The Battlefield campaign. We waited seven years for it; in that time, a child could have been born and started elementary school. My expectations were really high because the last story campaign appeared in the fourth installment.
So, it’s the perfect time to say “let’s check,” because we’ve got three different missions from the new campaign to try out. Each one completely different. But I can already tell you that I definitely want to play through this game, as it looks really promising. It may not be a masterpiece, but it’s alright.
What do we have here?
We need to start with a certain technical issue. Since Battlefield is all about big spectacles, explosions, and cutting-edge graphics, the first thing I did when I fired up the game was crank everything up to ultra settings and turn on the new overkill mode wherever I could. And… that was a mistake. Calm down, I didn’t have any frame drops; it’s just that at this stage, overkill is clearly not yet graphically polished.
It’s worth mentioning that the version I tested wasn’t finished yet, but I didn’t come across any bugs or glitches. Aside from the graphical issue, which was… poor shadows that were barely visible in some places. But don’t worry – it was enough to return to the predefined ultra settings, where everything worked much better. Besides, there is no graphic revolution here – it’s just the same old, good BF. The only thing that really bugs me is that the faces seem to look worse than in the last two installments for some reason. Our boss in the first mission looks like he has glued eyelashes. Well, I hope they fix that too.
You’ve put together quite a team here…
Our team in the singles campaign consists of quite interesting personalities. It’s by no means Bad Company; it rather reminded me of the party from the first Killzone. In each mission, we play as different characters (the game decides for us), but we team up to complete the tasks. We can issue simple commands, such as “throw a grenade” or “check this area.” They are assigned to specific characters because each of them represents a different class.
Haz Carter is the commander of Dagger 13, which is our marine squad. He comes off as a tough guy, who hides a lot of empathy. Carter can toss a grenade wherever we tell him to. Dylan Murphy, on the other hand, can fire at the enemy with an RPG if we wish. Simone “Gecko” Espina is a quick and skilled sniper. We can ask her to scout the area for us. We often see Cliff Lopez on the battlefield because he is our support, which means he will be supplying us with ammunition during and after the fight. And finally, Lucas Hemlock. I met him a little later, only on the last mission. He’s a mysterious guy, and we pretty much know nothing about him.
They are all members of the Dagger 1-3 team, which fights on behalf of NATO. What’s important is that it’s not the NATO we know, since a bunch of countries have left. On the other side, we have Pax Armata, a private military corporation that has decided to disrupt the global order.
We have D-Day at home
In the third mission, set in Gibraltar, which I have dubbed “We Have D-Day at Home,” we find ourselves as Murphy in an amphibious vehicle heading towards the shore. On the way, we observe an entire army of allied machines heading to battle, and on the shore, enemy fortifications await, which we shell with a cannon. Unfortunately, we cannot control the vehicle. There’s a lot going on here, but I jokingly gave this stage its name for a reason. For me, it didn’t make an impression; I didn’t feel that it was something new in the series. I think the biggest problem stems from the fact that Battlefield has accustomed us to massive chaos, so I was expecting a larger-scale battle. Meanwhile, over here, we only see a handful of vehicles on the ground, and sometimes something flies by in the sky. What makes sense is that, like a “modern battlefield,” you don’t have a massive army of foot soldiers here, just a few bigger groups.
Gibraltar has narrow streets full of details, especially since we can break down building walls and enter apartments. Not to all of them, but to many. In some, we will even find ammunition. We’re basically the on-the-go mechanic for our battle vehicle, so besides the intense fights with the enemy, we also have to run around with a blowtorch and keep our trusty ride from breaking down and leaving the team hanging. Snipers and guys with RPGs are lurking all around – you can get rid of them quite nicely by demolishing the walls they are hiding behind. Whether with a grenade launcher, C4, or a weapon borrowed from them. In a word – Battlefield, I missed you.
And right here, we’re hit with a real barrage of explosions, especially if you’re wearing headphones. Something keeps exploding non-stop, almost deafening us. The sound is executed fabulously, in my opinion even better than the graphics.
A mission stronger than American walls
We are moving to New York, where a meeting between NATO and the UN is taking place. At the same time, Pax Armata forces are occupying a piece of land in Brooklyn. The NATO members decided to flush out the bastards. This time we play as Carter, the commander, categorized as assaut. What’s really cool is that in this mission, we get four awesome pieces of gear that you wouldn’t want to swap for anything else. Among them is the LKM, which is very helpful in the tight corners of the city. Additionally, the main weapon is a machine gun equipped with a thermal crosshair (after all, we are fighting at night). If that isn’t enough, we also receive thermal goggles.
However, this isn’t the end, as we also acquire a hammer, which is used at this stage to break down doors. The mission in New York is a perfect example of how poorly built American buildings can be. You’ll see this a lot since about a third of the job involves wandering through Brooklyn apartments and stairwells. In fact, I didn’t really have to use the hammer and C4 too often to reach the enemy – firearms were more than enough to break through walls.
During the mission, we are mainly looking for the redhead previously seen in the game trailer. The dude has certain emotional connections with our protagonist from this mission, but again – no spoilers. I really enjoyed this task because, besides running around apartments and rooftops, we also ended up in basements and eventually… in subway tunnels, where we chased a train with a car. Awesome thing, and on top of that, we’re the ones driving, and the car sways a bit, so there is indeed a minimal challenge present. This mission is a big win, and it feels the most cinematic out of the three. It might not be the legendary “Semper Fidelis” from the third installment, but it’s still pretty good.
We also have an (almost) open world!
And here it is – mission 8. We are in beautiful, mountainous Tajikistan, by a picturesque lake around which Pax Armata has its bases. This time, we play as Gecko, a sniper equipped with a drone among her gadgets, capable not only of marking enemies but also dropping bombs on them. Moreover, there are a few chances to ride ATVs through the valley, which is a lot of fun even without any shootouts. The map is halfway open. In its first stage, which involves destroying enemy radars, there are a multitude of options for completion. We can decide which radar to take out first and whether we go in with a bang or take it slow and quiet to keep backup from showing up. I figured that since it’s BF, there has to be as much chaos as possible, and since there were a lot of vehicles on the map, I had an excellent time causing destruction. There are tons of enemies, and they often overwhelm us with their attacks, especially since there are only four of us here. But honestly, it’s a blast.
Memories of Bad Company 2 have returned, but unfortunately without the humor and sarcasm. Our companions are okay, but they’re more on the serious genre. After battling it out on the open map, we ended up in a narrow passage between the mountain slope and the lake, heading towards the dam. We received a heavily used weapon later in the mission there – a remotely controlled mortar. Using it once or twice would be fine, but here it had to be fired dozens of times. We finally ended up at the dam, where the final battle took place.
Here came the most absurd moment so far. We were surrounded by tanks. From both sides. They charged at us. They shot and MISSED EVERY TIME. And we… dodged their shots for a straight minute? However, to be honest, I didn’t have to avoid anything, I was just running. It reminded me of the level of absurdity known from Yakuza, fortunately it was only for a minute. We finally got away just as the dam exploded, and the water dramatically flooded everything behind the truck we were racing in.
It’s all good, the guys do a great job
To sum it all up, the campaign’s looking pretty good so far. I don’t think it’ll top the intense war vibe of BF1, but it seems like it’ll be a cool addition to what’s already a pretty solid multiplayer experience. Fingers crossed it doesn’t crash on launch day! But, let’s be honest, most people will buy this game for the multiplayer, not the single-player.
Now we can only hope that the developers won’t add skins of Nicki Minaj or colorful tanks, and that battle royale won’t become EA’s main priority. I really hope that doesn’t happen. Launch on October 10th.
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