Modern first-person shooters have started to resemble big-budget Hollywood blockbusters in recent years, a trend that has received both praise and criticism from gaming audiences. Being shuttled from one explosive set piece moment to another can be thrilling, but when the formula is overused it feels like you're on an on-rails Disney ride.
While the "Battlefield 3" campaign isn't devoid of this feeling, its multiplayer mode offers a much more natural (and rewarding) sense of large-scale action. With dozens of PC players battling across nine massive maps in tanks, jeeps, helicopters, jets or on foot, multiplayer matches feel like a genuine war rather than a small-scale skirmish.
If your gaming computer is capable of supporting the highest settings, you're in for an aesthetic treat with "Battlefield 3" that tops everything else in the genre. Character animations look smooth and realistic, explosions have significant weight to them and environments get torn apart in showers of concrete and debris. The stellar audio design matches the high quality bar of the graphics, featuring realistic sound effects, Hollywood-caliber voice acting and a great soundtrack.
Rather than delivering sweeping changes to the series' multiplayer format, developer DICE chose more subtle tweaks for "Battlefield 3." For example, the assault and medic classes are now merged, so the ability to throw medical kits and revive teammates while using assault weaponry feels ideal. The ability for snipers to lay prone returns. It's as annoying as ever to get picked off by camping recon players, but the kill cam and scope glint should tip observant players off about their location.
Rush, Team Deathmatch and the squad variants are solid modes, but with the return of 64-player matches, Conquest is once again the star of the multiplayer show.
As exciting as the in-game action is, the method for jumping into matches is a hassle. Forcing players to exit the game menu to the Battlelog website when they want to switch between modes seems unnecessary.
Most "Battlefield" fans spend the majority of their time in the rewarding multiplayer game, but this entry also delivers the series' most ambitious single-player campaign. It presents a dead-serious narrative about an imminent nuclear threat. While derivative, the campaign is consistently entertaining throughout. Tight gunplay, exciting set pieces and a more focused narrative than its primary competitor help to make this the best shooter campaign since "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."
"Battlefield" fans hoping for the most polished entry in the series won't be disappointed by this massive sequel. The multiplayer mode maintains the high level of quality that DICE is known for, and the campaign is the best in franchise history. Outside of the annoying Battlelog and a tacked-on, uninspired co-op mode consisting of six short standalone missions, the only downside to "Battlefield 3" is the lack of substantial changes to the multiplayer formula. That shouldn't stop longtime fans and newcomers from enjoying one of the best first-person shooters in gaming.
