Battlefield 3 Review
Battlefield 3 Review
By Transient Nova
Searching our hearts for so long, both of us knowing love is a Battlefield.
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Hey, kids! Do you want another military-themed first person shooter set in modern times? What’s that? You don’t? Hooray! The future of gaming is partially saved!
As much as I’d like it to be, the scenario of the wider audience electing to support a more diverse range of games just isn’t true, and it won’t be for a good few years yet at least. Now we have Battlefield 3, Electronic Art’s latest attempt to steal some thunder from Call of Duty after their earlier Medal of Honor reboot failed to do just that. Unlike most of these games on the market though, Battlefield has a real history of its own: A once groundbreaking multiplayer template refined over the years that somehow manages to now stand out amongst its increasingly similar competitors. In many ways, it’s a welcome return for one of the great multiplayer first-person shooters of our time.
But before we get into all that though, I need to talk about the presentation of Battlefield 3. EA have made a big deal over DICE’s latest iteration of their in-house game engine ‘Frostbite 2’, and rightly so. This game truly is a thing of beauty at times with fantastic texture work, stunning lighting effects, brilliant architecture (much of it destructible) and some surprisingly lifelike animation actively vying for your attention. Unfortunately though, the game needs you voluntarily install its HD textures to the hard drive (as the Xbox 360 isn’t powerful enough to load them from disc), but I recommend you do so anyway because without them Battlefield 3 becomes as ugly as sin. That’s a slight exaggeration admittedly, but the drop-off in visual quality is notable all the same.
A similar amount of babbling praise has to be given to the audio here as well. Alongside a distinctly low-key soundtrack, Battlefield 3 has some of the most intense sound work I’ve ever heard in an action game. Honestly, no-one does audio quite like DICE does: firearms have an exciting hiss and snap to them, character voice overs add an urgency to battle, vehicles suitably rumble with weight and the acoustics within tight spaces make firefights feel suitably claustrophobic (you won’t half jump when that first sniper rifle bullet meant for you cracks off a nearby wall with some force). It’s a considerable accomplishment when it all manages to get the adrenaline going on a regular basis. As cliché as it sounds, it really put you into the heart of the battle.
Now, you might be wondering where the heart of the battle actually is. You may have also skipped over the intro if that’s the case. It is, of course, it’s often imitated but never bettered competitive multiplayer. The Bad Company games have always been the online shooters of choice around these parts and now after months of anticipation from just about everyone here at Genuine Gamers, we have finally had a chance to spend some quality time with this new iteration of the series (and it only took EA and DICE about two weeks to sort out the connection issues at launch this time, which has to be a new record for them).
The game has a number of competitive game modes for you to dive into over a bunch of diverse maps. The two most popular (and best really) are Conquest, the series’ signature territory control match where two teams battle for control of a series of flags dotted around the map, and Rush, an attack and defence game where the attacking team is tasked with destroying a set of communication stations and the defending team is required to simply prevent them from succeeding. These battles are suitably epic in scale, mixing casual shooting and tactical play to a remarkable degree. You can shift the balance even further towards the tactical side with the Squad Rush (a smaller scale version of Rush) and Squad Deathmatch (does exactly what it says on the tin) modes, though these aren’t as thrilling. The only dud here is Team Deathmatch, an awkward sop to the Call of Duty crowd and a reminder that arcade-style gunplay isn’t really Battlefield’s… um, field.
One of the series’ defining multiplayer traits is its use of a squad system to make large team games more manageable. Each side usually consists of a number a these squads, small groups of up to four players that are designed to be more close-knit with each other then they are with the rest of their team. Players choose one of four classes: Assault (versatile combatants and medics), Engineer (proficient in maintaining and destroying vehicles), Support (specialising in supplies, suppressing the enemy and demolitions) and Recon (your sniper and scout), all of which compliment each other in a variety of different ways. It’s a great system allowing for stronger and more active team play with everyone pinpointing and playing their roles on a moment to moment basis. The act of actually setting up a squad with friends is a slightly more cumbersome affair than it should be this time around though, and the game has a nasty habit of splitting up said squads when they start their first match. Unlike the Bad Company games it doesn’t seem to correct them in the following round as well, which can be annoying at times.
Battlefield is also known for possessing some of the most solid and satisfying vehicular combat ever to grace an FPS series, and that still holds true here. Treading a fine balance between weighty realism and typically fun videogame logic the tanks, jeeps, helicopters and jets available are intuitive enough for first-timers to comfortably get to grips with while still requiring enough skill so that veterans can truly master them and make their presence known on the field. They feel like powerful tools; great fun to blast around in and always make for interesting battles when you go against them.
