It’s been six years since EA and Swedish developer DICE ushered in the dominance of the modern military shooter game with Battlefield 2. For a PC only title (later console ports are best forgotten) Battlefield 2 blew socks of left and right, it was the reason to keep your parents PC running fast and smooth. The Bad Company series has been holding the line since then but it’s finally time for papa bear to come out of hibernation.

Unlike Battlefield 2, but in keeping with the previous Bad Company titles, Battlefield 3 is saddled with a campaign featuring a fictional battle at the border between Iraq and Iran. Most of the story is related through flashback by a soldier named Blackburn as he’s interrogated by two CIA toughs. Blackburn has learned of a plan to blow up New York with a nuclear device and is trying to stop it while being suspected of being implicit in the plot.

Urban renewel courtesy of the Marines, no a successful military expansion opportunity

I really struggled to enjoy the Battlefield 3 story. Overall it was entertaining in a lowest common denominator kind of way, but it was also deadly serious and dry as day old toast, completely lacking the tongue in cheek amusement of Bad Company or the over the top, gung ho of Modern Warfare. It almost checks off the boxes of a military shooter plot, middle east terrorists check, bitter ex Russian military types are the secret real enemy check, WMD in the US check and check. There were a few set pieces that really shined, notably the sniper mission, which was engaging and exciting; and an on rails shooter section where you manned the weapon systems of a fighter jet was also far more fun that it deserved to be. But too much of the missions, especially earlier missions, was poorly paced and made up of trial and error encounters that rewarded memory over skill thanks to frustrating enemy AI. The real issue with the single player can be largely blamed on that other game, you know the one. The game wants to compete with Activision’s darling without accepting it doesn’t have to be. Come on, you’re mother flipping Battlefield! You don’t even need a wussy ass campaign!

Of course if you bought Battlefield 3 for the campaign something is very wrong with your brain. The game is absolutely all about the multiplayer.

Four classes are available Assault, also the medic class, Engineer, Support and Recon. While there are some new elements in the MP over Bad Company 2 the omission of some other features is an odd step backwards. Weapons with bipods can be deployed while prone (yes you can go prone again, hurray!) or over certain types of scenery such as low walls adding a great deal of stability to firing. Suppressive fire now blurs the vision of the target and can earn you xp when the target is killed.

Levelling up and unlocking new weapons and equipment is similar to previous Battlefield games, providing serious depth to the customisation. It’s highly enjoyable working up and developing your favourite classes and earning rewards for playing the way you want to play. Completionists will have a hell of a time earning all the unlocks and upgrades. One of the most popular attachments is currently the torch and when pointed at an enemy it produces a ridiculously huge, I’d even say searing, white light. Thankfully EA have all ready promised to nerf the torch light.

Troubling omissions are the destructibility of environments. One of the most enjoyable features of the Bad Company series was the fact an MP level could be almost completely flattened by the end of a match. In Battlefield 3 a few fences and walls can be shot up but most buildings can happily shrug of a tank shell. It’s disappointing and I’m not sure if the sacrifice is worth the graphical oomph we get in trade. The Commander class has also been axed removing that strategy option from multiplayer for serious players and organised clans.

Thankfully squads still exist and bonuses and extra experience are still rewarded for working with your team mates. Now, I don’t want to get into the willy waving of a competing discussion here, but for me personally Battlefield 3 is more about teamwork. The lack of any real tangible support from team mates in… other well regarded military shooters, results in an air of constant competition, not just against the opposition but against your own team mates, and cooperation is rare. While I don’t hate that about that game I do find it kind of exhausting. For me the best moments of multiplayer games are when people work together and get a result.

In BF3 players, even without the benefit of mic communication, instinctively stay together and bunch up, dropping health and ammo for each other, forming up squads to improve spawn locations and generally work together. The losing team is often the one with players who sprint forward alone after each spawn and focus on kills, or the team where almost everyone is playing as the sniper focused Recon class. In reality the competition doesn’t exist, for all their surface similarities the games are intrinsically different. Other games are all about balance, points and individual skill; Battlefield is all about teamwork and objectives. I feel it’s also worth mentioning that after a week of online play I haven’t once been tea bagged, nor seen tea bagging happen, in Battlefield 3.

Vehicles remain a big part of the theatres of war in Battlefield 3 and learning how to both effectively use and eliminate them is a key to success. The helicopters and fighter jets are just as notoriously difficult to use as they have always been but its well worth the time and investment to practice with them. It’s a rewarding feeling supporting your squad from the air or ferrying them into a key zone with a safe landing.

Levels are big, I mean really big, and this experience is playing on the 360, PC levels with their 60 plus player count are even larger. They really were saving all the best levels for the main game when they offered the lack lustre Operation Metro in the Beta. I had a Rush game in Seine Crossing that was just about the most intense multiplayer experience I’ve ever played, the back and forth of attacking and defending points, tanks rolling down streets, then getting blasted by RPG wielding Engineers in buildings who then got knifed by enemies sneaking up the stairs behind them. In the course of the battle I had all these experiences.

Coop play is enjoyable, but in a distracting way rather than an absorbing one. Initially you only have two coop levels unlocked to you and completing each opens up another, but there’s only six overall. While some of the coop games include vehicles you have no control over what role you have, say as the pilot or the gunner of a helicopter, so you’re always at the mercy of your partner’s skill level. This part of the game isn’t bad, but when you can wring every drop of entertainment out of it in an afternoon, it seems arbitrary. Similar to the campaign, this has the unmistakable reek of a manager at EA meeting with DICE and saying, ‘They have this, so we should too’. As I mentioned before, you’re mother flipping Battlefield, its right there in the title, stop dying your hair to fit in!

The game is also, even on the console, the best looking war game you will see this year. Graphics wise (after you’ve installed the texture pack) it’s as slick as a game can look and continues looking slick as bullets fly, helicopters explode and tanks roar past. Likewise the audio is loud and pounding, the hiss of an approaching rocket will have you dropping prone and the roar of jet over head is always ominous, although usually followed by the same jet nose diving into the ground some distance away.

Despite being a relatively on rails experience, the flight sections are monumentally badass

It’s difficult to accept just how much a certain other game has influenced developers over the last few years. Battlefield 3 certainly has the hallmarks of imitation all over its periphery. Blessedly the core experience, the Battlefield, is still there and unmolested by market tested influences. They’ve even put it on a separate disc from the other stuff to stop you getting confused. As I mentioned before, for all the posturing and executive cat fighting, there’s no real competition, when it comes to these games it’s horses for courses. And Battlefield 3 is a thoroughbred colt of a horse, a powerful beast that knows the track, knows how to run and is just a beauty to ride. Unfortunately it’s weighed down by all this daft crap, dressed up to try and join the parade. By adding more, the overall effect has lessened the game. Hopefully with the all ready teased Battlefield 4, they don’t even bother to try, they drop the campaign and focus on the best damn Battlefield game they can without wasting resources.