I finally got time to check out Battlefield 3 and play through and I've got some interesting things of note, some quirky and others plain ridiculous. Please note, all of this review is on the Story Mode only, not on the online multiplayer mode at all.
I know what some of you are thinking: "Why aren't you including the Multiplayer?" Well, I have three very good reasons. First, when I buy a game I usually play on my own. If its a Co-Op multiplayer, I can usually try to drag one of my FPS-loving friends over, but otherwise its just me. Second, I game for the story. Random running around and killing people online doesn't fulfill me. Instead, give me a strong story and re-play-ability and you've sold me on a great game. Lastly, I don't have XBOX Live, since I've never needed it, so no multiplayer online for me.
The Good:
Being a fan of Battlefield: Bad Company and Bad Company 2, I hoped for good fights, better graphics and a good story-line. I wasn't disappointed. The graphics are crisp and smooth, and I remember looking at several different levels and thinking part of it looked more the part of a movie than a video game. The fights were intense (I was on Normal) and good enough to get me killed once or twice on the tougher levels. Some of the levels have a bit of a "what the heck am I doing right now" problem if you don't pay close attention to the dialogue (and a couple of times, even when you do), but for the most part the logical step takes you to where you need to be. The story was insightful, original, and interesting; everything I have come to expect from Battlefield. The weapons were pretty good, I ended up with some favorites that I could consistently find and use. I also liked that most weapons let you switch between single shots and short bursts, which is great if (like me) you're either making sure to be a good shot or conserving ammo. The story allowed for various different kinds of missions, making everyone happy if only for one or two specific missions.
The Bad:
Mind you, a couple of these are me being picky because of the genre and the way most games let you do things. First off, I spent half the beginning of the game saying to myself "if I had a Sniper Rifle..." anytime I was hunched over behind cover wondering who was shooting at me and from where. This is an incredibly minor thing, since ... I spend most shooter games thinking this.
Here's something a bit more major (SPOILER): There's a small section of a Snipe Mission (obviously my favorite mission) where I kept failing. Failing without dying. It actually looked like I was dying for no reason. So here's what the issue was: You and your sniping partner come across a guy you need to kill with your knife. My natural inclination when taking someone out stealthily is "go slow, don't make noise, do it right". Nope. That was my problem. The only way to get past this part is to RUN at TOP SPEED and NOISY towards the guy and knife him. This makes little to no sense, and goes against anything most military games or military training teach as far as I know. Especially in this particular place, where there's lots of debris, metal and wooden planks that would obviously make noise as you run over them (especially if you'd trip), so slow and steady would SEEM to be the way to go. So I died about 9 times trying to kill a single guy the right way, and the only way to get past is to pretend to be Forrest Gump and RUN at him.
The Ugly:
The Ugliest part, honestly, was the knifing incident, though I did have one problem the first time I played it. I was playing for less than a half hour and the game froze. I thought it was pretty odd, the game freezing especially so quickly. Luckily, it didn't happen again, so I'm assuming my Xbox360 was just having a bad day. I was disappointed that the story was a bit short (though nowhere near as short as Homefront, for example), but the action made up for it.
Here's something that needs to fall under Ugly just because it is the strangest thing I've ever seen: Battlefield 2 comes in two disks. The Story mode and the Multiplayer mode. Perfectly normal, yes? No. Multiplayer is Disc 1 and Story mode is Disc 2. HUH? WHAT? Why is the STORY/Single Player on Disc 2. Shouldn't someone want to play through the normal game BEFORE jumping online and playing multiplayer? And even if they wanted to skip the story... Why wouldn't they just be able to jump to Disc 2 on their own. Why the prompt to skip the storyline? Were they that ashamed of the story? It was Good!! What the heck?!
All in all, the Good make up for the Bad and the Ugly a few times over.
Overall Scores:
Graphics: 9/10
Weapons: 8/10
Replayability: 8/10
Story: 9/10
Running noisily to knife someone instead of stealthily: -47/10 (doesn't count in the scoring, but it's satisfying)
Total Score: 8.5 / 10
