Battlefield 4: To War! ...Kind of. (360)

[Sassafrass]

Images taken from Google.
Any TL;DR's will result in rabid ferrets being inserted into a random orifice.
Premium not mentioned as it's not a game, it's a season pass.

In the words of Angry Joe at the start of his Alien: Colonial Marines review, you fucked it up. How Battlefield 4's multiplayer segment got past QA testing in this state and got released is just mind boggling. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than used to a game not working right out of the box, my experience with Payday 2 and Fallout 3 have shown me that games can be fickle beasts that you have to jump through hoops for, just so you can play them smoothly and for longer than an hour. However, when your game has it's own thread about the issues it has [http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/forum/threadview/2955065670203355766/] on your official forums, from a DICE developer, you know things have gone wrong somewhere down the line. However, it's not all bad, as some of Battlefield 4 is enjoyable and fun at times.

Unlike Battlefield 3, the campaign mode in Battlefield 4 doesn't feel quite as lacking and empty as it did in 3. Sure, the plots still crazy ramped up to 11 and contains more nonsensical twists than the average Final Fantasy but it's actually enjoyable this time. And, to be fair, it's nice to see America get a bloody nose in a military shooter for once. You'll still come out on top as the good guys, as you always do in modern day shooters, but not without witnessing a lot of American stuff exploding or being shoot up. They've also improved upon the mechanics in Battlefield 4's campaign as well. In Battlefield 3, you had moments where you could randomly fail missions for no reason. Thankfully, in Battlefield 4. these moments have been removed, so you can go on with the game and not being randomly killed by the game for advancing too far in one direction. They've also smartened up the AI too, so they don't sit behind cover doing bugger all. They actually advance, flank and kill enemies this time. Admittedly, yes, they don't kill many but it's nice to see that they are taking some of the weight off of you.

[Img_Inline width="325" Caption="This coding is fucking retarded. -_-" Align="right"]http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y533/SassafrassReviews/Review%20screens/oie_2205044jhmihJuf_zps4eb40218.jpg[/Img_Inline]

While the single player is a nice addition that helps you learn the controls if you're a first time Battlefield player, the veteran Battlefield players will undoubtedly jump head first into the multiplayer and begin fragging people all over the world. Well, that's if they're not plagued by the various problems the multiplayer seems to have. In my time with Battlefield 4, it has crashed various times without warning, suffered sound problems for the first minute of a round nearly every round, horrible texture glitches in the starting spawn area, hit detection issues, the wondrous one shot kill bug which is currently in its third fix and the odd random disconnect from a server. It just sucks the fun out of the multiplayer which, when it's working, is a hell of a lot of fun and a really fluid experience. The worst bug by far though is the one which, when you spawn in, makes your gun not appear for a few seconds. Now, this is a pretty big issue, seeing as this leaves you utterly defenceless for those few seconds. I still don't know how this hasn't be fixed, but I guess EA or Dice are too busy working on Mirrors Edge 2 or the new Battlefront game. There is a few more issues I could go into detail on, including the removal of Battlefield 3's party system, which makes it easier to play with friends, the removal of the queuing system, the random frame drops on some maps and the DLC problem that plagued users who didn't get access to it when they were meant too. However, if I did, I'd be here for a long time as Battlefield 4 has some serious issues. Maybe it would've helped if the beta test they had us all play wasn't of an older version of the beta [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.831408-DICE-Battlefield-4-Beta-Testers-Are-Objectively-Wrong-On-Faults#20292862], and stopped telling us that our bug complaints were objectively wrong.

I will say, however, just to be positive a little bit, that the ?Levolution? events that happen are pretty fun and a cool addition to the series. They range from being small things to map changing; you can make a ship crash into the land, you can drop a skyscraper and you can flood a map, drastically altering how that map plays. Admittedly, yes, their addition does make half the player base go straight for these events from the start of the round, but that's just how some people play. The classes have also been rebalanced, so the recon class is finally able to do something other than sit and snipe all game. There does seem to be one gun that rules all, just like the M16 did in Battlefield 3, so that's still a bit annoying; thankfully people seem to be trying various weapons out though, so it's rare that you'll run into this specific gun. It's also very pretty, even on 360. While it's not as pretty as, say, Bioshock Infinite is on the same system, it certainly is a gorgeous game to look at.

