Battlefield 4 review

EA’s modern military shooter juggernaut has finally reached its fourth major iteration, and although it comes as a package Battlefield 4 is essentially two very different games. The first is a linear first person shooter with lofty ambitions, but ones that ultimately fall short. Thankfully the second is one of the most engaging and entertaining multiplayer games around.

BF4 SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN

The Battlefield franchise has never been sold on the strength of its single player campaigns, but the bombastic military bravado, macho dialogue and countless explosions are much less enjoyable here than they were in the previous game. Whereas Battlefield 3 questioned the morality of following orders and whether you were even fighting for the right side, in Battlefield 4 you’re Sergeant Recker, just another grunt blindly obeying the top brass.

As your character is essentially mute throughout the entire campaign, it is left to your squad mates Pac and Irish to inject any sense of personality and explain the plot as it unfolds. Unfortunately they rarely do more than open doors, provide cover and shout approvingly every time you make a headshot.

The plot isn’t exactly coherent, and played through on normal difficulty should only take around five hours to complete. There are a few epic set-piece moments, but the campaign puts too much of an emphasis on close quarters combat, lacks any kind of destructible scenery and only drops you into a vehicle for a few short minutes at a time. If you were hoping the single player story would prepare you for jumping into multiplayer, you’ll be in for a rude awaking once you head online.

BF4 MULTIPLAYER

Thankfully this is only half the story. For a game with its roots firmly planted online, it should come as no surprise that the bulk of Battlefield 4 can be found within the multiplayer mode. Series veterans will be instantly at home with the combination of land, sea and air-based vehicles, infantry combat and control-based objectives, in massive maps that comfortably hold up to 64-players at a time.

The maps never feel cramped, even on the busiest servers. Each one is huge, filled with a mix of close quarters and long range, as well as interior and exterior combat. Some are better suited to certain game modes than others, with Battlefield’s signature Conquest mode quickly becoming an office favourite. Obliteration, making its series debut here, comes a close second – scrambling across the map to reach a bomb before the enemy team, and then using it to demolish one of their checkpoints, becomes a real challenge when your opposition is working together efficiently.

The learning curve to flying helicopters and jets is still immense, but there are more opportunities to learn here than there were in previous games because the developers have completely overhauled the spawn system. Rather than queue at your team’s base for a jet or tank to spawn, you can now jump straight into one from the deploy screen if it’s available. This encourages players to spawn on their squad members and attack objectives, rather than wait at the back of a map until their favourite vehicle is available.

BRINGING DOWN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Tall buildings provide an ideal line of sight for sniping once you compensate for bullet drop at long ranges, but they can be brought down with some well-placed explosives. These kinds of destructible environments were seen in previous games, but developer DICE has taken it a step further with the awkwardly named Levolution. Now each map can be completely changed, by toppling skyscrapers, beaching aircraft carriers and breaking dams to create new challenges for an attacking team or to better defend an objective.

If you’re in the vicinity when a Levolution destruction takes place, the dust and debris can completely obscure your vision, or disguise your rapid retreat from advancing forces. The lighting and smoke effects look phenomenal, and with the right hardware Battlefield 4 is easily one of the best-looking PC games available today.

Play Commander mode, however, and you could mistake it for a smartphone strategy game. It’s an oddly detached experience, with only ambient music in the background and a tiny picture-in-picture video feed of the in-game action to distract you from the blueprint-style battle plan. You give squads orders, scan for enemies and call down UAV drones, with reinforcements unlocked as your team captures control points. Some maps let you launch an AC130 gunship to rain down fire on targets, while others give you access to devastating cruise missiles that can take out buildings with one strike.

You have to be level 10 before you can try Commander mode, but that’s just the start. Every weapon, attachment and camouflage pattern must be earned with XP, and to unlock everything could take hundreds of hours. Even so, if you want to get the most from Battlefield 4 you’ll have to invest in a premium subscription. This costs £40 for a years’ worth of content, which is a lot to ask on top of the game itself. However, if you only plan on playing one fps for the foreseeable future the five additional map packs Premium unlocks could be worth the investment.

EA’s web-based Battlelog system makes a return, which still feels odd compared to an in-game server browser, but the wealth of statistics and leaderboards available at a click make the adjustment worth making. It also works incredibly well with the Battlelog iOS app. With an iPad set up next to our screen, we could view the mini-map in real-time, change our weapons loadout on the fly and check our progress towards unlocking new equipment. It only came into its own when we were waiting to respawn, but it’s handy to have at a glance rather than rely on the tiny mini-map on your main screen. Even without a tablet, anyone with multiple monitors can open a second browser tab and use all the same features.

If you aren’t interested in multiplayer gaming then it’s safe to say Battlefield 4 isn’t for you. The overly short campaign doesn’t offer anything new or innovative to justify spending £40. However, anyone looking for a new online challenge should absolutely pick this up. The breakout skirmishes, helicopter dogfights and last chance turnarounds kept us coming back again and again, and no doubt it will do the same for you.