Beta | Battlefield 3 – Multiplayer Impressions
It has taken me quite a bit of time to gather my thoughts about DICE’s Battlefield 3 beta. For the better part of a week, I was worried. The map that the studio launched the beta with, Metro, didn’t quite feel like a Battlefield map. While the exclusion of vehicles is an obvious omission, it was the map’s design that worried me the most. Metro, taking place in the parks, subways, and city streets of Paris, more resembled the design philosophies of other close quarter infantry combat games – most notably the Call of Duty franchise. While previous games have taken a more broad approach to encounter design, Metro is a more directed and funneled experience.
In any given point of the Rush game type, there are around three core bottleneck areas in the map where encounters are forced by design. Each of these encounters is then reduced into sniper duels and flashlight wars. The best way to break the standstill either to find a break in a flank and hope the rest of your squad has the wits to spawn on you, or lay down smoke – an ability not available to all or those who haven’t earned the ability. These stalemates would have been a real chore had the combat not been great. BF3’s infantry combat feels considerably more competent than the other games in the series – partly due to the more aggressive damage model. I always felt lethal, even with a sidearm.
The positive feedback loop in the combat is made even greater with BF3’s long list system of weapon unlocks. Every main weapon for each of the four class types has at least 10 unlockable scopes and add-ons. In many ways, last year’s Medal of Honor is the progenitor for BF3’s unlocking and leveling system. Having a hand in MOH’s multiplayer development, DICE has inadvertently brought over some level progression concepts and user interface concepts from last year’s middling shooter. Despite its questionable origin, the leveling mechanics feel like a constant carrot on the stick. I always felt I was on the cusp of getting something new for my weapon without ever feeling like I am grinding to get it. While every add-on may not be the ‘next best thing’ per se, the progression of equipment is nonetheless encouraging.
After a week solid of playing Metro, I felt as if I had seen all that the beta could have shown me. That was until Caspian Border unlocked on PC. The build was mired in lag at times, but nothing out of the norm for an online beta. Every reservation I had about Metro and the Rush game type seemingly evaporated the first time I jumped onto the top of an enemy tank from a highway traffic station rooftop, shot the engineer repairing it from the rear, planted C4 explosive, dove off of it and blew it up in a violent fireball – only to have an the flaming wreckage of a F18 jet come crashing on top of me from an air battle above. If DICE’s maps and play experiences are more like Caspian Border than Metro, Battlefield 3’s multiplayer has the potential to monopolize all of my time.
