There have been a lot of great rivalries in games over the years. From Sonic vs. Mario, to Nintendo vs. SEGA, or FIFA vs. Pro Evolution Soccer, every time a new release happened, things followed a similar pattern - battle lines were drawn, fans took to their sides, and a slanging match like no other commenced. As the years have gone by, while old conflicts have been laid to rest, new ones have sprouted up just as quickly - and whoever said "war never changes" certainly had the right idea. While the faces may have changed, the battle's still the same, as the field of conflict moved on from the platformers of yesterday to the drastically more serious military action of Call of Duty vs. Battlefield. The gaming equivalent of a local derby, at least one thing's for sure - if you're looking for a military shooter, you've been spoiled this year.
At least, you are if you're looking for one you play online. If you're one of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Call of Duty/Battlefield fans whose consoles only exist to play shooters online, then Battlefield 4 will have you covered. At least, until they turn the servers off when the player base drops below a certain level. But while a few years ago, it was the multiplayer mode that often felt like a tacked on extra in most games, in the case of Battlefield, it's often been the other way around. With a single player mode that often felt like little more than an offline take on multiplayer, just with AI controlled opponents, the game's developers DICE were keenly aware that the Battlefield 3 campaign wasn't up to the normal standard - and so for Battlefield 4, they've pulled out all the stops. As such, this review is going to focus on the single player component.
Enemies. Enemies everywhere.
From the second you pick up the controller, until the moment you switch your console off, Battlefield 4's single player is an all out rush of adrenaline. With blockbuster moments that would put most Hollywood thrillers to shame, there's very rarely any downtime in a campaign that'll see you jetting around the world in the most bombastic of ways. With levels that are as varied as they are spectacular - whether you're rescuing a VIP from the top floor of a Chinese skyscraper, investigating an aircraft carrier that seems to have come under attack, or taking a tank through the middle of a shopping mall that's being ravaged by a tropical storm, there's certainly no shortage of spectacle - and plenty of things that'll keep you on your toes.
And we're not just talking about the scripted, disastrous sequences either (which we'll come to later). Even when you're just trying to pick out a few enemies standing at the other end of the room, Battlefield 4 has ways to keep you thinking. While the majority of the game plays out as a fairly standard first person shooter, as you crouch behind cover, sneak out and take a few pot shots at the enemies, before dodging the grenade they've thrown your way, it's hard to find somewhere you can reliably stay safe in Battlefield 4, as the environments are constantly changing. Cover isn't always as solid as it looks, with metal panels and concrete blocks crumbling when they come under heavy fire - and when a vehicle shows up, it'll turn the whole situation on its head.
Much as in the multiplayer, vehicles play a key part in the Battlefield 4 campaign. While having to run around on foot, dropping anti tank mines behind a rogue Chinese tank (as the one mission requires you to do) may not be all that much fun, taking control of the vehicles for yourself is easily the highlight of the game. Leaping off an aircraft carrier into a passing gun boat, before darting around across the open seas, jumping over towering waves, blowing up anything that moves, from boats to passing helicopters is a lot of fun, with a sense of scale that never fails to impress.
Whoosh.
Like every good blockbuster though, nothing ever really seems to go as your team had planned, with your squad regularly finding themselves in the most impossible, life or death situations. Whether it's the aircraft carrier you're exploring tearing itself in two, Titanic style, sending jets rolling across what used to be the deck; the several-storeys-in-the-air lift you're in being shot at by a passing helicopter, before plummeting to the ground with you in it, or a rogue EMP hampering your rescue operation, everything's been orchestrated to keep your heart pumping, so you never know what's going to happen next - although sometimes, that works better than others.
One of the early sections sees you having to drive your team in a jeep to escape from a plant. You're thrown in the driver's seat as the leader screams at you to drive - but you have no idea where you're supposed to be going. There's nothing on the main screen to tell you, and the sat-nav style window that's ever present has only a faint line that doesn't actually match what you're seeing in front of you. As everything's exploding all around you, you're forced to think on your feet - and then you end up straying off the pre-determined path the game had expected you to take. Going the wrong way because the game hasn't bothered telling you where to go, and dying for your trouble isn't the best of experiences.
Another similar situation happened during a rooftop shoot-out. Moving into position, our team slowly worked their way through the swarms of troops, picking them off one by one, until we could get our VIP to the helicopter. Clambering in, the helicopter took off - and the rooftop suddenly became rather quiet. With no enemies left to shoot, and nothing obvious we were supposed to do next, we were starting to wonder if the game had locked up. Our objective still said "secure the helicopter", despite the fact it had left - so what were we supposed to do? After a lot of searching, and more than a few laps around the roof, we finally discovered that one of the enemies had got themselves stuck inside a building. Once he'd been disposed of, the mission continued as normal - but it would have been nice if the game would have said.
Here's Irish, the heart of the team.
If anything, one of the main problems with the story is that it all moves at such an incredible pace. There's rarely any time to catch your breath, and the cut scenes that further the plot tend to gloss over the important bits, so you're never entirely sure who you're fighting, or why. It's a bit of a shame, as the moments where the action moves away from the fighting are actually some of the best. Wandering the narrow corridors and bulkheads of your aircraft carrier, amongst the crew and refugees you've saved during your last mission is incredibly atmospheric, to say the least - it's just a shame there's not more of it. At least your teammates seem to have more of a personality this time round, though - hard on the outside, soft on the inside "Irish" tends to lead with his heart rather than his head, often getting him into trouble with his higher ups, while a few scenes show your buddies chatting about things other than how best to kill the bad guys, which helps them move beyond just being AI team mates.
In a further nod to the game's all important online mode, the scoring system from the multiplayer has been brought across into the game's single player, offering a bit of all important replay value for a campaign that clocks in at around six hours. Killing an enemy nets you 100 points, a headshot gets you a 25 point bonus, with further multipliers for killing people in quick succession (or stealthily). At the end of your level, your overall points total will determine what rank you get for the mission - but somewhat sadly, there's really very little point to this. You can't spend the points you earn on anything, and the medals seem to count for little. During the missions, there are some collectibles to be found, too - dog tags pinned to walls and the like, and they are very well hidden, but it'd be nice if it felt like it was working towards something.
In all, while Battlefield 4's single player may be of a higher standard than previous instalments, it still falls somewhat short in the same areas as always. It's too short, the plot isn't all that great, and the distinct lack of co-op (split-screen, preferably) is a disappointment, too. While the bombastic moments, and especially the vehicles are a lot of fun, you just come away wishing there was more of it. And seeing as all of EA (and developer DICE's) efforts are going into making downloadable multiplayer maps for the expensive Battlefield Premium add-on, it seems we'll have to wait for the next Battlefield game to get our next single player fix.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
