Best Crashing Helicopters Simulation Yet
When DICE said they were going to make a proper sequel to Battlefield 2, expectations were high; and rightfully so, because Battlefield 2 is one of the most beloved first-person shooters of all time. Battlefield 3 walks a fine path between what made Battlefield 2 great and what makes a modern shooter. It is smartly designed and the most ambitious Battlefield game yet.
Battlefield 3 makes it clear from the get go that this is a serious game. No more random chatter between Sarge and Sweetwater, no more goofy one-liners, no more "Yeah! Let's blow shit up!". This is a serious game dealing with the war between US and Iran and Russians.
The story starts out with your guy being interrogated by two well-acted-but-cliche officers about how they came upon a nuke inside of a bank in Iran. The plot is thin as air, and none of the companion AIs in the game make any effort to be memorable. It doesn't help that the ending is one of the most underwhelming "Is that it?!" endings of any first-person shooters of this generation. In some of the missions you will take control of a Russian soldier, and the twist near the end of the game involving the two playable characters just fails to make any impact.
The campaign itself is rather average and standard. You will move from one room to another and not be able to move on until all hostiles are dead, after which you will proceed to follow the man with the big follow sign hovering over his head. This is broken up by pre-rendered cut-scenes and quick time events. Yes, you read it right. Quick time events. However, they are few and far between and are quite forgiving; but I can't help but feel that instead of these quick time events they could've done more interesting set-pieces.
New to the Battlefield series are the co-op missions of which there are 6 of. What some of these co-op missions fail to do is making co-operation meaningful. You can blast through all of these missions with two well-rounded players. There are some instances which you need to work together to get through, but the game fails to ever encourage you to do so. The mission design themselves are pretty similar to what you would get from the single-player-with the exception of the helicopter mission-.
And then there is multiplayer. Imagine that! Multiplayer in a Battlefield game! The multiplayer is where most of the meat of the game is. Here you have all your standard Battlefield modes: Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush and so on. The multiplayer is chaotic and insane as ever. There are helicopters crashing everything, there are buildings falling down, there are RPGs being shot from across the map, there are tanks blowing up everything around you, there are jets bomb running half the map. You cannot go a minute without hearing something go boom. And that's what makes Battlefield 3s online as great as it ever was.
That doesn't mean that DICE just made another Battlefield multiplayer. There are some nice and smart additions. For the console versions, now you have the option to browse and sort through servers yourself, to see what server has the best connection, or simply what server has the map that you like going right now. DICE was also smart enough to provide a rather simple Team Deathmatch option, something missing from the Bad Company games. These take place in a small portion of the 12 maps, making for some rather unfocused shooting.
Some other changes aren't as smart though, this time around, DICE has changed up the class system a bit. They've given assault rifles, weapons normally used for the Assault class, to the medic class; and now the Assault class has LMGs. This to me makes the Assault class useless. The assault rifles will always prove stronger in a one-on-one with a LMG, and coupled with the Assault class' unique abilities, it just feels somewhat weaker to the other more unique classes.
This is the most ambitious Battlefield 3 game yet. The game ships with 12 maps, all ready for all modes(Something that was missing from the Bad Company spin-off series) and there are hundreds of customization options. You level up your soldier and your guns separately, much like the system in Modern Warfare 3. Each time you level up your used gun you will get something new, this makes sticking with one weapon you like very rewarding. There are loads of different equipment for different guns, tanks, jets and helicopters.
The maps themselves are nicely designed, making for exciting gameplay while still keeping that real-place feeling. The Rush mode takes most advantage of the map design; as you destroy objectives and move on, the fight can go from an open battlefield to a narrow hallway and then inside a building. There is one map that places the re-inforcements camp way up higher in a mountain while the objectives are down below, making for some great base-jumping action.
There are however, many little bugs and glitches scattered around the game. There are instances where the crosshair will just vanish randomly. This kept happening to me over and over again in the TDM matches, making them rather unplayable. You will respawn outside of the world, the reload animations hiccup, getting stuck in the geometry and so on. There is also a serious hit-detection issue. You can be aiming right at a guy's spine and shooting and not hitting them. For a competitive shooter like this, it's unacceptable. Even with the day-one 150mb patch the game still lacks that polish you would expect from a AAA game like this.
Graphically, Battlefield 3 looks nothing short of stellar, boasting THE best lighting in any video game ever. Frostbite 2 looks gorgeous and animates really well. The sound design is as fantastic as ever. Guns sound high-impact, explosions sound deafening, and all the vehicles sound great and realistic. The impact this has on the game cannot be overstated.
In conclusion, Battlefield 3 is yet another great Battlefield game. Adding and improving upon what made Bad Company games great, while retaining some of the old Battlefield 2 charm. The single-player is nothing stunning, and the co-op missions fail to encourage co-operation, but that's not what you are here for. It's the multiplayer, and it's awesome as ever. It's just a shame that it can feel very buggy and janky at times.
