Battlefield 3 - Living up to the hype!

After the trailers, the trash talking and the rather controversial multiplayer beta, DICE’s highly awaited first-person shooter, Battlefield 3 has finally arrived. It carries with it the expectations of millions or at least thousands of gamers, who’ve been looking for their next online fix. And thankfully, it does not disappoint.

Now, the Battlefield series (not to be confused with DICE’s Bad Company games) has always provided players with a deep multiplayer experience, but this time around, DICE strapped on a single player campaign as well. The story puts players in the boots of a US Marine named Sgt Black, who via flash backs during an interrogation sequence, divulges the plot of the game. It seems a fanatical terrorist has stolen some nukes and is hell bent on detonating them in Paris and New York. Black obviously is not a huge fan of his plan and does everything in his power to stop it.

Crash boom bang!

Battlefield’s campaign borrows heavily from other shooters on the block, and to be fair, it does deliver some pretty cinematic set pieces with much aplomb. You’ll co-pilot a jet raining hell fire on ground targets, survive multiple ambushes with your troops, manoeuvre a tank through enemy lines, take control of a turret mounted atop a jeep through a war-torn fictitious Middle Eastern country, survive a catastrophic earthquake, and lots more.

The action, while clichéd is frantic enough most of the time, especially during the indoor levels where you’ll be shredding through walls, glass, desks and pretty much anything that comes between you and your target. Unfortunately, the campaign is bogged down heavily by a ‘been there done that’ vibe that never really allows the game to create an identity for itself. Not helping matters is the fact that the AI is completely stupid, some of the missions felt a bit contrived, and the campaign went a tad overboard with its quick time events (QTEs).

Umm that doesn't look too good

Multiplayer is, of course, the main reason most of you will pick up Battlefield 3, and it is without a doubt a freaking ball. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 veterans will feel right at home with the game’s multiplayer modes like Conquest, Rush, Squad  and Team Deathmatch. Each of these modes can be played across the game’s nine vast maps. You can start your Battlefield 3 career off by dabbling with some of the more straightforward versus modes like Squad Deathmatch before you jump into the more complex, large scale ones. During Squad/Team Deathmatch, every map is cut down drastically in size, where a sizeable chunk of the map is cordoned off to provide some up close and personal combat.

Top Gun

If you aren’t too good at pulling the trigger, don’t sweat it; you can take up a support role since Battlefield 3 encourages and rewards players for playing as a team. You could chose to be a medic and heal your teammates or go in for a support class and make sure they never run of ammunition. As you level up your respective classes, you’ll unlock better abilities for them. For example, when you start the assault class, you’ll be limited to med packs, but once you level up, you’ll unlock the defib kit that allows you to bring your team/squad mates back from the dead.