New Broken Arrow update seemingly fails to fix faltering RTS game

Realistic RTS Broken Arrow has had a rocky launch. Despite opening to rave reviews on Steam, a host of technical and balance issues have caused its ratings to sink into the "mixed" range. Widespread cheating in multiplayer modes, a lack of penalty for players leaving in the middle of a match, and unbalanced enemy AI are among the most widespread complaints. A new update seeks to address a number of the community's concerns, but does not seem to go far enough.

Even if it doesn't add the most demanded fixes, the 1.08 update for Broken Arrow is a step in the right direction. The game should be more stable, as the update reportedly fixes most memory leaks. Multiplayer matchmaking has gotten an overhaul. More robust balance changes are the way, but a few were added in this update. The biggest change is to infantry, which now sport a 30-second sprint cooldown, a 50% reduction. This means that infantry should be able to rush into battle and still evade artillery fire. Anti-cheat has gotten some changes as well; the patch note promise that it will now be "more efficient" in detecting cheaters. The developer also has expanded its moderation team, so there should be more team members reviewing cheating reports. Both these changes are vague and it's hard to say how effective they will be at reducing cheating. Broken Arrow has a long way to go before it can become one of the best RTS games.

Some of demanded fixes will only arrive in future updates. There is still no surrender feature for multiplayer matches and no penalties for those who leave. This, combined with the rampant cheating, can make multiplayer games unpleasant experiences. Although each level in Broken Arrow can last upwards of 60 minutes, there are no mid-mission saves.  Furthermore, the enemy AI can be overpowered, suddenly gaining huge forces and attacking you without warning. Further quality-of-life changes to the single-player campaign and a UI revamp for scenarios are forthcoming.

The community response is split, with some praising the changes and others demanding that more be done. "Nice work, Keep it up!" one player writes, "Tho It'd be better to get a roadmap for transparency reasons. And communication with the players must be made more often." Another says, "Looking forward to what's next for the game. You've got a gem of a game here that needs polishing, so this is all good news."

You can download the 1.08 update for Broken Arrow right now.

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