Battlefield 3 Impressions

*Warning: The following contains spoilers for Battlefield 3*

I know DICE is a multiplayer orientated video game developer but I had high hopes for their single player component for Battlefield 3. After playing and enjoying the campaign from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 I expected that they would follow suit with an outing that was equally emotional, with lots of action, good characters and a gripping tail. Granted Bad Company 2 wasn’t the genre defining story and will not win any literary rewards but it made the campaign worth playing through.

Battlefield 3′s single player campaign is nothing more than a glorified tech demo for the Frostbite 2 engine. It is as if EA and DICE created this new technology and instead of asking themselves “What sort of story can we tell with this?” they asked themselves “How can we show this off?”. Like a toddler in the playground with the newest toy, they waved the Frostbite 2 engine around in everyone’s faces but did not really know how to play with it.

Image via Wikipedia

The story itself is typical of modern warfare shooters which really has become none existent or background noise. There is a nuclear weapon, something about middle eastern bad guys, and oh guess what, the Russians are involved! Its too bad the mission design and levels did not reflect this poorly put together story but rather were made to show off. DICE needed to show that there are Tanks in the game, so we get a whole mission about that. Same with Jets, building destruction and one too many close up fist fights.

That is my biggest complaint with the entire single player campaign. What I mean is that you as the player are not really playing but rather watching an interactive cutscene. You’re tasked with killing some bad guys here and there but most of the time you’re following an on screen marker to a destination just 20 feet away, pressing buttons when the game tells you to and watching the explosions and action scenes.

Plenty of times I’ve tried to break the flow of the game by running ahead up the next corridor only to be stopped by a door I couldn’t shoot through or open. I was forced to wait for my computer controlled squad mates to come barreling down the hallway, push me out of the way and open the door.

It got even more ridiculous when I knew I had to go up a ladder to snipe some enemies and instead of waiting for one of the main characters to spout off his usual military drivel (which by the way there is WAY too much army talk in this game) I headed for the ladder. I was stopped five feet from the ladder by an invisible barrier. I had to walk back to the main character who was adorned with a “FOLLOW” marker so he could tell me to go back and up the ladder.

Most of the pacing did not make sense either. There was a moment where a villain with a mortal gunshot wound was escorted into a chopper by myself. Like I stated above I didn’t actually carry the body into the helicopter but rather watched my team mate do it. So the villain is about to die and needs to give his big villain speech. As the player I need to come over and listen to it so the only way DICE thought was the best way to signal this crucial moment in the storyline was to have a giant “PRESS B” button.

Why was this needed you ask yourself? The player walks over to the villain who is being medically treated by a soldier, presses B so THAT soldier can hand YOU an adrenaline shot so you can administer it to the villain. Why even bother? Why not have the soldier do that in the first place and skip the button press on this interactive cutscene of a video game. What I’m writing sounds a little conflicted because first I’m bashing the game for being an interactive film but then I’m asking to remove the interaction.

What I’m getting at is that there should be many clear moments of game play where the player is immersed, interacting and affecting with the world and not meaningless tasks where I have to press a button or be at a certain spot to engage the story line and move it forward. If I’m not doing the right thing the immersion shouldn’t shatter into a million pieces.

The player should not be the driving force in a story but rather be along for the ride and enjoy it as it happens with or without you. It shouldn’t be a series of checkpoints or like a carrot on a string dangled in front of our eyes so we move one step forward but never getting to the good stuff. What it should be is an immersive experience where it doesn’t feel like you’re playing a game or interacting with a menu. It should be a form of escapism that draws you in and doesn’t let you go.

All I got from Battlefield 3 was a long winded, Michael Bay action movie that is easily forgettable as soon as it was over. EA and DICE, if you want to make a game that is memorable and a lot of people will purchase it, you need to try something new and fresh instead of just copying the other big guy and hope it works out. No one likes a show off and no one is going to be friends with someone who is boring.