Bohemia Interactive’s ever popular ArmA series is poised to expand its current incarnation, ArmA 3, with the upcoming Marksmen DLC, hopefully sometime this April. Anyone who has played the games knows that Bohemia puts a lot of care and attention into their projects with constant “free” updates. I say free in quotes because although the updates are free, the DLC is not, and essentially helps cover the cost of the free updates. Depending on where you stand on the ever present DLC argument, the news of Marksmen’s imminent release may or may not be welcomed.
Business models aside, the Marksmen DLC does bring some highly requested changes and additions to the immersive, tactical shooter. First and foremost are the seven new weapons (five rifles and two medium machine guns) being made available:
The seven new guns in the Marksmen DLC
Mar-10
The Mar-10 is inspired by the Noreen Bad News, a semi-automatic rifle using .338 Lapua Magnum ammo. The Bad News is patterned after the AR-15, so it unsurprisingly uses AR parts like the pistol grip, stock, and trigger. Bohemia Interactive’s Mar-10 doesn’t quite reach anti-material rifle status, but still packs quite a punch for the CTRG faction.
EMR-1
Modeled after the SIG556 DMR, the EMR-1 has been re-chambered to 7.62mm since the traditional 5.56mn caliber tested as a bit underpowered. Along with a custom buttstock and muzzle break, Bohemia added a woodland variant to give mission makers a more guerrilla-styled camo.
Mk14
The Mk14, which hardly needs an introduction, is an 7.62x51mm chambered marksman rifle which has been added to the FIA faction as an “antique” weapon. The Mk14 sports both single fire and auto fire modes.
Kir
Built with a very Russian feel in mind, this low range weapon has a built-in silencer and an unusual design. Inspired by the Vintorez and VKS, the Kir adds a pistol grip on a butterfly-shaped stock and packs quite a punch at appropriate ranges.
Cyrus
Taking a cue from Russian design again, the Dragunov and Saiga rifles informed the creation of the Cyrus. Using a 9.3mm round as a counterpart for the .338 caliber rounds, the Cyrus also had to be changed to a 10 round mag to account for the size and weight of the weapon.
Navid
The Navid is an MMG (medium machine gun) that is closely related to the HK 121 (MG5), and has similar features to the SPMG. While MMG’s give greater fire power, they do so at the coast of mobility and hip fire precision.
SPMG
With a lower recoil and rate of fire than the Navid, the SPMG takes its design ideas from the LWMMG from General Dynamics. While still very inaccurate using hip fire, the SPMG is quite heavy and more accurate than other similar machine guns when deployed/resting.
Marksmen DLC goat attachment
Speaking of deployment and resting, these two features are probably the most highly anticipated inclusions to the Marksmen DLC. Yes, you are finally going to be able to deploy bi-pods as well as the ability to ‘rest’ your chosen weapon against surfaces without using mods. Check it out here, thanks to Dslyecxi on Reddit (as well as a laugh from Greenfist – Reddit). It should also be noted that deployment and resting are free feature updates for ArmA 3.
The Marksman DLC also brings with it a new multi-player mode (End Game – working title), new weapon sounds, and the Virtual Garage. The Garage, which is a part of the Virtual Arsenal, is basically the Arsenal but for vehicles. Unlike the editor, while in the Garage all DLC is unlocked which allows users to preview content (including using the vehicles) before buying it. Along with DLC previews, the Garage allows mission makers to tweak the components and skins of select vehicles which can then be exported into custom missions and mods.
“End Game,” the new multi-player mode, sees two sides (NATO and CSAT) stand off against the AAF in an objective based game. The two playable factions will compete with one another to gather intel regarding a high-value target. Once enough intel is gathered, the side which gathered the most intelligence will pursue an ‘end game’ objective. This new objective is a basic schematic retrieval and upload game mode which the opposing side will then be trying to prevent. The opposition will be able to take out the schematic “Carrier” and attempt an upload themselves to turn the game around.
So, what do you think? Is Marksmen on your buy list or will you be skipping out?
Bohemia Interactive HQ – Marksmen DLC First Look live stream
