Battlefield 4 is the next game in the long running and ever
popular series and takes the series to new heights on Xbox One while maintain a
familiar feel.
Story
The single player component has you taking on the role of
Recker, a member of the special operations squad known as Tombstone. Along with
the other three members of the team, Dunn, Irish and Pac, they are tasked with
retrieving Intel and escaping the city of Baku, Azerbaijan. This sets up the
rest of the story that sees Admiral Chang of the Chinese Military planning a
coup d’état and blaming the US.
The story takes you on a ride through various locations,
including Shanghai and a sinking aircraft carrier. While the overall story does
fall the predictable side, it is an enjoyable one and the character development
does lead to some nice moments between the other members of Tombstone
Presentation
Battlefield 4 is the first game out using the all new
Frostbite 3 engine and it shows. The game is littered with minor graphical
quirks, but none of those can hold a candle to how amazing this game looks when
things are going bad for Tombstone. Buildings now crumble in various ways, and
bringing down a wall to make an exit or even remove the cover the enemy is
using is just fun.
The character models are well detailed, and the faces show
significant expressions that allow you to see how they are feeling during
cutscenes. However it is during the course of the battles that you notice a
level of detail not found in other shooters yet. The games use of lighting
shows off an impressive series of details you probably won’t notice if you’re
not looking for them. The Shanghai level alone is filled with lots of neon
signs, helicopter search lights and rain and water filled streets. And when you
are moving through alley’s you can’t help be impressed by just how good it
looks.
Gameplay
With destructible environments that allow you or the enemy
to change the course of a firefight, each encounter won’t be won by the old run
and gun tactic. You can of course choose to play that way, and there are times,
when the AI of your squad mates make you want to do it, if not for any other
reason than to move things forward. But doing so will get you killed, and fast.
While the core concepts of the game are the same as the last entry, the enemy
AI seems have taken a crash course in magnetic bullets, because you seem to be
the only target at any time.
The game does break up the standard shooting sections with
some nice vehicle segments one of which takes place on sea. Bouncing across the
waves while attempting to take out enemy boats and helicopters is just fun. Of
course this is all based on the single player experience and as we know the
Battlefield series is built around multiplayer. The core tenants of the
Battlefield multiplayer experience are now being integrated into the single player
and it works well and gives you a sense to try different things.
When you take the game online you are presented with an
almost perfect selection of maps to play on, spanning open areas, island chains
and even some sections of downtown Shanghai. Each time you spawn you have the
choice to choose one of four different player archetypes and these have not
change all that much from Battlefield 3. Each class has a skill that
compliments the others and allows for squads to be well rounded. Of course this
does change depending on the map being played as being an engineer and
repairing vehicles is not all that important when you’re running across
rooftops.
While there is a nice appeal for a lone wolf style approach,
it is playing with your squad and overall team that allows the best experience.
Attempting to attack a control point on your own never works, when the other
team is guarding it, but take a few other team mates with you and you have a chance.
Each of the game modes is either just the same from the last game, or tweaked
slightly and they are fun. Rush is probably my favorite mode for Battlefield
where one team has to defend a series of objectives and the other team needs to
destroy them. Upon the first two being destroyed the defending team has to fall
back to the next area and defend the next lot. The flow of those battles can change
pretty easily, and even more so thanks to the new element of Levolution.
Levolution is the term applied to multiplayer where you can
change the maps and gameplay on the fly. In one map you can take down a levy
and flood the streets, turning a pure run and gun level into one with boats
everywhere. Using Levolution you can also interact with the maps in a more
minor way. Turn off the lights in a room and use night vision to stalk your
enemy. Perhaps you have just encountered a nice group of bad guys and need to
get away, shoot the fire extinguisher located near them to create a smoke
screen. Some maps even have road block aids you can deploy to store cars from
being able to get around. Of course if you still want a little more from your
game, the maps are dynamic which means that your little cruise in your boat
taking enemies out on the island will become a whole lot more challenging when
the swell kicks in and tress start to bend in the winds.
Verdict
Battlefield 4 provides many moments where you will be blown
away by staggering visuals and many “did that just happen” moments. The
multiplayer kicks things into a who new gear with Levolution proving that you don’t
have to “re-invent” the multiplayer experience with each new game but provide
more of what players loved.
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