Battlefield 3

Developer: DICE

Publisher: EA Games

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

By Chris

Battlefield 3 is the newest first person shooter by the Sweden-based developer DICE. Running on the upgrade Frostbite 2.0 engine, does the new installment in the beloved shooter franchise live up to its name?

The game’s campaign centers around a Marine Staff Sergeant by the name Henry “Black” Blackburn who is being interrogated by the CIA for information regarding an attack on major cities across the world by the well supplied Middle Eastern militant group, People’s Liberation and Resistance. The game plays out in flashbacks of Blackburn, with character jumps to an F/A-18 weapons operator, an ex-KGB Russian undercover agent, and a M1-Abrams commander. The plot points, unfortunately, are reminiscent of past Call of Duty plot points; the main character being a US Marine being interrogated by the CIA, militant Middle Eastern groups in procession of nuclear weapons, and the game playing out in a series of flashbacks. The F/A-18 portion of the game, as exciting as it sounds, is a rather boring on rails shooter segment. The campaign, in a word, is lacking.

The real meat of the game comes from the addicting multiplayer. The multiplayer is class-based combat with a wide variety of vehicles thrown in to the mix to make an awesome experience with the consoles supporting 24 players per game for consoles and 64 players for the PC. The game has a handful of game modes ranging from the Battlefield staple of Conquest mode, to the Bad Company favorite Rush mode, to the smaller Squad based versions of the two, as well as Deathmatch which has not been seen since the original Battlefield 1942. Battles take place across nine hugely varying maps, ranging from the tight city streets of Paris to the wide open expanse of desert in a Middle Eastern oil rig and everything in between. The four classes are broken down into, Assault who handles assault rifles and acts as the medic dealing out med-packs and carrying a defibrillator, Engineer who carries repair tools, rocket launchers, and SMGs, Support who carries LMGs and ammo crates, and Recon who is the sniper with long range rifles, portable spawn zones, and mortars. Each class handles distinctively and is unique from one another meaning that a well-balanced squad would have a mix of classes. Vehicles add variety with the classes ranging from the humble Humvee to the Main Battle Tank to the Helicopter and the Jet. Tanks remain the power-hitter of the ground vehicles being able to do high damage and take it back. Anti-tank operations has become easier because as a ground vehicles take damage they become disabled where their mobility is severely limited leaving for an easy kill. Helicopters make a re-appearance from Bad Company 2 and have become more difficult to fly, requiring pilots to be more graceful in order to effectively use the game’s helicopters. Jets make return after missing on the Bad Company games, with dog fighting becoming a staple of many maps. Jet combat is a spectacular thrill and is always a constant treat to those lucky enough to grab the highly sought vehicle.

Leveling in the game comes with winning games, capturing objectives, killing enemies, etc. New levels bring new weapons, new dog tags, and camouflages for your soldier. Using specific classes and vehicles also increases rank that class, so the more often a player uses a class the higher the rank. High rank in the classes means new weapons and new modifications for leveling up in vehicles like a co-axial machine gun for the tank or flares for the jet and helicopter. Weapons are also subject to be leveled up as a player uses the gun more often. Attachments such as laser sights, tactical flashlights, bipods, grips, etc. make each gun unique to how a player likes to play.

The Frostbite 2.0 engine pulls its weight in Battlefield 3. The game’s graphics are absolutely gorgeous and with DICE having built the game as a PC game and then porting over to the consoles means visual quality is high. Battlefield 3 running on low visuals on the PC is the same as running the game on the consoles. The game is stunning and the destruction physics engine shines through with heavily destructible environments meaning more urban settings are seen than the Bad Company games. There are always “wow-moments” to be had in the game, especially in the multiplayer from the mass of action taking place in one area by the combination of spectacular audio and gorgeous visuals.

In all, though the campaign is rather weak, the multiplayer is the bread and butter of this game and the Battlefield 3 series, and it delivers. The game’s visuals and audio are fantastic and the multiplayer addicting. Grabs some buddies and start up a game of classic Rush, this is a fight worth enlisting for.

Grade: A+