Battlefield 3 is going head to head with Call of Duty, the king of first-person shooters it seems. Battlefield may not take the throne, but it tries its best to.
Single Player:
The story begins with Sergeant Blackburn being interrogated by two CIA agents. Blackburn claims that terrorists are going to attack New York City. Like a lot of war movies, the agents of course don’t believe him. They make him recount the events that lead him there. The game starts from there, taking you to Iraq, France, New York, and more.
The storyline very much resembles what Call of Duty has done already. It switches between two soldiers, who are both chasing after Soloman, the villain in the story. However, by the end of the game, you still don’t really know how bad the villian really is. He isn’t in the campaign much, nor does he do anything truly bad. The story is very generic. There are a few great set-pieces, such as co-piloting a jet, but that’s it. You don’t have any attachment to the characters, nor do you really know what the objective is until you fail the mission a few times to get the hint. It’s just your average FPS campaign: very generic.
It takes about 5-6 hours to finish it. If you are good enough, you can easily knock that time down and finish it in one sitting. The campaign barely qualifies to rent.
Multiplayer:
This is the real reason for buying this game. Call of Duty has always been very arcadey, one of the major reasons why I don’t like it. The other reason is a very different matter all together. However, back to the subject at hand. Battlefield has a more realistic approach to it. There are different kits and guns for each class, large maps, vehicles, and destructive environments. There are almost countless ways to go for an objective.
Starting with the kits, players have the ability to chose from four different kits: Assault, Recon, Engineer, and Support. Each has their own unique weapons, as well as ones gathered from just leveling up. Each class does something different. Assault are healers as well as the average solider, Engineers fix and take down vehicles such as tanks and jets, Support supply ammo as well as carry the heavy guns, and Recon is the sniper class and spawn point setter. With a squad being one of each of these classes, you can make an unstoppable force.
Vehicle warfare is one of the best things about the Battlefield series, which sets it off from Call of Duty in a big way. Tanks are a unstoppable force if not taken care of properly. Helicopters are also avaible, capable of getting across the large battlefields within seconds. There are also jets, which are downright awesome. The only downside to them are the controls, but they are made purposely hard so it helps balance out the game.
There are your standard modes in multiplayer. Team deathmatch, rush, capture the flag, etc. Rush is one of the favorites of the game, as well as the most challenging. It requires a skilled team to hold off people.
This game sets itself apart from Call of Duty in a number of ways. It takes more skill, as the game has a lot more depth to it. Battlefield isn’t one for a pick up and play like Call of Duty, requiring way more concentration and focus to pay attention to what’s around you. Matches can last for as much as 30 minutes. It requires strategy almost the entire match as well as teamwork. If there is no teamwork, you will lose.
Conclusion:
This game is what everyone was hoping for. Great online, excellent visuals, and some of the most impressive sound effects I have ever heard. The game requires an HD texture pack to install if on the Xbox, but it is worth it. It’s to be expected with how far we are in the consoles life cycle. The only downside I had to this game was the campaign, which was complete fail. For that, I have to give it a lower score then what I would have liked. The online itself should get a 10/10.
Score:
8/10
