The Battlefield series has always been a compelling sandbox-like MMOFPS, and the latest rendition being none the less different. From the original 1942 to Bad Company 2 and now BF4, it has been a very impressive ride to say the least.
Compared to its predecessor, Battlefield 4 seems partially more polished. Although the mediocre single player campaign seems more like an arcade shooting gallery, the real improvement is in the meatier features of multiplayer. New additions include more variety of weapons, new vehicles, and what I would consider more “Battlefield friendly” maps.
Seemingly in today’s FPS games, gun customization is becoming increasingly more extrapolated and BF4 is not deprived of it. With an abundance of attachments such as a multitude of paints, down to having two different scopes for close or mid range, you can customize that killing machine exactly to your liking. One major set back to the implemented system is no unlocked parts carry over to any other gun. The only exception to this is the paints. While this adds more content to unlock, it unnecessarily creates more work for players who just may just want to play with a loadout they already spent time unlocking.
Digital Illusions CE’s next-gen Frostbite 3 engine pushes item destruction and physics closer to realistic boundaries. Take down a bridge with explosives, run a plane into a room full of adversaries, or remodel the battlefield terrain with a tank, possibilities are crazy ridiculous (in a good way) from a strategic standpoint.
While this “next-gen” technology is great, I do feel as if Frostbite has some problems distinguishing buildings coming down on players. Take for example fully intact buildings that just started to shake will instakill whilst running out for safety. To a minimum, I would expect the flooring to be torn up and debris slamming down causing a death, but negative. Give us a chance here!
One major issue looming over EA’s shoulder with this release is fixing all the bugs, crashing, and general issues in a timely manner. Countless back-end problems are occurring on seemingly every platform. In just the short amount of time the game has been out servers are randomly crashing, clients stop working, and player induced events prevent progress in the campaign. While time restraints are fully noted, for a full price $60 game – beta bugs should not be occurring like they are.
At the core, this game is truly good, but when it works in its current state. A few backend fixes, minor tweaking of destruction/collision, some nerfed weapons, and this game easily pushes as a front-runner of multiplayer first person shooter games.
