Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow is a modern-war PC real-time strategy game from Steel Balalaika and Slitherine. The current storefront still uses the original Broken Arrow name, with no verified rebrand or replacement edition. Its focus is combined-arms command: build a specialized army, deploy forces across land, sea, and air, then adapt quickly as reconnaissance, artillery, armor, helicopters, and aircraft collide.

Modern warfare built around combined arms

Broken Arrow uses a top-down 3D battlefield perspective with a rotatable camera and real-time orders. The game is closer to a real-time tactics wargame than a traditional base-building RTS. You do not spend the battle constructing a large economy or producing endless units from factories. Instead, you prepare an army deck, call in reinforcements, capture objectives, and manage the forces already committed to the operation.

The central loop is about creating openings and exploiting them. Recon units locate threats and reveal targets, infantry secures positions, fighting vehicles apply direct fire, support units deliver artillery or air defense, helicopters provide mobility, and airplanes contest the skies or strike ground targets. A successful attack usually depends on several roles working together rather than one powerful unit acting alone.

Terrain and visibility matter. Special forces can infiltrate behind enemy lines, helicopters can move troops rapidly, and smoke can block lines of sight while an assault force crosses exposed ground. Players must also account for anti-air defenses, missile threats, armor protection, and the risk of overextending units beyond useful support.

Army decks and equipment choices

Before entering a battle, you construct an army deck from a large roster of modern military equipment. The storefront lists more than 300 units and technologies, while the official game description emphasizes over 1,500 possible combinations. This is not a cosmetic loadout screen. Your specialization choices determine the type of force you can field and the tactical problems you are equipped to solve.

Vehicles and aircraft can be modified with different weapons, armor packages, and support systems. That creates meaningful tradeoffs. A transport may prioritize capacity, speed, or protection; an aircraft may be configured around air superiority, ground attack, or missile strikes. The best configuration depends on the role you want the unit to perform and the weaknesses elsewhere in your deck.

Broken Arrow also avoids reducing modern warfare to a simple tank rush. A strong armored push still needs scouting, infantry support, air defense, logistics awareness, and answers to enemy artillery. Players who enjoy assembling complementary battlegroups will find more depth here than players looking for a quick, low-information RTS match.

Campaign, skirmish, and multiplayer

The single-player campaign contains 19 handcrafted missions set in the Baltic region and presents events from both United States and Russian perspectives. Missions are built around escalating military situations, changing objectives, and combined-arms challenges rather than a purely open-ended sandbox structure.

For repeatable practice, Skirmish mode supports battles against AI across 19 maps based on real-world locations. Players can choose specializations and difficulty levels, making skirmish the practical place to test a new deck before taking it into competitive matches. The game also includes online co-op support, although the exact experience depends on the selected scenario or multiplayer setup.

Human competition supports matches of up to 5v5. Multiplayer adds progression through general experience, leaderboards, and medals, but the important long-term loop remains strategic rather than character-based: refine a deck, learn its matchups, improve deployment timing, and coordinate with teammates.

The scenario editor is the major differentiator

Broken Arrow includes a full Scenario Editor, the same broad toolset used to build the game's missions. It is designed for creating custom scenarios with maps, objectives, cutscenes, dialogue, and visual scripting without requiring conventional programming for every event.

That editor changes the value of the PC version. The campaign provides authored content, skirmish offers structured practice, and the editor opens the door to user-created missions shared through Steam Workshop. Players interested in custom challenges, scripted operations, unusual force compositions, or community-made co-op scenarios have a more substantial ecosystem to explore than the standard campaign menu suggests.

The editor is also an answer to one of the common weaknesses of large-scale tactical games: once the official missions are familiar, replayability can depend heavily on multiplayer matchmaking. Here, the community can extend the game with new objectives and battle situations instead of only replaying the same skirmish rules.

Content model and current storefront status

Broken Arrow is sold as a paid base game rather than a free-to-play title. The base package includes the campaign, skirmish battles, multiplayer, deck construction, unit customization, and the scenario editor. Steam lists online PvP, online co-op, cloud support, achievements, Workshop integration, and a level editor as part of the PC feature set.

The current content model also includes faction-specialization add-ons. Baltic Battalion is listed as a free specialization for the United States faction, while Russian Guard is a paid Russian specialization. The soundtrack is sold separately. These additions expand the available army-building options, but the main tactical framework remains in the base game.

There is no verified current name change to account for when searching storefronts. Players looking for the game on PC should search for Broken Arrow rather than expecting a “Definitive,” “Classic,” or replacement edition label.

Who should play Broken Arrow?

Broken Arrow is a strong fit for players who want modern military hardware, large battlefields, detailed unit roles, and real-time decision-making without the traditional build-order economy of games such as Command & Conquer. It rewards map awareness, reconnaissance, timing, and a willingness to adjust a deck after discovering its weaknesses.

It is less suitable for players who want a relaxed RTS with simple counters or a campaign that allows unrestricted access to every faction unit. The army-building layer can be demanding, and understanding why a deck fails may require examining specializations, unit categories, equipment choices, and battlefield deployment rather than simply adding more expensive units.

Players coming from modern operational RTS games may also recognize the emphasis on battlegroups, long-range fires, air power, and information control. The difference is that Broken Arrow places unusually strong emphasis on pre-battle army construction and individual equipment configuration. For a slower Cold War command experience, large-scale Cold War RTS battles such as WARNO provide a useful comparison, but Broken Arrow is more focused on contemporary forces and modular army design.

PC features, controls, and localization

The PC version is built around mouse-and-keyboard control, with keyboard shortcuts for unit commands and camera movement. The manual documents zoom, camera rotation, and free battlefield movement, while the storefront does not verify native full-controller support. Players should therefore treat keyboard and mouse as the intended input method for precise unit selection and rapid tactical orders.

Steam integration is substantial. The game supports Steam Workshop, Steam Cloud, achievements, trading cards, online PvP, online co-op, and an included level editor. Multiplayer also uses Easy Anti-Cheat alongside the game's internal anti-cheat solution. Official updates have additionally distinguished protected multiplayer from scenario environments where modding support is more important.

Interface and subtitle support covers English, Russian, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Full audio is listed for English, while the other supported languages are primarily interface and subtitle localizations.

For players who prefer classic base-building and resource-driven RTS systems, the classic real-time strategy structure of Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is a different branch of the genre. Broken Arrow instead concentrates on force composition, battlefield control, and real-time combined-arms execution.

Broken Arrow FAQ

Has Broken Arrow been renamed?

No verified rebrand is currently listed. The active PC storefront continues to use the name Broken Arrow, with no confirmed replacement edition or “Definitive” version.

Is Broken Arrow a traditional base-building RTS?

No. It is a real-time modern warfare tactics game focused on army decks, reinforcement deployment, objectives, terrain, reconnaissance, and combined-arms combat rather than a conventional resource-and-production economy.

How many players can join a multiplayer match?

Official descriptions list multiplayer battles of up to 5v5. The game also supports online co-op and AI-focused skirmish play.

Does Broken Arrow include a campaign?

Yes. The base game includes a 19-mission single-player campaign set in the Baltic region and viewed from both United States and Russian perspectives.

Does Broken Arrow support mods?

It supports community-created content through the Scenario Editor and Steam Workshop. The editor can create custom missions with objectives, dialogue, cutscenes, and visual scripting.

Is a controller required or recommended on PC?

No. The verified control documentation focuses on keyboard and mouse inputs, and the storefront does not list full controller support. Keyboard and mouse are the safer choice for precise RTS commands.