Battlefield 4 is a 2013 first person shooter, developed by Dice, Frostbite and of course, Electronic Arts. I'm going to get right into it. For anyone wondering, I'm reviewing the PlayStation 3 version.
Campaign
The campaign in Battlefield 4 is nothing short of terrible. It feels like there was no planned campaign at all, but two weeks before release somebody came in and said "We need a campaign", and they randomly chalked something together.
I play a campaign for the story. I'm not sure if everyone does, but I like to get engaged. Perhaps that's why Batman: Arkham City is my favourite game, because the story is astounding. Looking at Battlefield's main competition even, Call Of Duty: In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the campaign was so well thought out and engaging that it could have been made into a brilliant movie (which I don't recommend because video game movie are horrible). In this, there's no emotion, and the story makes no sense at some point. And then, it just ends. It's really short.
I didn't even play the multiplayer before finishing the campaign, so this game already lost a load of points. But then I played the multiplayer. Things got better.
Multiplayer
Let me be clear: If you are buying this game, buy it for the multiplayer. It's clear that that's the reason it was made.
Multiplayer lets you choose from four classes: Assault; Engineer; Support; and Recon. All are designed differently. For example, engineers have access to heavy armoury like SMAWs and RPGs, while Recon is a class that snipers would choose.
Unlike in Call Of Duty, where there are times where you switch servers in the middle of your game, the servers in this game are virtually flawless.
I'll explain why the multiplayer is so good in the next section.
Game play
In the battle of game play between Call Of Duty and Battlefield, Battlefield always wins in my book. I'm looking past the beautiful weapon mechanics.
In Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 (which was this game's primary competitor), the multiplayer is very different. I could run out into the open and shoot at enemies with no problem. There's a joke on the internet that says only kids play Call Of Duty, but it seems that way in the game play, at least in the comparison to Battlefield.
In this game, if you run out into the open, chances are you will be shot by a sniper. If you stray away from your squad, you will be found by an opposing squad, and you will not survive. If you camp, and kill someone, that person will know exactly where you are when they re-spawn, and can flank you. And if your team chooses a hideout spot, say, on top of a building, the enemy team can send in a missile and obliterate all of you. There's virtually nowhere you are safe, and the game play is diverse. I really like that.
There's a system called 'levolution' in this game. The map that you're playing on deteriorates the longer you play, sometimes on a massive scale. There's a map called Rogue Transmission, in which there's a huge satellite dish, which collapses and topples over if it sustains too much damage. In Siege Of Shanghai, an entire skyscraper falls over! This changes the face of the whole game, and it's a spectacle to watch.
There's been a lot that's been put into the multiplayer, and it all blends in for a beautiful experience. You can never get bored with it.
Now there is one major issue I have with this game, and this is even bigger than the atrocious campaign.
Recently, I received a 1.5 GB update on my game, with brand new game modes for multiplayer. The catch? I couldn't play any of it without paying. This wasn't something new, as DLCs were already a part of this game, but I only have a 40 GB PS3, and this takes up precious disk space. I can't even delete it, because it's a part of the game.
My problem, however, is with DLCs. They're ruining gaming for me. It's no longer about earning new and better things, it's paying for them.
In 2008, I bought Pokemon Diamond, and I did a lot with that game. I trained most of my Pokemon to level 100, and the next year, when I bought Pokemon Platinum, I wanted to send them over, so that I could use them in that game. In order for these powerful Pokemon to obey me, I needed all the gym badges. My starter Pokemon was Chimchar, a fire type, and call me a foolish nine year old, but he's the only one that I trained. The fourth gym was a water type gym, and I just couldn't beat it. So I went back through Sinnoh and trained my Shinx, evolving him into a Luxio and Luxray, and then, I beat the fourth gym. That's what I loved about it. I didn't just buy the right to have level 100 Pokemon obey me, I earned it. I worked for it.
In New Super Mario Bros. Wii (My best gaming experience ever, I'll review it sometime), after you finish all eight worlds, you unlock a special world, with eight levels. However, you can't play them, unless you earn them. For example, in order to play level three, you need to find all three star coins in every level in World 3, and this is how it is for every level in the special world. You had to work and struggle and find every hidden coin.
DLCs are destroying that. They're taking away from the spirit of gaming. I can understand why a business would want to sell DLCs, but I don't like it. It's no longer "If I make myself better and do something big, I can unlock this", it's now just "If I buy this, I can unlock this". That's so cold.
Anyway, I've got to give this game a rating, following my little rant there.
The multiplayer and game play are beautiful, and it's definitely worth buying for that, but the campaign's lack of everything, and the DLCs take away from it.
On a scale where M is the lowest, and R is the highest possible rating, with the highlighted letter being the rating:
Babypoot
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