Battlefield 4 review
Well, well, well, it seems like the fall season is finally here. That means we are reaching the point of the year when the gaming industry releases its biggest games. Of course we have the (now annually) Obligations franchise, along with the new Assassin’s creed, Pokemon and of course Grand Theft Auto. As excited as I was to play all of these, all my hype was saved for Battlefield 4. Does it satisfy the latest EA installment in this shooter warzone?
Before delving into the massively multiplayer feature that this game is known for, I have to open up its campaign section. It’s no secret that Battlefield 3The single player part was downright boring and sometimes not very engaging, much less fun. With Battlefield 4sadly, it is the same broken record.
You play as Recker and his squad throughout the cinematic experience. You’ll have betrayals, conspiracies, and enough explosions along the way that Michael Bay could lose his job. DICE really tries to connect you with the characters, but most of the war shooting cliches set you back. It rarely breaks new ground, and I often started rolling my eyes at some of the caffeine-inspired dialogue.
If you don’t even set foot in story mode, you won’t miss a thing. Unfortunately, the version I played (Xbox 360) of the game was constantly corrupting my save file in the campaign. This means that I had to reset all my progress. Of course, the single-player part only comes in at four hours, but playing through the same messy experience was a very grim punishment. Eventually my issues were resolved by simply saving my progress to the Xbox Live cloud feature. If I didn’t have an Xbox Live subscription and didn’t have internet access on my console, I would have been out of luck.
You obviously won’t focus on story mode with a title like Battlefield 4. The real meat and potatoes you are looking for is the Multiplayer section. Is there anything good about it? I’m sure this is one of the best multiplayer experiences in all games, including PC. I haven’t had this much fun in an online shooter in quite a while and the reviews DICE did Battlefield 3 makes the experience much smoother.
Multiplayer is packed with unlocks, customization options, and even Commander mode. Battlefield 2 makes his triumphant return. There is so much to do here on the menus alone that you will almost be overwhelmed. That’s really a good thing for a game these days, and this one is packed with content waiting for you to unlock it. It goes without saying that you will have plenty to keep you busy.
In terms of actual gameplay, it plays very similar to 2011. Battlefield 3. With various refinements in the classes, everything seems to be perfected this time. Take, for example, the Recon class; they can now focus their sights on their sights to allow them to more accurately aim their shots. Of course it is Battlefield so there are many vehicles to play with. There is an emphasis on water-based maps in Battlefield 4, so there are a ton of new boat wrecking machines to participate in.
It is true that the game sometimes suffers visually. Most of your playtime will be washed down with graphical prowess, but every now and then there will be some ghastly texture too. Of course I played on a current system (Xbox 360) and have had time to practice with the next gen version of the game and the differences are day and night. If you plan to get PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, I recommend that you skip this version of the current generation game. You’ll have 64 player matches and PC-like performance with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 copies.
Even though the campaign was completely forgettable at best and grueling at worst, the multiplayer mode easily made me forget my terrible campaign experiences. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game appear to be the ugly ducklings of Battlefield 4, and I almost beg you to look forward to the next-gen versions of the game. In my opinion, if you don’t plan on getting any of those consoles then for sure choose Battlefield 4. There is still a lot of fun with this title, at least when it comes to multiplayer.