As is par for the course now the game uses an EXP-based progression system for its multiplayer, with everything you do contributing to a series of class, vehicular and otherwise general unlocks. It’s notable in that it rewards you based on how you prefer to play. Pick off a few targets from afar as a sniper? Have a new rifle or some reconnaissance related gear then. Shoot down a few bogeys in your jet? Here are some defensive flares and heat-seeking missiles for your next flight. Racking up kills with your favourite assault rifle? Great, we think it’s about time we gave you a new scope and a tactical light for it. Hey, let’s give you a new shotgun as well just because of all the points you’ve been earning. The sheer amount of stuff you can acquire is so immense that I only imagine the most dedicated players will unlock every practical piece of equipment and bonus on offer. The cosmetic stuff such as dog tags on the other hand… well, I don’t think anyone will be able to unlock all of that without forgoing sleep and breathing. There’s always something to play towards here if you’re keen on doing so.
You should find that there is a lot to appreciate here, with plenty of content to dig into and dynamic battles that so often provide those ‘Battlefield moments’ EA and DICE so often talk about. Even so the game is still buggier than I would have liked, with graphical glitches, scoreboard display issues and the inability to respawn upon death being a few of the issues I’ve observed. Most of these are forgivable, but there have been cases of the game crashing amongst my regular squadmates as well as myself which are harder to ignore. I’ve counted at least five cases of it locking up while I was flying about in a jet alone.
The only other significant online aspects of note are leaderboard support and inevitable downloadable content down the line (the Back to Karkand map pack has already been made available at the time of writing, which is impressively fully featured for what it is). If you’re willing to leave your console though you can also access the Battlefield Battlelog from your PC or mobile, a new stat-tracking/social network built specifically with the game in mind. I’d actually call it a less-than-practical addition though, having stripped away some of the functionality, ease of use and a sense that it’s ‘all in one place’ that made the Bad Company games feel like complete packages. Setting up a clan for example, a painless procedure in Bad Company 2 now becomes a tedious trawl through the Battlelog, searching for friends to join you not by their gamertags but by their EA Origin account names, which you’re not likely to know right off the bat. They’re unnecessary additional steps basically.
If you’ve bought Battlefield 3 and don’t plan on playing online (may I ask why?), then you’ll find that there’s a story-based singleplayer campaign tucked away on a separate disc just for people like you. The plot revolves around one Sergeant Blackburn, a man who finds himself being questioned by the CIA regarding the supposed murder of his Commanding Officer and the events relating to a potential terrorist attack on New York by an extremist Russian Militia (naturally). The whole interrogation serves as a clumsy framing device for the story, with Mr. Black having flashbacks relating to his earlier operations (and those of other people too for some reason) that the player shoots through. It’s far from engaging, and it has to be said that Call of Duty: Black Ops did the whole ‘regressive memory’ narrative style better.
For all of the impressive presentation and scripted set-pieces, it’s difficult to shake how one-note the campaign feels. The opening scene dazzles the player with urgency and pyrotechnics. American forces fight in a Middle Eastern environment. Someone says “We’re Oscar Mike”. Men scream. Explosions happen. Quick Time Events are clumsily used. Bromances are constantly implied. It’s basically trying to be more like the modern Call of Duty games, which is unfortunate considering that the Battlefield series actually has a unique identity it could be capitalising on, particularly in the more light-hearted Bad Company spinoffs.
Even worse, it seems to have taken all of the truly negative aspects of those games as well with plenty of questionable and monotonous enemy AI, more than a few clipping issues, the occasional bug and an increasingly stale design throughout. While the widespread influence of the Call of Duty series is starting to grate on me, I still have to concede that those games do generally handle their singleplayer components better than Battlefield 3 has done here, even if it’s only slightly these days.
Outside the competitive multiplayer and the solo campaign, you also have a dedicated cooperative mode where you and a partner can take on the AI in six missions that I believe run parallel to the single player campaign (but, as with most co-op games and modes, you probably won’t focus on the story side of things). They’re entertaining enough on your first run, but you’ll likely blitz through the lot of them very quickly regardless of their difficulty. Group that short runtime with a lack of variety between the missions and a half-hearted scoring system, and you’ll find that there really isn’t enough here to warrant repeat playthroughs. You can unlock additional weapons for use in competitive multiplayer though which, in all honesty, ultimately comes across as a cheap way to add longevity on the developer’s part.
In the end, I cannot in good conscience rate this as highly and be as enthusiastic as many others have. Looking at it objectively, it’s easy to see an uneven package in here with a largely uninteresting singleplayer campaign and lightweight cooperative mission set counter-balanced by some of the most impressive visuals and audio you’ll see this generation and a phenomenal competitive multiplayer component that both actively encourages and rewards strong teamwork in a way so few first-person shooters do.
How well you’ll take to Battlefield 3 will generally depend on where your priorities lie at the end of the day. If you’re after an exciting and/or involving solo experience then you won’t find it here. If you’re after your next big multiplayer vice however then you need not look any further because, setting a few rough spots aside, it’s an impeccably designed, splendidly constructive team-based FPS with the legs to carry it as far as you’re willing to go with it.
Buy it for the multiplayer shenanigans or don’t buy it at all. It’s as simple as that really.
Overall:
8/10
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Developer: Digital Illusions CE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Players: 1-24 (online multiplayer only)
Release: 28th October, 2011
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