Battlefield 3 Review
Written by Cole Burton Tuesday, 01 November 2011 05:00
Battlefield 3 has joined the fight for best game of the fourth quarter of 2011. Releasing just one week after Batman: Arkham City, one week before Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, and two weeks before its main competitor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, how does Battlefield 3 handle this pressure? Did Dice choke, or could we be looking at GOTY 2011?
Battlefield 3 is broken down into three sections: Campaign, Co-op and Multiplayer. The campaign is rather short and can be completed in about six hours depending on skill and difficulty. The campaign can be annoying when playing on hard, as there are some difficult parts where you will be forced to die, load, watch a gameplay cutscene, and repeat. This does get annoying, and even when there isn’t an in-game cutscene, the loading times will start to seem like they take forever, after you spend so many different times staring at them. This being said, that goes primarily for hard. You will not die very often on easy or regular if you are at least an average player of the game.
The plot of the campaign falls short as well. Coming from Bad Company 1 and 2, I expected a great but serious campaign to play through. I was let down in this aspect, as nothing really blows you away in the campaign. However, there is much more to talk about for co-op and multiplayer.
The co-op mode in Battlefield 3 allows you to grab a friend or search publicly for one to tackle various missions with. The co-op missions are on average 15 minutes each and range from wave defense, stealth, vehicles, and more. On one mission, you could be flying a chopper with a friend gunning for you, or you could be holding a position from attacking enemies. Or maybe even providing sniper cover for AI soldiers a great distance from your position. These missions all offer different ways to tackle each mission. You don’t have to be stealthy if you choose not to, you can pick your own positions to defend from, and you can choose good places to fly to and shoot from.
Co-op is a good way to meet other players, but if the other doesn’t have a mic the teamwork will suffer. Coordination will be off for stealth, orders may be ignored much easier, and the overall experience will be more difficult. Not to mention you may get matched with someone who can’t fly a chopper at all and crashes nearly instantly, or someone who will play awhile just to leave you on your own. However, with a trusty friend at your side, none of that should matter.
The campaign may be underwhelming, and the co-op may be good, but the multiplayer is fantastic. Battlefield has always had a dedicated audience for its multiplayer mode, and Battlefield 3 won’t change this. The multiplayer offers up levels with and without vehicles for balance, as well as great vantage points for snipers, tight spaces for shotgunners, and everything else any player could need.
As always, each player will be able to choose a kit that suits them. You can choose weapons from assault rifles to sniper rifles, and tools from defibrillator to the repair tool. These kits will also be able to equip ammo crates, health kits, and more perks that can benefit you and your team. Plus, the points you earn for helping your team will go a long way for your rank ups.
Battlefield 3 is a great multiplayer game with amazing replay value. You will be spending plenty of time ranking up in multiplayer and you will probably take some breaks every now and then to try to beat your old high score in co-op. However, the campaign falls short in balancing out the whole game. Even so, Battlefield 3 is a game every online FPS player should be firing up right now.
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