Battlefield 4 Game - Cover
Battlefield 4 Game - Review
There's something evergreen about Battlefield's brand of online warfare.
The combination of breakneck infantry fighting and explosive vehicular
warfare breeds conflicts that are exciting, tense, and, perhaps most
importantly, diverse. With weapons, gadgets, and upgrades tailored to
create a wealth of combat roles, it can often seem like there's no end
to the gratifying ways you can contribute to the war effort. This
variety has enticed players into Battlefield games for years, and in
Battlefield 4, it's alive and well. The online multiplayer is an
absolute blast.
But Battlefield is about more than just multiplayer these days, and the
single-player campaign in BF4 also has some exciting moments. These are
sequences that channel the freedom and variety of multplayer; the levels
spent mostly in corridors and in close-quarters combat are more
frequent, however, and not nearly as enjoyable. The characters that
drive the story show flashes of appealing personality, but these are
drowned out by cliche relationships and boilerplate dialogue. Though BF4
outdoes its predecessor, the series has a long way to go before the
campaign is more than a sideshow diversion.
Fortunately, the online stage is expertly set for some exhilarating
moments. One of the best new things about BF4 is Obliteration mode, in
which two teams fight to gain control of a bomb and use it to blow up
three enemy positions. Unlike returning standby Conquest mode, in which
the battle ebbs and flows between a handful of set positions,
Obliteration boasts conflict zones that can change in a flash with the
timely use of land, air, and sea vehicles. Motorized transport has
always been a pillar of combat in the Battlefield series, and
Obliteration mode makes mobility more important than ever. (Thank
goodness for the new test range that allows you to practice piloting
every vehicle!) A skilled helicopter pilot can swoop in to pick up the
bomb carrier and then zip off to an objective point, leaving enemy
infantry in the dust. Escaping the chaos to grab a personal watercraft
can turn the tide, but perhaps it's better to blow it up so your enemies
don't grab it for themselves. Plotting your own dramatic maneuvers
while defending against the enemies' is a lively challenge that takes on
new urgency in Obliteration.
Battlefield 4 Gameplay
Battlefield 4 Gameplay
Matches without vehicles, however, have a different pace. Victory comes
from solid squad support and sharp shooting. Battling for bomb
possession in winding prison tunnels is a brutal close-quarters affair,
and well-balanced matches run the risk of devolving into lengthy scrums
in which neither team can make headway. Keeping your squad alive is
crucial here, not just as mobile spawn points but also to preserve your
field upgrades. These are new attribute bonuses that you gain through
squad-related actions, bestowing you with resistance to suppressing fire
or better flak protection, for example.
Being able to shoot a little straighter or survive a nearby grenade
blast can make a difference in these fast-paced, infantry-heavy matches
of Obliteration, as well as in small, speedy matches of Domination
(small-scale Conquest) and Team Deathmatch. The other new mode also
involves bomb-carrying, but because it has bite-size maps and no
respawning, Defuse demands a more careful kind of infantry combat.
Weapon choice and enemy detection are key in these short, fraught
encounters, and while the heightened tension can result in some very
satisfying wins, smaller arenas are not where Battlefield 4 is at its
best.
The standout action comes in large-scale conflicts that take advantage
of the 10 large, well-designed maps. Richer color saturation makes them a
pleasure to look at, from the lush alpine fields surrounding a massive
satellite dish to the sparkling neon lights of a coastal city. Buildings
frequently have stairs or elevators that allow access to upper stories,
giving snipers long sight lines and providing parachutists with
jumping-off points to better traverse the map. This increased
verticality adds some strategic options, but the bigger change is the
greater prevalence of water. Marine combat is a much bigger factor in
Battlefield 4, whether you're zipping down the narrow canals of a
seaside resort while your passenger mows down infantry or patrolling the
lanes of a small archipelago and shooting helicopters out of the sky
with a fully crewed attack boat.
Battlefield 4 Game
Naval dominance can help you control a match, but water-based mobility
is another huge consideration, as anyone who has trudged across a large
empty field instead of hitching a ride knows. Swimming leaves you
vulnerable, though you can at least pull out your sidearm, so it's best
to secure transport when you can. This much is obvious when fighting in a
stormy island chain, but until someone blows the levee on the slightly
waterlogged urban map, you can do just fine scurrying around on foot.
When the water does rush in, the whole place gets submerged beneath ten
feet of water and things change significantly. If you don't stick to the
rooftops or hop in one of the newly spawned boats, you're in trouble.
This deluge is the most drastic of the marquee environmental events that
you can trigger on each map. Some of these occurrences bring
significant change, like the destruction of a skyscraper, while others
are more subtle, like closing jail doors to shut off a hallway or
raising bollards to block a road. These special events are complemented
by the wide range of destructible structures and deformable terrain.
