The Engineer works pretty much like we’re used to, and his (female soldiers are still confined to the rear) main task is to destroy and repair vehicles. His weapon of choice is a light machine gun. Recon continues to be an annoying coward (at least in my mind), taking out his enemies from afar and spreading destruction with a bagful of C4. Support is, with the exception of Assault, the class that’s seen the most changes. He has regained the ability to hand out ammo, but the big news is his heavy machine gun. It has supporting legs that are automatically extended when you zoom in on the sights, giving you better precision.
Not to heavy for jumping
Supporting fire has always been a thankless task in the Battlefield games, but now it actually seems to work. If you take fire while behind cover, your view and precision is affected so that you can’t just stand up and pop your opponent. You can get the same effect with most weapons, but the more high speed lead filling the air, the greater the effect. We can finally suppress the enemy by persistent firing – a welcome tactical addition.
Levling is life
Just like before, each class has its own arsenal of unlockable weapons and gadgets, some generic and some class specific. According to Lars Gustavsson you can make the assault class more or less nurse-like, among other things. You will also level the various vehicles, and the LAV-25 we got to play with could be equipped with an extra machine gun and a heat sensing camera for an added edge in night combat. The vehicles now regenerate health, and rather than blowing up they instead get immobilized most of the time. Lars Gustavsson explains why:
– We, like many of our players, felt that a rocket blowing up a vehicle full of passengers wasn’t fun. It made one player very happy, but sucked for five others, so many players just avoided the transport vehicles. Now, the person sitting the closest to the explosion might die, but the others can get out and the guy on the mounted machine gun can fire in support, which makes the battle longer and more interesting.
Once we clear the park of vermin, two jets clear the way down into the subway system beneath the city, and the fight goes on through train cars and across platforms. Concrete pillars turn to dust and glass windows shatter, but a quick test shows that the walls are surprisingly resilient. The Dice representatives present assure us that destruction has yet to be fully implemented. Battlefield 3 is still in the alpha testing stage, and there are more destruction to come.
From open spaces to tight corridors
Once we leave the modern catacombs we find ourselves in the financial district and the final battle takes place in burned out buildings and a bus station. Just like before, respawning next to your group is a useful option. Once we got the explosives planted, in what looks like a former ice cream parlor, we only have to defend it for a few seconds until victory is ours.
After playing it for slightly over an hour, the only reasonable conclusion is that Battlefield 3 feels a lot like the much lauded second game. Rush mode has naturally limited space to create intense fighting, but still feels more open than both Bad Company games. We didn’t get to see any Conquest maps, nor try more than one vehicle, but we still felt almost instantly at home. It’s hard to be sure after such a short playing session, but it looks like Battlefield fans are about to enjoy a very pleasant autumn.
