For convenience, I'll be splitting this review into several points: the main base game, the modding community/multiplayer, and the DLCs. I believe each of the points will make it easier to understand why I love this game so much. I don't believe this game serves any single purpose but multiple.

The main game on its own is... limited at best. You get a pretty full campaign, but it is plagued by terrible AI either quick-shooting you or mentally unable to fully utilize basic motor functions. It's frustrating, to say the least, but I like the story for what it's worth. For a military simulator, Arma 3 does not fall too short in that aspect for sure simulating explosive fragmentation and bullet ballistics. Sure the base medical system is one of its weak points, but there aren't many games that fully simulate so many aspects of combat. The true "base" fun I've had relies on the game's editor. Ever since the Eden update, mission making has only become stronger and easier to do. I've had more fun coming up with scenarios to play with my friends than playing the actual game. It's a military sandbox the fun comes with what you can make. However, if you are still looking for something beyond mission making or military for that matter, the multiplayer will surely supplement it.

The only other game I know which exceeds the number of communities of Arma is Gmod. You have servers for full-on milsims, RP servers, or just pure PVP KOTH. If you can't find value in the single-player, the online community is a good place to find it. Besides the community servers, the workshop is huge. It fully encapsulates the meaning of a sandbox. Whatever you want to make, there's probably a mod out there that can help. Not to mention mods like Ace which expand the game's complexity 10-fold. If you love games like Garry's Mod, Ravenfield, or anything like those. I highly recommend you try out Arma.

For the DLCs, I'll be quick on each of them as I expect to write a review for each separately later on. The amount of content for each one varies but if you're looking to pick and choose, I can group them into several groups. If you're looking for a single-player experience, the IDAP DLC, Tac-Ops DLC, Tanks DLC, and Contact DLC all expand on the single-player story in one way or another. The Apex DLC can count as well since you can play those scenarios solo. Each DLC (-Tanks DLC) explores a different way to play Arma single player. The IDAP DLC focuses on story/world-building; to me, it has the best story in Arma 3. The Tac-Ops DLC explores multi-role operations and is based on immersion. They are built to make you feel like a cog in the war machine influencing other squads in various operations. The Contact DLC brings true open-world scenarios and is akin to something like the Farcry series (but miniature in scale). The Apex DLC is a Co-Op campaign, nothing too special besides being very cinematic for a multiplayer scenario. The other DLCs not mentioned (Marksman, Jets, Helicopters, etc.) are more useful in vanilla multiplayer but I do not recommend getting them besides supporting BI. The only one I would recommend is Marksman bringing unique weapons such as High-Caliber machine guns and subsonic guns. Overall, the DLCs are not needed to fully enjoy the game. Most mods are not DLC dependent and if you plan to play on community servers, they are most likely modded.

END
IF there's anything I missed, I'll make the changes later. If you're one of my friends, I'm sorry for the review spam.

For convenience, I'll be splitting this review into several points: the main base game, the modding community/multiplayer, and the DLCs. I believe each of the points will make it easier to understand why I love this game so much. I don't believe this game serves any single purpose but multiple. The main game on its own is... limited at best. You get a pretty full campaign, but it is plagued by terrible AI either quick-shooting you or mentally unable to fully utilize basic motor functions. It's frustrating, to say the least, but I like the story for what it's worth. For a military simulator, Arma 3 does not fall too short in that aspect for sure simulating explosive fragmentation and bullet ballistics. Sure the base medical system is one of its weak points, but there aren't many games that fully simulate so many aspects of combat. The true "base" fun I've had relies on the game's editor. Ever since the Eden update, mission making has only become stronger and easier to do. I've had more fun coming up with scenarios to play with my friends than playing the actual game. It's a military sandbox the fun comes with what you can make. However, if you are still looking for something beyond mission making or military for that matter, the multiplayer will surely supplement it. The only other game I know which exceeds the number of communities of Arma is Gmod. You have servers for full-on milsims, RP servers, or just pure PVP KOTH. If you can't find value in the single-player, the online community is a good place to find it. Besides the community servers, the workshop is huge. It fully encapsulates the meaning of a sandbox. Whatever you want to make, there's probably a mod out there that can help. Not to mention mods like Ace which expand the game's complexity 10-fold. If you love games like Garry's Mod, Ravenfield, or anything like those. I highly recommend you try out Arma. For the DLCs, I'll be quick on each of them as I expect to write a review for each separately later on. The amount of content for each one varies but if you're looking to pick and choose, I can group them into several groups. If you're looking for a single-player experience, the IDAP DLC, Tac-Ops DLC, Tanks DLC, and Contact DLC all expand on the single-player story in one way or another. The Apex DLC can count as well since you can play those scenarios solo. Each DLC (-Tanks DLC) explores a different way to play Arma single player. The IDAP DLC focuses on story/world-building; to me, it has the best story in Arma 3. The Tac-Ops DLC explores multi-role operations and is based on immersion. They are built to make you feel like a cog in the war machine influencing other squads in various operations. The Contact DLC brings true open-world scenarios and is akin to something like the Farcry series (but miniature in scale). The Apex DLC is a Co-Op campaign, nothing too special besides being very cinematic for a multiplayer scenario. The other DLCs not mentioned (Marksman, Jets, Helicopters, etc.) are more useful in vanilla multiplayer but I do not recommend getting them besides supporting BI. The only one I would recommend is Marksman bringing unique weapons such as High-Caliber machine guns and subsonic guns. Overall, the DLCs are not needed to fully enjoy the game. Most mods are not DLC dependent and if you plan to play on community servers, they are most likely modded. END IF there's anything I missed, I'll make the changes later. If you're one of my friends, I'm sorry for the review spam.