Experienced BF3 Review, after 150+ hours of gameplay!
Admittedly, I am not a veteran Battlefield player. This is the first Battlefield game that I have played, so all of my comparisons would be with CoD games and Medal of Honor games. My cousin is the one who recommended the game to me, everytime he saw me online he would send me a game invite, even though I did not have the game. I finally decided to buy it one day and see what all his hype was about. I put the game in and went through the necessary hour long download/patching process. I then decided to give the single player game a try before jumping into online multiplayer, just to make sure I knew the controls. The single player experience started off with a lot of "WOW" moments, and continued to deliver a lot of WOW moments throughout. The graphics were good enough to be believable, and sometimes very believable (my wife did a double take a few times asking, is that real?!). I finished the single player game and was very pleased with it, there were a lot of standard shoot and duck moments, but there were plenty of variety in terms of the locales and even the vehicles you get to control.
So now on to the multiplayer experience. Well, after playing for over 150 hours and reaching Rank 51, I can say that this game is truly addictive. I have downloaded and played on the Back to Karkand maps, which is worth it if you really love the MP experience and are looking for a bit of variety. The MP experience started off very rough for me. My K/D records were horrible, sometimes I would not even register a kill the entire round. There are a variety of game types, conquest was the first one that I tried and I was lost for the first several games trying to figure out what A B C D E meant! I then decided to switch to TDM games and see if I could even get 1 kill. I recommend going to TDM games first and getting experience using your guns before hopping into conquest and rush type games. Using the guns gets much easier once you unlock and add on scopes and other gun upgrades. Once I got enough kills to add a scope, foregrip and heavy barrel to my gun then I started to get more comfortable with the game.
There are a lot of different aspects to the MP experience, you can choose between four different classes each with it's own set of weapons and gadgets that can be unlocked. The engineer for example can carry RPGs and rockets, while the support kit gets C4 and claymores. Learning to use each gadget effectively is key! You can also hop into any number of jets, helicopters and land vehicles if you wish. Each vehicle type also has it's set of upgrades that can be unlocked as you progress. For example you can unlock canister shells or guided shells for your tank, as well as defensive upgrades such as reactive armor or IR smoke. Learning to fly takes a lot of practice and patience. If you are just starting out, I recommend flying a chopper alone. If you crash then everyone on board will perish as well. There are already a lot of flying aces in the skies that will shoot you down in mere seconds.
I found that communication was key for the conquest and rush types of games. Usually the team or squad that communicates the best will win. Calling out targets and spotting enemies makes the game a lot more enjoyable as well since you feel like you are actually a part of the squad. When we first started to play the game we were using the internal communication system, we found it to be very unreliable. Voices would cut in and out and sometimes it just would not work at all. We resorted to using skype instead. There's nothing like having 5 or 6 guys on at once all playing on the same team and coordinating attacks on the objectives!
I am still playing this game and still love every minute of it. There are a lot of guns that I have yet to use, and a lot of vehicle upgrades to unlock.
DICE and EA also seem to be investing more into the game. There are two more download add-on packs coming in a few months which I heard include new maps, guns and possibly vehicles!
DZZ