Subject: "Battlefield 3"
I recently played through Battlefield 3 and man... is it something else. I've been playing through all the modern Battlefield games slowly but surely and it felt like I met all of their ancestors. I played through BF3 as a way to get out of a stubborn burnout. I've been non-stop grinding my way through school and working on projects, I quite literally forgot how to take a break. Battlefield 3 became sort of my well-deserved vacation.
The game is also turning 15 this coming October. I thought it would be quite appropriate to talk about it and have a little bit of a look back at the franchise as a whole too. Battlefield has come a long way since the era of World War II shooters and seeing as this game touted as the Call Of Duty Killer back then, I couldn't wait to play through it.
Battlefield 3 is like the video game embodiment of a Michael Bay movie. This is where EA developed the original formula - the tipping point where the franchise finally transitioned into a more action-packed experience. Missions like 'Going Hunting' is so fucking epic. I mean seriously, most fighter jet missions in video games are good but the one on display here just makes me feel like a complete badass.
One thing I actually noticed about the game is that it felt far more slower-paced compared to newer titles. Each mission in-game felt very atomic and that it didn't really contribute much to the story in hindsight. I felt this especially at the beginning. There was this sense of disconnection between the missions themselves. I don't know if it was just time passing really quickly but I also blew through the first 4 or 5 missions in a breeze, spending about an 1.5 hours.
Also, playing through the games in reverse, I can see where BF6 drew a lot inspiration from for its story beats. The bulk of the missions in game are essentially flashbacks and it's all tied to an overarching plotline where the main character, Blackburn, is interrogated. The scenes act as transitions to give the player more context for the mission that would come after and help tie up the storyline together.
Overall, the story was quite average. A perfect IGN 7/10. I would give it a solid third place in terms of a narrative compared to the others, with BF4 getting the crown and BF1 with a close second place. Some of the missions just had objectives that felt kind of pointless that would have made no difference if they were there or notf. I also didn't have much attachment for a lot of the characters except Dima and his crew. The storyline *is* the game's weakest point which is why I think it scores lower.
Despite that, the vast majority of gunplay is solid. Playing through the game now, the guns do feel a little stiff and don't have the satisfying sway they have in newer games but it's not a big complaint. The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of a loadout swapping mechanic through the ammo crates scattered across the environment. I guess it is one of the niceties of Battlefield 4 that I can't quite shake off.
One annoying part of the missions were the constant spawning of enemies. They would just infinitely respawn until you reached a specific location to trigger the next part of the script. I found this VERY VERY annoying to play through because the window between enemies respawning is quite small. It's quite frustrating, especially if the enemy has some form of a heavy weapon. There are also too many quick time events scattered throughout the game almost like they had to fulfil some quota or something. I'm so glad they removed it from future games.
The last thing I want to talk about before I wrap up the review is about the controls. I played through the game on PC and the controller support in-game is dreary. The quick time events only work with keyboard and even the equivalent controller buttons don't work which is quite frustrating. The whole game feels KBM-oriented with controller support feeling like it was tacked on as an afterthought. I guess it is excusable for what is nearly a 15 year old PC port.
What is shocking for a 15 year old PC port is the graphics. It looks fantastic. I still can't believe this game was developed for the Xbox 360. In missions like 'Night Shift,' the rain effects look brilliant and help give off a more gritty and tense feel. The way they utilised the Frostbite engine is brilliant. I played through the game on Ultra settings and it ran quite smoothly (as expected). There was only one part of the game where I had slow down which was in a segment where you get attacked by a fighter jet with lots of explosions going around.
To sum up my experience, I had quite a bit of fun. Like most FPS games, most of it just mindless shooting and mowing down waves and waves of enemies. There were some slight frustrations I had here and there which made some segments of the game really annoying to play through. Despite some of the glaring issues, the game has aged surprisingly well and I would definitely recommend it as something worth playing at least once.
Post Scriptum
I think maybe the reason I was willing to excuse some of Battlefield 3's faults were mostly because it was very old and I just wanted to have some mindless fun. The AAA FPS genre has been pretty dry lately and I didn't really want to play any multiplayer games so I decided to just bite the bullet and play through Battlefield 3. I was already quite fond of Battlefield as a franchise so I thought I would finish off the last few games I have left in the series.
While playing through BF3, I could find a lot of parallels with the BF6 campaign. The pacing was one of the more obvious ones. 'Thunder Run,' the mission that places you in a tank in the Middle East was also quite similar to one of the missions in BF6. Even then I don't think this is inherently a bad thing. When it becomes bad is when you've spent the last half decade nostalgia-baiting your fans into purchasing your yearly releases (*ahem* Call of Duty) only to release sub-par products.
The last game I have on the franchise playthrough is Battlefield V. I didn't really particularly hear nice things about this one. Something about censorship, something about rewriting historical narratives. The war stories in BF5 is far less interesting compared to the ones in BF1 apparently. I'm quite interested in trying the game out with an open mind but I honestly don't really know if I have the time for it.
I have exams coming up next month which is quite important for me. Most of the past year has just been a constant back and forth between studies and programming. It's come to the point where gaming feels like a chore. It doesn't give me the same sense of progression that I would feel after doing something more productive. My relationship with it has changed, becoming something I dedicate time to playing rather than something I would just do everyday once I'm free.