I had to wonder what my AI squadmates thought of me, the clueless rookie, stumbling into the bushes before I accidently pulverized myself with a satchel charge I didn’t even mean to deploy. With so many different firing modes, stances, movement speeds, and other options, I had difficulty just walking, drawing my weapon and firing, to say nothing of using my equipment, making sense of the map, and working with my squad. I felt comically inept fumbling through my first few hours. You’re going to have to use almost every key on your keyboard, memorize specific key combinations and what each does depending on whether you’re on foot, in a tank, a helicopter, etc. It’s a first-person shooter alright, but it’s not another “left trigger to aim down the sights, right trigger to shoot” kind of game.
I knew what to expect going into Arma III from previous experience with Bohemia Interactive games, yet I was still overwhelmed by the amount of features I had to wrap my head around before I could play it with even moderate proficiency.