War is constantly evolving. New tactics, new weaponry, new enemies, and new games to mimic them. This past holiday, gamers saw the release of two major contenders, in the battle for modern combat. Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3. While you may have already read our Modern Warfare 3 review, today let’s take a look at Battlefield 3, and see how it ranks.
Battlefield 3 takes a break from its “Bad Company” counterparts, and instead brings the series back to where it left off in the 2005 title, Battlfield 2. While no one can deny that the “Bad Company” franchise was highly successful in terms of its multiplayer, the series had diverted itself, and made a far more compelling single player, story mode to the game (something the franchise never had before). Because of its classic multiplayer, and its compelling single player campaign, “Bad Company 2” went on to become one of the most successful entries in the Battlefield series.
So how does Battlefield 3 rank amongst the other entries in the series? Well for starters, let’s take a look at the single player campaign. This is kind of a mixed bag actually. The story mode is honestly nothing new. We’ve seen this story countless times, in Modern Warfare, and especially entries like Medal of Honor. A very clichéd modern combat story line leads the player along from one “twist” to another. We don’t want to discuss much of it, as we don’t want to give anything away, but honestly this is a story you’ve seen many times before. The difficulty is pretty steep in this single player mode as well. The A.I. isn’t really all that clever, but players will take less hits than they are used to in this game. Having less time to run back into cover when the player does something stupid, causes a lot of death screens in the game, and sometimes will get a little frustrating.
The one aspect of the single player campaign that Battlefield excels in is the atmosphere. Our hats off to Dice for making a world that really draws the player in. All around you, the sounds of gunfire, explosions, yelling, anything you can possibly imagine really will be taking place. There’s never true silence in the game, and gamers will truly feel they are in a living, breathing world with Battlefield 3. Even simple things like light flairs, will light up the skies making targets difficult to see, as you are being blinded by the light; really draw the player into this experience. Everything about this campaign truly looks, and sounds gorgeous.
As we stated earlier, while there is nothing really new being brought to the table in this single player campaign, there are still some really great and engaging moments. One level for example, has the player taking control of a jet gunner. You don’t get to fly the Jet, but you help with the pre-flight checklist, spot enemies, and maintain visual locks on them, in order for your fellow pilots to take them down, as well as using your own missiles. This mission felt great, especially for an on rails level in a first person shooter (something that we would have never expected to see).
We really don’t have much to say about singleplayer, as the real heart and soul behind this game is the multiplayer. Gamers can argue this all they want, however even disc 1, contains the multiplayer, while disc 2 contains the singleplayer. All that can really be said about it, is it’s a standard first person shooter, with some really great atmosphere behind it.
Multiplayer feels as great as ever in Battlefield 3. For those readers who haven’t experience multiplayer in a Battlefield title before, it goes beyond your standard run and gun first person shooter. Playing as a team is important to victory. Players who try to play lone gun (much like Rambo) not only will die often, but not contribute anything to the game and miss out on both medals and points to help level up/unlock new items. Players can form a squad or join one already made, allowing members to spawn on one another for back up.
Choosing a class also goes far beyond a simple change in weaponry. In addition to entirely different weapon loadouts, classes offer different abilities, such as healing, or resupplying, as well as different rewards and strategies. Playing as one class an entire round, isn’t an advisable tactic, and players must change their classes and play styles, based on the situations they are in. For example trying to defend your base from a tank onslaught, while playing as an assault class will not get you far; instead you’ll want to make sure you have engineers, with RPGs nearby to help take care of the situation.
Maps are reasonably sized as well, expanding as the round of multiplayer goes on, opening new areas, and different attack points. Keeping up with its great sense of atmosphere, specific spawn points will even have players parachuting into combat, instead of just spawning at a base. Larger maps also have jets available to fly, and keeps the combat moving very fast.
Simply shooting your enemies is not enough in Battlefield, in fact many players will reach the top of the leaderboards, with few to no kills at all. This is achieved by playing as a team. Reviving fallen allies, resupplying your team, spotting enemies on the battlefield, are all aspects of the game long time fans are used to, but there’s a new way to help your team out in Battlefield 3. Suppressive fire is a great new feature. Allies can keep the enemy at bay, by shooting all around them. This will blur the enemies vision, allowing your team to flank and kill the enemy. Each time you participate in a suppressive fire, you gain points for the skill, in addition to the spot bonus.
Battlefield continues to be a huge success in multiplayer, and is one of our favorite games to play. From the incredible sound effects, and graphics, to the team focused gameplay, it really brings a different experience to the table, than most first person shooter titles do. Battlefield 3 takes all the aspects of the previous installments players have loved, and simply continued to develop and add on to them. It’s a joy to play, and feels incredibly rewarding when you succeed. Having said that, the single player campaign is mediocre at best, so if you were thinking about picking up this title, and not participating in the online portion, then save your money until this goes down in price. You won’t be missing anything.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
