Battlefield 3 Review – Dust and Sparkles

There has been a lot of loud trumpeting about the superiority of FPS’ this year and it’s easy to see why with so many hitting shelves this holiday season. Battlefield 3 is Electronic Arts’ golden boy entry into the fray who has had much resting on its shoulders. With the addition of single-player and coop campaigns as well as a brand new engine, Frostbyte 2, DICE and EA look to champion the market this holiday season. Does the latest iteration of the Battlefield franchise have what it takes to beat out the best? Or are there crosshairs already focused on this latest FPS?

Battlefield 3
Developer: DICE
Price: $59.99
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed)

Battlefield 3 splits itself into three separate experiences, the single player campaign, the coop campaign and the much-touted multiplayer. The single player seats you behind marine Sgt. Blackburn as he’s interrogated for information regarding a possible terrorist threat in New York. Utilizing a series of flashbacks, you play mainly through the eyes of Blackburn but also out of several other varying perspectives. It’s nothing original these days but it does have a lot of parts that are truly engaging, especially when you play in the heat of battle or drive a tank. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the campaign ends before you know it, especially when it feels like things are just picking up momentum.

More importantly, the short campaign ends up feeling more like a glorified tech demo which, while impressive, feels like it could have been so much more. I was disappointed that there were some moments that felt set up for awesomeness and then didn’t end up paying off, such as an early level where you enter the cockpit of a fighter jet but rather than pilot it you instead sit backseat and focus on firing off flares and shooting down other enemy fighters. In retrospect, it probably gives you more opportunity to view the world that DICE’s Frostbyte 2 engine created but that only adds to the tech demo feeling. Don’t get me wrong: Battlefield 3’s single player campaign is by no means bad but it feels if there was a bit more effort put into it along with a more unique story, it could have been something truly special.

The coop campaign takes select missions from or inspired by the single player mode and adapts them for two players. Missions can vary from defending a specific area to providing air support via helicopter to ground patrols. Overall, coop doesn’t feel forced and it’s nice if you have a friend you can play with but the experience is little more than just that: campaign with a friend. While the coop mode also boasts multiplayer weapon unlocks, it takes a substantial amount of points to do so – so dedication is a must.

Finally we get to the multiplayer which, as far as anyone else is concerned, is the real meat of the game — as it throws no punches. Even on consoles, while maps and player limits have been down-sized, maps feel spacious and combat feels delightfully strategic while retaining the fast-paced action. Maps support up to 12 on 12 with five game modes available at launch: Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, Squad Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Conquest acts as a variant of Capture the Flag, whereby teams each have a number of lives and you capture flags to set spawn points across the map. Squad and regular versions of Battlefield’s signature Rush mode sees one team playing the offensive while the other is on defense. Those on the offensive try to capture strategic locations that open up more of the map eventually leading in the capture of the enemy team’s HQ. Squad and Team Deathmatch remain self-explanatory.

Multiplayer loadouts are grouped into four classes: the Assault, the Support, the Engineer and the Recon. The Assault class is now a hybrid of the Assault and Medic classes from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, given a position of killing power but also the ability to deploy medkits and defibrillate dead players back to life. The Support class starts with machine guns, can give out ammo, and is the most effective at a new mechanic called ‘suppressive fire’, which blurs enemy vision and stops their health regeneration when firing in their general direction, even if you don’t hit them. The Engineer class remains largely unchanged from Bad Company 2, can repair vehicles and also take them out with a variety of explosive weaponry. Finally, the Recon class returns as the sniper of the group but now requires players to hold their breath with a click of the thumbstick in order to achieve optimum accuracy.

Each class gains experience as you use them, catering more to players that stick to their style, however your overall rank accumulates with XP you gain from all the classes cumulatively. Individually, as you can imagine, leveling up a specific class gives you access to their specific gadgets like the defibrillator for the Assault class and also gives you access to more of your factions weapons. This allows you to experiment a bit with your styles of play and the weapons you prefer. This meta-system of ranking has become commonplace in multiplayer games but DICE does it well here, rewarding XP for many of the actions you do, like offering suppressing fire or healing teammates. While the top players will still level up fast, this at least means that newer players to the series will still be able to level up at decent pace.

When it comes to presentation, Battlefield 3 is no pushover as the graphics are spot on, bringing a lush variety of colour and light to the warzone that really helps set the atmosphere. I can tell you that even on the console editions, the game looks gorgeous. While it’s easy to see that our modern consoles are showing their age (can I get a bit of anti-aliasing please?), there is something to be said about the way light shines through windows or the resulting smoke and dust from leveling a building. It’s impressive to see a breath of fresh air coming from these machines. Character animations are realistic and detailed during multiplayer and rarely glitch as much as they did in DICE’s beta. Guns each sound and feel unique and the voice work does a good job of selling you the campaign. It begs mentioning how cool the user interface looks, with its glowing blue HUD wrapped around your screen – nothing new, but definitely sleek. All and all, presentation is great here aside from a few texture pop-in hiccups every so often.

The Final Word
It feels like it’s been a long time coming but Battlefield 3 is finally here. Months of previews detailing the game’s new shiny visuals and multiplayer have not disappointed those who awaited it. DICE’s offering to the FPS market this season is a solid game with fast-paced yet strategic combat and wide-open 12 on 12 player combat. Multiplayer is fun and rewarding with a deep upgrade system that tries to remain accessible to everyone. It is unfortunate that the game stumbles a bit on it’s single-player but there are truly some good moments to be had, and it’s a great way to get a taste of the online action. Be it on console or PC, this is one fight you won’t wanna miss.

– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good