[Img_Inline width="325" Caption="This coding is fucking retarded. -_-" Align="left"]http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y533/SassafrassReviews/Review%20screens/oie_2205323SLQkRt8Z_zps5397686f.jpg[/Img_Inline]

There is also some rather nice small, unimportant additions as well. Commander mode is a nice addition, even though you really don't do much as commander to begin with, allowing you to give orders to your team, drop in supplies, launch the odd missile and generally be a nuisance for the other team. It's nice to see a strategy element added to what normally is a straight up shoot 'em up, however. Battlepacks are also a nice small addition, allowing for a chance to unlock random attachments for random guns, random emblems for your Battlelog profile and various XP boosts for an hour of playing time, from 25% up to 200% and are awarded every two levels before level 50, then one per level up after you get past level 50. And don't worry, you can still unlock attachments by getting kills with your weapon of choice, so it's not all reliant on the battlepacks to unlock that scope you want for your assault rifle or sniper, so it's not 100% reliant on them.

Overall however, these neat additions and a solid single player aren't enough to recommend Battlefield 4 at this point in time. I'm pretty sure that once the bugs are fixed and everything's in working order, Battlefield 4 will be a riot and great fun to play. However, right now, with all the bugs, I'd give it a wide birth for a few months and let the poor buggers who own this, along with myself, tell you what condition it's currently in. It's more frustration than fun at this point, to be fair. However, if you absolutely must have this game right now, do not pay the full price for it and shop around online for the best deal you can find; I think Amazon are currently selling it for £20 brand new on PC. It's a bit pricer for the consoles though, so I'd avoid it for those. Battlefield 4 is a horrible bug riddled mess that doesn't appear to be playable and enjoyable for long periods of time any time soon.

[small]

So what was the point of beta testing an old build? To stress test the servers, huh? Why's that? ?So that you don't end up in a Rockstar situation where the game doesn't actually work on day one." ...Oh, the sweet, delicious hilarity.​

[/small]

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[TravsballsdotJPG]

Good review, i've always viewed battlefield as a kind of 'jack of all trades, master of none', CoD always did better, big spectacularly silly storylines and set pieces whilst other tactical FPS titles (ARMA series etc.) took the realistic path, leaving battlefield hesitantly straddling the fence between the two. I don't really have constant access to reliable internet so i tend to prefer games which are primarily single player focused and when I had a go at Battlefield 3's single player campaign i found it pretty repetitive and boring, didn't really enjoy it and assumed it'd be much of the same in BF4 but by the sounds of it, and by the way you described it, its worth a go.

Cheers.

 

[Sarge034]

Snip

TLR, why didn't you mention Premium?
...
...
...

I jest, I jest. In all seriousness how can a Beta have fewer bugs than the actual game? The additions to the single player seem nice and an improvement to the AI is always welcome. I do wonder why this fiasco is such a surprise after so many features on BF3 were released, and still are, broken.

Seems like a competent and nonbiased review. Good job.

 

[Sassafrass]

Good review, i've always viewed battlefield as a kind of 'jack of all trades, master of none', CoD always did better, big spectacularly silly storylines and set pieces whilst other tactical FPS titles (ARMA series etc.) took the realistic path, leaving battlefield hesitantly straddling the fence between the two. I don't really have constant access to reliable internet so i tend to prefer games which are primarily single player focused and when I had a go at Battlefield 3's single player campaign i found it pretty repetitive and boring, didn't really enjoy it and assumed it'd be much of the same in BF4 but by the sounds of it, and by the way you described it, its worth a go.

Cheers.

I'd still advise waiting for BF4 to go cheap, before buying it just for the single player. While it's a fun romp, it's around 6/7 hours and not really justifiable unless you can find it half price.

 

[Neonbob]

That's kinda sad...I only had experience with BF3's beta test, and that was immensely enjoyable. It's a bit depressing to hear that they managed to cock something up that badly after doing so well before.
Ah well.
Better you than me, Sassy!

 

[Sassafrass]

That's kinda sad...I only had experience with BF3's beta test, and that was immensely enjoyable. It's a bit depressing to hear that they managed to cock something up that badly after doing so well before.
Ah well.
Better you than me, Sassy!

Oh wait, the cock ups get even better, my whale nuking friend. Sooooooooooo much better. -_-

So, jumped on tonight to play for the first time in a couple of weeks. Everythings going OK, some bullshit here and there but it's fine. Then, I suddenly die. The killcam shows me an INVISIBLE player. I spawn, get killed by a different dude. Also invisible.

So I respawn.

Now I'M fucking invisible and unable to shoot or use equipment. Just...how did you fucking manage this one, DICE?

 

[Neonbob]

You became their bonus character: The Amazing Pacifist.
It's a big statement on the futility of war.
And also of fuck you.