The Case

As soon as the Battlefield 3 DLC train ended, EA’s marketing effort turned towards its successor – Battlefield 4. DICE promised to improve on every aspect of the previous game, as well as bringing back some mechanics last seen in the PC-only Battlefield 2. Let’s see how well this latest installment plays and how well it corresponds to EA’s promises.

The Trial

Let’s start with the single player part of the game. It is an attempt to tell a cinematic story mixed in with a lot of predetermined gameplay moments. While it might have looked like a good idea on paper, the actual execution of said idea leads the player down a linear path, listening to NPCs and waiting for a scripted roadblock to disappear. There are some good infantry battles during the campaign that provide room for manoeuvring and a decent amount of destruction to both kill enemies and create new paths. However, disappointingly for Battlefield series, the few vehicle combat segments are quite tedious and not at all enjoyable. Overall, the campaign is not as interesting as it was in BF3, even with better infantry battles taken into account. The story of the campaign makes little sense and is there only to justify throwing you around the globe. The gameplay itself usually throws any “seriousness” out of the window, awarding you for headshots and multi-kills. The accumulated score in each level serves as a way to earn new weapons for single player use.

The shortcomings of the campaign might not seem important to most gamers, as it was never a good idea to get a Battlefield game just for the campaign and most people go straight for the multiplayer anyway. DICE decided to attract those people into playing single player by allowing unlocking 22 dog tags, a pistol, two knives and three primary weapons only by playing the campaign. The dog tags are hidden in the levels, often requiring the player to run off into the opposite direction from his NPC allies. The weapons are unlocked by completing the missions, but to get all those last three guns, you will have to replay the last mission three times. Thankfully, it is shorter than the rest in the campaign, but is still full of moments where you have to sit and wait for another scripted roadblock to disappear.

With the single player part covered it is time to move to the true star of BF4 – the multiplayer. There are ten maps in the vanilla version and most of them allow combined arms gameplay - Operation Locker is the only infantry-only map for every game mode. There are three competing factions in multiplayer – USA, Russia and China - and who fights who on a given map depends on the server settings. As for the game modes, the classic clash between attackers and defenders in Rush and battles over control points in Conquest are still alive and kicking. The best new mode in BF4 is Obliteration, where two teams fight over control of one bomb used to blow up the MCOM stations of the enemy team, and the first team to lose all three MCOMs loses the match. The lack of any time counter or ticket limits can lead to very long matches in this mode, but the constant action around the bomb keeps it intense throughout, while still allowing every class and vehicle to shine. For those who don’t care about objectives, there is Deathmatch that comes both in the team and squad variety. Finally, there is a newcomer to Battlefield – single-life Defuse mode, which plays similarly to Counter Strike’s bomb defusal and CoD’s Search & Destroy modes.

The maps themselves are more dynamic compared to BF3 with more destruction and have what DICE calls Levolution – the ability to interact with certain elements of the map and even perform some actions that can alter the gameplay significantly. While the official name itself sounds a bit silly, the effects of it are quite interesting. Small interactive elements become another important element of firefights, while the big changes can turn the balance at crucial points or change the dynamics of the whole map. In addition to the changes players can affect, the weather conditions can also change - which is out of players’ control. The rounds can start at night and end in a sunny morning or go from a tropical paradise to a violent tropical storm. Unlike in all the previous games, the sea is not always calm and its waves affect movement and aiming. Finally, there is an offline testing range where you can try all vehicles and weapons to familiarise yourself with how they handle.

The four classes themselves stay similar to BF3, but the squad perk system and customisation has changed. The perks, like additional ammo are no longer selected individually, but come in groups of four and you can only choose one of the predetermined groups. The first perk is always active, but the following three are activated by filling up the squad action point bar. Up to five players can inhabit a squad and each can pick their own perk group with its own progression. While resupplying and healing your squadmates helps to fill the perk bar, getting orders from the squad leader and following them is the most effective strategy. So long as the squad leaders actually issue orders, that is. If the whole squad is wiped out at once, your perk progress is reset and you have to start building it all over again.

The customisation of additional items in BF4 allows more freedom than before. Each class gets two identical slots for tools, with minimal restriction over which tool goes into which slot. This allows for more flexibility, but can also be problematic, as you cannot be sure about the services your teammates provide. Playing with kits picked-up from dead players becomes harder as well, as even if they pick the same tools you use, they can be in different slots messing up your actions in a critical situation.

Case Review