Blown-out walls and collapsed buildings have a hard time hiding enemies,
and roads pitted by bomb craters are more difficult to navigate
smoothly. Destructibility has been amped up from Battlefield 3, and
being able to blast your way through certain obstructions is a
liberating and empowering experience.
In most cases, you must supply the ordnance to take advantage of this
destructibility (some maps have large triggered bombs that do the job on
their own). Among the weapons and gadgets for each class are a number
of explosive options tailored to take down threats on land, at sea, and
in the sky. There are also items that support your allies in a variety
of ways, from keeping them alive to alerting them to nearby enemies.
Thanks to some loadout shuffling and the presence of weapon classes that
unlock for every soldier type, there are more ways than ever to
customize the four basic archetypes to fill a multitude of combat roles.
Of particular note is the new ability to zero your scope, a trick that
lets you quickly set the distance at which your bullet will hit the
center of your sight, providing a valuable aid for long-range sniping.
Battlefield 4
Between vehicle and soldier customization, there are a ton of ways to be
effective on the battlefield and rack up the points that increase your
rank and unlock new stuff. You can intermittently earn battlepacks that
provide small rewards, and new map-specific battle pickups like sniper
rifles, automatic shotguns, and grenade launchers give you powerful ways
to adapt your strategy on the fly. If you prefer to take a broader
strategic view, you can join a match as a commander once you hit the
requisite level. With a bird's-eye view and a chat line to every squad
leader, this mode lets you set objectives for troops, scan for enemies,
and reinforce your team in a few other ways. Vehicle and supply drops
can conceivably be a great boon to your grunts, but the tools that
become available to you depend largely on how well those grunts accept
and follow your orders. Oblivious players can make Commander mode drag,
so it's a hit-or-miss experience.
The single-player campaign has its ups and downs as well, though alas,
more of the latter than the former. It's good when you're fighting your
way through a village, using scattered weapons and the odd vehicle to
carve a path to your allies. Sections like these approximate the combat
diversity of multiplayer and are genuinely fun, while other sequences
aren't as successful. Fighting through streets and buildings evokes
nothing more than the dozens of other shooter campaigns in the same
mold, and though the gunplay is competent, it lacks a spark to sustain
it. A difficult tank battle and some dramatic moments might manage to
get your blood pumping, but on the whole, the action feels lifeless.
Though the plot chronicles a high-stakes
conflict, Battlefield 4 invests its storytelling energy in its
characters. Unfortunately, they all-too-often act as soldiers who have
character, rather than characters who are soldiers.
The characters in your squad could have enhanced the experience, as
they did in the excellent Bad Company 2. Indeed, your squad's idle
discussion of fortune cookie messages and the prospect of eating pigeon
channel some of the great character writing from that game, but these
highlights are few and far between. Most of the character development
focuses on cliche roles such as "gruff dude who doesn't trust newcomers"
and "earnest guy who follows orders." Though the plot chronicles a
high-stakes conflict, Battlefield 4 invests its storytelling energy in
its characters. Unfortunately, they all-too-often act as soldiers who
have character, rather than characters who are soldiers. And the results
are drab.
Battlefield 4 Game Review
So with five versions of the game spread across two generations of
consoles, which is the best Battlefield? Unsurprisingly, the PC version
remains on top with excellent visuals and sprawling 64-player matches
that make the most of the great maps and incredible combat diversity.
The PlayStation 4 version joins the PC in the top tier, with comparable
visuals and 64-player matches to boot. The Xbox One version, however,
remains under review embargo for another two weeks, so we can't evaluate
it until then. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions still deliver
solid visuals and exciting online play, but with matches limited to 24
players at the most, current gen already feels like last gen. Texture
pop-in delays are much more noticeable in the PS3 version, making it the
least appealing of the bunch.
Regardless of platform, Battlefield 4 multiplayer is a blast and
definitely the best reason to return to this hallowed franchise or dive
in for the first time. Though the campaign makes strides in the right
direction, it remains a sideshow to the main event. Expansive and
exciting, challenging and empowering, Battlefield 4 multiplayer is a
thrilling endeavor in this generation or the next.
System Requirements of Battlefield 4 Game
Battlefield 4 system requirements
The minimum PC system requirements for Battlefield 4 are expected to be:
- Dual core CPU (Intel Core i5 or AMD “Bulldozer”).
- At least 4 GB main system memory
- Graphics card with at least 512 MB of VRAM and support for DirectX 10
- 30+ GB of harddrive space
- Windows Vista
Recommended system requirements
The recommended PC system requirements for optimal visual quality and frame rates:
- Quad core CPU (Intel Core i5 or i7) at 3 Ghz
- 4 GB memory (8 GB for 64-bit operating systems)
- A modern DX11 graphics card with 2+ GB of video memory, GeForce 600 series or Radeon 7000 series
- Windows 7 64-bit operating system (Windows 8 is supported as well)
- 30+ GB of free harddrive space
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