Chances are you’ve heard about a game called “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” According to its publisher, Activision, “Modern Warfare 3” made more than $400 million in its first 24 hours of sale. To put this in perspective, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” made $483 million in its opening weekend in theaters.
Unfortunately, with “Call of Duty” raking in that much cash, it overshadows other quality multi-player first person shooters. Now, I’ve played my fair share of “Call of Duty,” and I enjoy unleashing killer dogs on my enemies as much as anyone, but many times I’ve seen matches devolve into a stalemate because the players are too scared to poke their heads outside. Players find their own corner to hide in and engage in a grueling battle of patience and willpower. They will wait and wait until someone can no longer withstand the boredom and leaves his little hiding spot and comes running through the door to meet an untimely death.
Enter “Battlefield 3.” This game has not received as much attention in the press. Yet “Battlefield 3” is exactly the type of game to break the monotonous repetition of “Call of Duty.”
It emphasizes teamwork over individual play, so that rather than having players spread out across the map, either waiting for an enemy to walk into his vision or leaving his teammates to the wolves, players now actively work to assist one another and fulfill objectives. “Battlefield 3,” essentially, is a more complex and friendlier version of “Call of Duty.”
“Battlefield 3” pits two teams against each other, the United States and Russia. The selection of the Russians as the Americans’ opponent is hardly surprising, as Russia has been our perennial video game antagonist since James Bond’s 1963 film “From Russia with Love.” These two teams battle for control of the map by gathering control points.
Right away, “Battlefield 3”’s focus on teamwork is apparent. The game can handle a large number of players, up to 64 players in one match, and the maps are appropriately expansive, with locations that are about 10 minutes apart.
Players who decide to hide in corners will not capture control points, leaving the opposing team to control them the game. If a player is alone, chances are one of the 32 enemies will attacking. The game is simply too large for hiding and sniping.
The way to succeed in “Battlefield 3” is to support ones teammates. The most obvious way is to capture points, because the more points you control, the more places you can get reinforcements.
Before entering the game, each player picks a class. Some classes include assaults that heal and revive teammates, engineers who repair and destroy vehicles and blow stuff up and support, who resupply teammates with ammo and provide suppressive fire. Re-con points out enemy locations and helps pick off enemies from afar. A successful team needs a good mixture of all of these classes to complement each team member’s strengths.
“Battlefield 3” provides vehicles to further break the stalemate that multi-player shooter games can get locked in.
There are ground vehicles, ranging from the lightly armored Jeep to the hulking behemoth tanks, and there are air vehicles, including attack helicopters and fighter jets. That’s right, jets. It’s hard to beat zooming along at 500 miles per hour, watching the soldiers and tanks duke it out below and crashing into helicopters.
The vehicles, if driven competently, can provide a huge shift in momentum for a team by eliminating well dug-in soldiers that are defending a control point.
These vehicles can also punch through walls and bring buildings tumbling down. By the end of the game, the map looks like Godzilla’s stomping grounds with flattened structures everywhere.
“Battlefield 3” is a very intricate game, with many concepts that are too in depth to cover in this article. Suffice to say, this is a game quite different from most shooter titles on the market.
While the change of focus from your individual performance to your benefit to the team can be daunting, after a few matches, you’ll find that hiding in a corner will never be exciting again.