3 is quite large, with multiple online communities and free tools provided by Bohemia - the developers of ARMA 3. At the time of writing, there are 115 mods available on ModDB and over 23500 mods in the Steam Workshop.
Pro Steam workshop
So much content on the Steam workshop. You can get 200 GBs of mods in 2 days.
Pro No player limit in multiplayer games
ARMA 3 doesn't impose restrictions on its servers, allowing for a true sandbox experience with a large population. Battles can be fought with hundreds or even thousands of players; multiplayer warfare is definitely large-scale.
Pro Long single-player campaign
The average playtime for the single-player campaign (referred to as 'Main Story) of ARMA 3 clocks in at just under 20 hours, while a 100% complete playthough of the campaign averages 39 hours of playtime.
Pro Underwater gameplay
ARMA 3 features underwater gameplay with diving gear and underwater weapons. Underwater gameplay is noticeably different, because it uses a third movement axis.
Pro Great multiplayer
The multiplayer of the game tends to be where the majority of the core experience fun can be seen. With the ability to fight both AI and human adversaries, you command large armies, positioning them in cover and strategic choke points, with the main goal overtaking key economic points to give yourself a military edge. The included Multi-Player contains a plethora of competitive maps, as well as a section of Co-Op maps that are similar to the campaign mode (though not as plentiful).
Pro Focuses more on smart planning rather than brute force
Company of Heroes 2 is an RTS that focuses more on smart decision making of micro-unit control over macro-control and actions per minute. Players will most likely have fewer units under their command during the beginning of each match, making strategic and tactical placement of each unit necessary, rather than focusing on training many units and attacking head-on. This allows for more deep strategic gameplay to take front and center, as players will need to think aggressively and quickly, keeping units in cover and finding defensible positions, as the loss of even a single unit can turn the tide of a battle.
Pro Top of its class in graphics for an Real-Time Strategy title
While not a huge improvement over the first game in the series, the graphics and art style found in Company of Heroes 2 are still quite astounding for an RTS. The animation quality of each unit is incredibly well polished, with infantry moving with fluid realism, and vehicle movement being heavy and slow. Also, to give an added depth of realism, particle effects and quality are nearly unrivaled, as each mortar blast and each grenade detonation casts large chunks of earth into the air in a billowing cascade of terrain destruction, leaving large craters in the ground. Adding greatly to this is the equally gratifying smoke and spark effects one can see when a tank fires a round from its gun, or when bullets ricochet off armored vehicles. While the gameplay in COH2 is second-to-none, the great graphical fidelity adds an immersive aspect that has yet to be matched.
Pro Control large amount of units
Upped from the original game the player is able to control up to 135 units, which is quite a lot of micromanagement for those that are interested.
Pro Tons of replayability thanks to Downloadable Content
While DLC has the potential to introduce imbalance, with purchased items that give advantage, so far Company of Heroes 2 has not had this issue. New campaigns, featuring other allied nations, as well as different commanders with their own powerful abilities are proudly highlighted through this additional content. This allows the player base to have more to do and see, added increased longevity into an already brilliant addition to the Company of Heroes franchise.
Pro Mod support
User Created Content makes every game better. There is a big variety of nice user created maps and mods.
Cons
Con Controls are unique and can be a barrier
It's not as simple as ctrl for crouch. While many tactical shooters use a similar s=control scheme, ARMA takes a sharp departure from the norm. This is part of what enables it to have far more robust/tactical movement.
Con Steep learning curve
The tactical aspect of ARMA 3 is also portrayed in the somewhat difficult controls and steep learning curve of the game. For example, a lot of different buttons and keystrokes have to be remembered for all the different commands, equipment options and vehicle controls. There is no in-game tutorial, the only way to learn how the game works in by trial and error, a field guide or by using in-game hints. Tactical elements and strategies aren't explained in the game.
Con Framerate isn't consistent
ARMA suffers from some framerate issues, with very variable results in both single- and multiplayer situations. Often the game will perform well in multiplayer, while dropping down to a severely worse framerate in a single player mission. Similar problems occur vice versa as well, which results in a very inconsistent framerate.
Con Hard to set up missions
Con Very poorly optimized
When there's a lot going on, it runs bad even on the best latest systems.
Con Gameplay can be quite hectic
Some missions can require the player to control up to 135 units at once, on three separate fronts , which can be difficult to manage. While not completely unmanageable, this is something to consider for those that want something a bit more simplistic out of their RTS.
Con Poor quality cutscenes
The cutscenes, while not animated with the in game engine, look pretty abysmal. The animation and graphical quality of each cutscene is immersion-breaking and can take the player out of the game in an instant.
Con Flame weapons feel over powered
When facing off against units or vehicles that use flame weapons, infantry units can be killed almost immediately. The sheer attack speed and ferocity of these flame-based weapons can reduce a player's fighting force to zero. This is especially notable with vehicles that use flamethrowers, as they can roll in from the Fog of War and overwhelm infantry in an instant, leaving players with the feeling that these weapons are overpowered.