Battlefield 3 London Preview Event

PlayStation Access held a competition earlier this week where 20 lucky winners would be given the opportunity to play Battlefield 3 a week before release. I was chosen as a winner and attended the event last night in London.

Upon arriving, the hosts seemed to be online news site GameSpot and I was greeted by a large queue of about 70 gamers. Inside the building there were two rooms set up in what resembled an old underground brick wine cellar of numerous TV’s with the game preloaded and ready to play. With the release of the game imminent it was quite easy to tell that we were playing the retail copy of the game and the disc was a mere eject button press away from our hands.

To begin with, we were told that we could play the first two levels of the campaign. Before the campaign started you were allowed to choose your difficulty from the standard option of easy, normal and hard. I played on normal and the credits started rolling. Immediately the game throws you right into the heart of the action as you witness a cut scene of your character jumping off a bridge on to the top of a moving train. You gain control of your character as he jumps into a train full of enemies.

The train level is essentially a quick time event tutorial. You begin with a pistol and take out a few guards before picking up a more powerful rifle and as you progress through the train you encounter enemies where you have to use quick time button presses to win a melee encounter. A bomb detonates and you jump outside of the train carriage where you climb up and crouch across the top of the train for a bit. Jumping back into the carriage you shoot a few more enemies before you eventually get knocked out ending the level. The whole section took about 5 minutes to play.

A cut scene then shows you in a military briefing room being interrogated although not as violently as the scenario from Call of Duty Black Ops. The conversation leads into a flash back of the next mission. Operation Sword Breaker is the second mission in the game which was the first level shown off to promote Battlefield 3. You can find plenty of videos on YouTube of the complete mission itself.

The squad based element plays a heavy role in Battlefield 3. For the first few minutes you are following your squad through streets and alleys on your way to find a group of trapped soldiers. A fire fight breaks out in the courtyard and you are under attack from plenty of enemies with little to no initial cover. To be honest I died a few times here and the regenerating health is not as forgiving as in Call of Duty. It takes a bit longer to replenish making cover essential in every battle. After the ground enemies have been taken out, there are two snipers on a balcony which you need to attack. There are many cars in the parking lot and they tend to explode so choosing your cover wisely is another important strategy. The brick wall the snipers were hiding behind, eventually crumbled after unloading a few clips, making them easy open targets.

After the fire fight it was back into follow the leader mode where you and your squad proceeded up to the roof of a building taking out a few enemies on the way and crouching under corridor windows to avoid getting sniped in the head. On the roof you go prone and make your way to the edge of the rooftop to take out a sniper hiding in the hotel across the street. One of the team gives you a rocket launcher and they then provide suppressive fire as you aim a rocket into the snipers face. If you make the shot, the whole building collapses in a totally awesome way.

At the top of the roof, you could see your fellow squad pinned down on the street and have to defend them from an onslaught of enemies. Across the street on another building, you have more enemies firing at you too. There were strategic gaps left in the wall protecting you which allowed you to shoot whilst crouching. Sitting in one position for too long resulted in your brick wall cover being destroyed by the enemies firing at you. After the battle it was back down to street level by jumping down a few rooftops. On the way down, a nice little touch added by the team showed two of your squad members picking up a plank, placing it across two rooftops, bridging the gap and heading back over to pick up their guns again before proceeding.

Your squad makes it to a main road where you find another injured soldier in a vehicle. You are told to follow a wire down into the basement of another building, climbing over rubble and entering a ventilation system before finding the source. A melee encounter occurs which demands quick reflexes and button presses which don’t seem to make obvious sense like they do in God of War quick time events. After a few tries you take the guy out with a few brutal punches and kicks before heading back up to the surface.

You are now told to man a heavy machine gun on a walkway above the street and begin to mow down a massive amount of enemies making their way towards your position. Foot soldiers are accompanied by cars with machine gun turrets making your job even harder. You retreat to your own turret mounted vehicle and continue to take out a few more enemies. An earthquake then strikes the surrounding area as roads begin to crack and buildings begin to topple ending the mission.

Another briefing room scene later, you awaken hurt under a few large pieces of rubble. It’s now dark and enemies are patrolling for your squad members. You make your way past soldiers with torches staying close to tight gaps under broken road fragments in order to not be discovered. Then a staff member approaches you saying that’s all we are showing off today!

After everyone has had a chance to play the campaign, the event switches over to multiplayer. Playable maps included the beta Operation Metro, Caspian Border and another level which featured a dock and train yard. The multiplayer experience was solid and my only gripe was the fact that when there are no vehicles around you find yourself spending a good few minutes running back to the location where everyone is fighting. If I remember correctly you do have the ability to spawn near a team mate although I’m not sure if this is true. The game looked stunning on the PS3, easily being one of the best looking games out there right now and I didn’t encounter any bugs which was a big positive. The beta build is almost 2 months old now and the team have done a fantastic job at patching the game.

There was a new issue which I and many others had not encountered before. The aiming was overly sensitive. You can turn it down in the menu but it did effect many players at the event. Even on the lowest setting it is still quite sensitive. I’m not sure whether this is an issue as we were also sitting very close to a large TV which may have been the cause, but I played the campaign on PS3 at the Eurogamer Expo in a similar situation and do not remember controls being that sensitive. The sensitivity was not aided by the recoil on the guns which made it near impossible to land hits on targets easily. This was an issue in both single and multiplayer.

Later on in the event the staff members all went next door which allowed one avid gamer to proceed through the campaign and get as far as the airliner jet level a bit further into the campaign. The gamers watching him said the campaign did get more impressive as the missions progressed. What they were not impressed with is how quickly he managed to get so far in the campaign which goes to show the length of the campaign may actually be very short.

What were my opinions overall of the final build of Battlefield 3? Well as one gamer put it very well “Call of Duty lets you play as a Hollywood action hero and Battlefield 3 lets you play as a real soldier”

Battlefield 3 – Pros

+ Frostbite 2 Engine looks stunning and makes Call of Duty feel very dated in visuals and world destruction

+ Great visuals result in very immersive game play

+ Realistic design (Breaking up slow movement through the world with large fire fights)

+ Gun recoil, fast quick time events and slower health regeneration mean you need skill to play the game (It provides a challenge, even on normal mode)

Battlefield 3 -Cons

- Slow movement sections feel restricted as you have to stay in line

- Movement sections take up a good few minutes making you feel as though the mission was short due to less action

- Gun recoil and high sensitivity mean it’s harder to aim accurately

- Lots of running around multiplayer maps to get back into the battle

[UPDATE: FULL REVIEW HERE]