Review – Battlefield 3

Shooter

Wibble.

Danny

Battlefield 3 is a funny old game, well it is on the Xbox 360 anyway. I am aware that the PC version is the lead platform, and is the superior version, but the 360 on the first day of launch outsold both the PS3 and PC combined (the PC version only sold just shy of 500,000 copies while the Xbox 360 version sold 2.5 million).  Plus, PEOWW  is primarily a console review site and that is the reason why we have chosen to review the Xbox 360 version.

First of all let’s get the whole single player experience out of the way first. It’s a fairly uninspired, linear corridor-fest of a shooter which occasionally allows you to sit as a gunner of a jet (which is just an fancy on-rails section) or drive a tank. The game ended up frustrating me more than anything as the characters are very bland compared to the Bad Company gang from the previous two games and then there are the actual problems concerning gameplay which are unique to the single player experience.

War is hell. Getting real in-game screenshots from EA is worse.

For a start what’s with all those bloody quick time events? The last time I checked this was not the year 2000 and I am not playing Sega’s seminal Shenmue. What makes things worse is that they are not even challenging and you can not help but feel they have been added to make the player feel like they are involved in something which is heavily scripted and ultimately pretty mundane. Another issue is with the ropey AI. Your team mates who like to run in front of you while you are firing and the enemies who will happily walk single file to their doom and not adapt to your tactics at all. What the enemy will do however is shoot you from across the map with an implausible shot with an AK74. It’s just as well that the game is only four to six hours long otherwise it might outstay it’s welcome, it’s certainly not as fun or well realised as Bad Company 2‘s campaign that’s for sure.

You can tell EA were just phoning it in on the single player, heck they even put it on disc two while the co-op missions (which a pretty fun and range from co-op piloting a chopper to all out on foot firefights) and the multiplayer is on disc one. Now this is where I have to bring in the differences between Battlefield 3 and the previous version of Battlefield to hit the consoles, Bad Company 2 (as opposed to comparing the console and PC versions of the game as well all know already that the PC version of this game blows the console ports out of the water).

First of all I would like to point out that Battlefield 3 is a great sounding game.  The sound design is fantastic, while I don’t really like the new “dubstep remix” of the Battlefield theme I do like the rest of the music and sound, especially the gun fire and the soldiers calling out to each other.

The graphics on the other hand are very hit and miss. You can tell that this game was not optimised properly from the PC as it has some very rough edges when compared to Bad Company 2  which was designed with the consoles in mind. The Xbox 360 version requires a 2gb install for the hi-def texture pack which does improve things but there are still some rough textures to be found even with that install. Also there is a big problem with anti-alisaing in the game especially when you look at things like overhead electrical wires which look horrendously blocky and do detract from the experience somewhat. The lighting is much improved from Bad Company 2 but again as many PC players will point out is nowhere near as good as the PC version, go watch some comparison videos and see what I mean.

M I C. K E Y. M O U S E!

So what about the multiplayer? Well it’s still a fun game to play, no doubt. They have changed the leveling up system so that not only do you level up your solider but also you now level each of the four individual classes and also their weapons too. This means that their will always be something to strive for when playing online as you can only gain class specific perks by playing as that class and you can only gain new gun attachments by using the same gun over and over. The classes on the whole feel pretty well balanced but it seems the Engineer is the most popular at the moment thanks to their ability of being able to repair vehicles and also shoot rockets, which they seem to have plenty of which becomes very troublesome on certain maps.

The map design has become more restrained and compact with less environmental damage than in Bad Company 2. There are two levels in Battlefield 3 that literally take place within tunnels of some variety, yep I want you to think about that for a second. Battlefield, the series renowned for it’s sweeping, open battlegrounds even on it’s console variants has now become a game where engineers shoot rockets at each other from half way across the map which just so happen to be confined, cramped tunnels. Don’t get me wrong, not every level is like this, in fact there are some pretty awesome maps in Battlefield 3 (some even have jets!) and the fact that soon the game will be getting four of the best maps from Battlefield 2 is great news. Overall though I can’t help but feel that the overall map selection in Bad Company 2 was not only more destructible but better as well, the less said about the Paris street level where the enemy can repeatedly spawn kill you the better.

With that said Battlefield 3 is, at times, a great game, especially if you play the game with a bunch of friends who all have headsets and co-operating together as a cohesive unit. There is nothing like two guys jumping in to a helicopter and blowing everything away with good team work and determination. If however you don’t know anyone who owns this you might have a different experience because it might be you on the business end of a good squad who are working together and being stuck with people who not only don’t talk but refuse to help or do anything constructive can really sap the enthusiasm for playing this game.

So is Battlefield 3 worth your money? Yes and no. Don’t get me wrong. If you are a fan of the series and are looking for some fresh maps to sink your teeth into, you have probably already brought this game. But I can’t shake the feeling that this game has been done better and by it’s predecessor Bad Company 2 which I consider to be the second-best modern military shooter (after Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 that is – heh!) that money can buy for the Xbox 360 at the moment.

Rating: 7/10