Battlefield 3 up until its release; was my most anticipated game of the year, even more so than Gears of War 3 and the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Every trailer along with every piece of game play footage that was released cemented the title as a must own for me; so naturally when Fangwheel needed a writer for the Battlefield 3 review, I was all over it. I was convinced the game would be ‘Game of the Year’ material; with so many placing their bets on either this title or its competitor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it’s still anyone’s guess. Previous titles in the Battlefield franchise are known for their frantic multiplayer, and with this title being a direct sequel to Battlefield 2 and the first recent game in the series with a campaign not based on the often comedic Bad Company squad, it is clear that Dice and EA were going for a chunk of Activision’s ‘Modern Warfare’ pie. With its destructible environments, large array of vehicles and over the top multiplayer, all stunningly handled by Dice’s newly developed Frostbite 2 engine; does Battlefield 3 outgun the competition?
First things first, do yourself the favor and download the HD update if you have room on your hard drive. If you don’t have the room, make some as the game looks amazing once this update is installed (unless you’re on a high powered PC, then your game will look amazing right out of the box); I’ve heard from a friend that didn’t install it that the game looks almost last gen without it (this could be embellished on my friends part). Also, for the sake of load times, I’d also probably install the game to your hard drive, while for Xbox 360 owners, it won’t alleviate having to get up to switch discs when you want to jump from campaign to multiplayer but it will the load times.
The campaign runs a little on the short side, five to six hours on normal difficulty; it will be longer if played on hard. One major complaint that I have about the campaign is not the story or even the length but the fact that the difficulty seems to jump around. Some missions will just breeze by without much opposition while other missions will have you constantly dying as enemy AI seems to spawn sporadically. At one point, I cleared a room only to be killed by enemies that were not there when I first initially cleared it, spawning after the fact. Things like this happen all over the campaign and are cause for some frustratingly cheap deaths. Luckily, the save system is pretty competent, though it can set you back at the beginning of a chapter, if a check point isn’t reached.
This is the first game to support Dice’s new Battlelog service, a cross platform social service where players can add each other. It will give information on what rank and weapon unlocks you have achieved along with various other info from the co-op campaign and multiplayer. Players that are on the same platform can join each other from within the Battlelog, while players on a different platform simply display their accolades. On the Xbox 360 version of the Battlelog, I have noticed that the time stamp is completely wrong as it will say that weapons I might have just unlocked did so, but eight hours in the past. Hopefully this will be something that Dice will address, as I find this to be extremely cool; but I think players will need a better excuse to sign up for EA’s Origin to use the Battlelog service. It’d be nice if they could team up with Facebook or Twitter and have the Battlelog not only appear cross platform, but also post this information to other social networks.
This game offers a co-op campaign, although it fails to really offer much depth as it is a bunch of ‘defend this base’ or ‘cover this squad’ type missions. Each mission of the co-op campaign contains a leader board so players can track how well they did against others on their friends list within Dice’s new Battlelog system. The one thing that bothered me about the co-op campaign is that it cannot be played split screen and relies on the internet to be played. This is really limiting for anyone that doesn’t have online capabilities as it cannot be accessed. You have the option in the co-op menu to invite a friend who is online to play, or to be matched with someone to play the co-op mission with at random.
The soundtrack for the title is pretty fitting, but not really memorable save for the distorted Battlefield 3 theme that you hear in the commercials and the Johnny Cash tune; Johnny Cash is a legend. The aforementioned Battlefield 3 theme plays not only during the campaign, but you also hear the piece during multiplayer games. The sound effects in the game are absolutely convincing, so much so that I can almost tell what a player is using in an online match just by hearing the sound of the gun they are carrying. Explosions sound as big as they should, jets roar as they scream past you overhead and even a building crumbling to dust makes all the whines and moans as you can actually hear the metal and concrete stressing before collapse.
Multiplayer for Battlefield 3 sees the return of Rush, Team Deathmatch and Conquest along with the different classes that you can play as during a match. Dice has made some slight modifications to each class, so if you are coming from Bad Company 2, things are going to be a little different. Jets and the prone position return from Battlefield 2, and honestly in some peoples opinion is a mistake while others like me enjoy being able to lay prone. It offers more tactics and allows more options than standing or squatting out in open trying to fire on another player or objective. Another really original addition to the multiplayer is the giant BASE jump you can do on the Damavand Peak map; it’s the coolest thing I’ve seen yet in a multiplayer FPS game and more developers need to pay attention here. The title also sees the return of the different “difficulty” types for matches such as the popular Hardcore Mode from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, where damage is turned up and the HUD is reduced.
I do have a few complaints about the multiplayer such as the lack of spawn protection being the number one annoyance. More often than not, enemy players will get into spawn points and take out players that have just spawned, making it possible for matches to become downright frustrating. It is simply puzzling why this is even a problem when it didn’t seem as rampant in Bad Company 2. My next major complaint is the lobby system for the game; it is a really confusing set up. On the Xbox 360, I have to hit the start button to see who is online, who is playing Battlefield 3 and who is in my squad. I think Bad Company 2 had a better set up as that information was readily available to you without having to press the start button. My last major complaint is a big one, splitting up squads upon entering a game, where some of your friends that you went in with will be with other squads or even on the enemy team. This makes for poor gameplay as more often than not I come across either people helping their friends win a match or my own friends getting mad at each other for simply playing the game. It puzzles me as to why Dice also doesn’t give you the option to go in with a full team of eight players as well, perhaps in future titles this can be rectified.
The game comes packaged with an online pass, so new copies can access the online servers right out of the box, while used copies will net you a visit to the applicable marketplace to purchase one separately. The servers via the Xbox 360, as of the time of this review, are very touchy I have found while trying to find a match via the server browser (I’m unsure how the servers on the PlayStation 3 or PC side of things are doing). Some will attempt to let you join the match, only to kick you back to lobby; while others will show in the browser but will be completely unavailable.
After the dust clears, it doesn’t really matter if Battlefield 3 is ‘Game of the Year’ or not, EA and Dice have crafted an amazing FPS that will sure to be in my 360’s drive for years to come; assuming that Dice can fix everything stated above that is wrong with the game it will be perfect and that they don’t rush out the next Battlefield game next year. While the game didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, I am in no way disappointed with it as it certainly scratched the itch that I have had this year that titles like Rage and Deus Ex: Human Revolution couldn’t touch. Hopefully this time Dice will give us more DLC than what was released for Bad Company 2. I’d like to see more maps like the ones that shipped on the disc as they are wonderful to play and really capture how large the battles are perfectly.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆
