By BlueZero
29 Sep 2015 07:11

I jumped on the Battlefield 4 PC bandwagon quite late this year. EA’s Origin sale lured me in with the promise of the Premium version for around $25. As a super-fan of Battlefield 2 and an experienced soldier in Battlefield 3, I knew this was my chance to play the latest version since I had played it at E3 and parachuted off that crumbling building. I give you my thoughts after playing over 50 hours in the multiplayer experience:

Gameplay:

If you’ve played Battlefield 2 or 3 before, you will feel right at home. EA has balanced the overpowered jets and helicopters from the past version. The mortar and grenades have also been nerfed, so players actually get a chance to use guns to take on the other team.

Commander mode makes a return and the changes are for the better. Unfortunately you can’t drop jeeps on enemy snipers anymore or use artillery. Instead you get to command a cruise missile or bomber. I feel a good commander is much less important to turning the tide of battle and it’s much more difficult to score points using only scans, missile/bomber, Evac, and squad orders.

Squadplay has become ever integral to dominating the battlefield. Squads provide portable spawn points and tons of extra points for squad actions like healing, repairing and support. My pro-tip, always be in a squad and switch often if there isn’t a good spawn point. Only if you are a lone wolf sniper, don’t join a squad because you don’t need teammates spawning next to you and giving away your position.

Best Moments in the Game:

• Satisfaction of planned C4 ambushes against your enemies
• When you driving a tank and just narrowly avoid a cruise missile
• Stealing a tank while the enemy jumped out to repair it
• Siege of Shanghai Building Crumbling “Levolution”
• Pistol gameplay

Unlock Hell/Heaven:

If you just started playing, you are severely hindered by the starting guns and the lack of unlocks. I remember being dominated by other players at the start. Thus the first goal is to slog through grinding to open up options to the better guns like MP7, G18 and actual sniper rifle scopes higher than 1x. The worst are the vehicle unlocks. You will need to co-pilot a lot of tanks, helicopters and Infantry Fighting Vehicles to slowly unlock the required unlocks like Active Protection and missiles. I had to give up on jets because I’m getting pity points against enemy units. At least this time they gave jets the initial loadout of heatseeking missiles unlike Battlefield 3 where you started with only the minigun and no flares! Good luck leveling up the jet unlocks there!

If you love unlocking items, then you will have a great time. There are so many things to unlock, you can spend hundreds of hours and likely get 75% completion. You will likely choose your favorite gun and keep it. The current system penalizes you for trying out a variety of weapons.

Battlepacks:

Battlepacks are awarded for leveling your character, accomplishing missions and by purchase. They unlock random items including very vital scope and weapon attachments, customization options and experience boosts. Battlepacks unlock necessary accessories required to compete at the high level play against opponents.
I give EA props for addressing the concern that players can pay to win in their games with the random contents of the Battlepacks. If you were to throw down money for battlepacks, you would likely get nothing useful. For example with battlepacks I’ve been awarded for leveling up, I’ve gotten accessories for guns that I haven’t even unlocked yet!

Lasting Impressions:

Contrary to my gripes above, I do have a lot of fun playing Battlefield 4 and that’s what matters. Tank gameplay is the best I’ve ever played. Helicopter controls make sense. Jet fighting is way out of my league. Capturing control point flags is still wonderfully exhilarating. Enjoy the fun on the battlefield, at least until the Battlefield in 2016 is released.