This is not a review for Bf3 so don’t expect my usual high polished professionalism and attention to detail (really don’t), there will of course be a review soon enough – this is simply a brief description of what I experienced on my first day playing one of the most anticipated games of all time. Firstly I heard a lot of negative remarks about the single player campaign so I honestly didn’t expect a lot right there ..wrong. the campaign is actually very good and does tend to draw you in very quickly. The first few missions were kind of mediocre but after about an hour into the campaign it got very fast paced and very involved. The visuals in the campaign were absolutely stunning, the lighting and smoke effects were jaw dropping.
A perfect example was one of the levels set at night where I could see enemy flashlights ahead piercing through the smoke and darkness, it was hard to snap to action when the visuals demanded so much attention. The friendly AI is for the most part pretty good and they don’t seem to hog the spotlight too much leaving you with nothing to shoot. the enemy AI can be quite brutal at times but I find many shooters to be brutal until you learn the basics. The missions did seem a little linear with a lot of scripted events but it was never enough to make me complain. In short the single player campaign is not half as bad as some reviewers have previously stated, linear or not its a whole lot of fun packed full of heart pounding moments and fire fights.
Ok onto the multiplayer, the reason why many people will get the game in the first place. Guns and lots of guns! there is no shortage of weaponry in BF3, anything I used from rifles to handguns all looked and sounded very authentic with a lot of upgrades to unlock. The first time I tried the online I got blown to bits after about one minute, I quickly respawned and jumped back in to see what would happen next. Looking around the main staging area I was treated to having the option of jumping into a jet / tank and even a little jeep, naturally my curiosity got the best of me so I climbed right into the pilot seat of the first thing I saw with wings. Staying in the air was not an easy task, I stayed airborne for a minute or two but inevitably lost control and crashed into the ground. The controls for aircraft are straightforward enough but keeping them in the air is a whole other story, this was to be expected and I’m glad they didn’t simplify it for the sake of reaching a bigger audience – if you do screw up you can always parachute to safety.
Anything on wheels was easy to drive and I found tanks especially were fast and strong enough to push forward without too much flack. The maps for the game were absolutely brilliant with so many buildings and areas that the possibilities for strategic combat were pretty much limitless. I found the first few times I played with random people it was much harder to gain any ground or get kills, when I joined a match with some friends that all changed. Given the maps are so large you can of course go and do your own thing lone wolf style but if you want to last longer sticking to your squad and working as a team is the way to go. Like I said this is just a brief summary of my first play and though brief I’d already recommend it as the best shooter I have ever played – full review coming soon.
