The Battlefield series is definitely popular, second only to Call of Duty in terms of online shooters. In fact, Battlefield 4 took last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts head on, though perhaps felt rushed to market, with a slew of bugs and glitches post-release.
That didn’t stop people from playing online, and it still seems like a very active shooter. I’ve personally never played it, but the aerial and vehicular gameplay makes it seem like a larger scale war.
And with Battlefield 4, EA brought something new to the multiplayer arena: maps which would change when a Levolution event was triggered. From a large skyscraper falling to flooded maps and other weather conditions, it felt bigger than Ghosts’ similar changes in gameplay.
The single player seems to have been forgotten about rather quickly, but that’s a given where online is the clear focus. It felt quite different however with its larger maps rather than linear corridors to fight through, making a nice sense of freedom.
In our review, Stefan described how the single player felt as though it was “held together by duct tape and elastic bands” with a “lacklustre” script and “one dimensional” characterisation.
But when he talked about the multiplayer, he had much more praise to give. He summed it all up with:
Gamers have always been rather vocal when traditionally single player franchises add a multiplayer game, worrying about the diversion of resources. Battlefield 4 goes in the opposite direction, with a single player which feels tacked on purely to show off some of the online map locales.
But the multiplayer is the life and soul of the game, and lives up to and improves upon what Battlefield 3 had to offer. There’s greater variety of vehicles, maps which push off into new and interesting directions with changeable elements thanks to Levolution.
So, what did you think of the game? Did the multiplayer and Levolution elements make up for the poor single player campaign?
As per usual, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Simply leave a paragraph or so with your general opinion, and then end it with a Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It or Avoid It rating on the end. Get your comments in by Sunday, and we’ll try to include them in next week’s verdict round-up.
BrendanCalls
No question, buy it
If your an FPS fan then Battlefield has to be the top dig on all consoles at the moment. (I’ve not played KZ:Shadowfall or Titanfall though)
double-o-dave
BUY IT! – Thats if you like FPS.
I think a lot of people get put off when they first enter the Battlefield world because of the sheer scale, vehicles and different ways to which you can achieve victory, but once they bare with it they become addicted.
If I was playing online for the first time I’d probably recommend joining a game of Team Deathmatch which is just a smaller section of a level enabling you to get the feel of different weapons etc. Then I’d probably move onto to ‘Rush’ or ‘Conquest’.
I must emphasise… “IN MY OPINION” once you discover different game modes and tactics I can’t see how the likes of COD, KZ or even TF (which I admittingly haven’t played compare – But thats just me :)
Amphlett
Buy It.
Sure, the multiplayer segment was quite choppy in the first few months but I found that the plus points significantly outweighed these issues. It’s just a massive game, offering a wealth of scenarios so vast I couldn’t list them all here.
Let’s say you want to pilot an attack chopper in to battle, no problem. Then you decide to do a little sniping from the edge of the field, no problem. Want to go in all guns blazing? Then why not jump aboard a chopper as a passenger and get dropped off right in the middle of the action?
hornet1990
Personally I would say avoid it. I should also point out I pretty much only play rush rather than conquest. I’ve not gone near the SP because the save game deletion issue still hasn’t been fixed apparently (make of that what you will).
I held off getting it because of the reported issues and when I did bite in January it did initially seem like either the issues were overblown, or had been largely addressed. Over successive patches though the problems seem to have gotten worse, not better. As for player appreciation month in February, don’t make me laugh. The latest patch took me 3 attempts just to get the game loaded and to the menu.
When it works it can be a great experience, but matches where I don’t experience lag, being killed by enemies despite a massive chunk of rock or building between us, or zero health etc seem to have become increasingly scarce.
Equally I find it odd how every PS4 comes with a mic, yet hardly anyone speaks when communication is essential in a team/squad based game. Probably all off in private chat lobbies with their friends… So more often than not your squad mates just go their own separate ways, rather than playing tactically and helping each other out.
I keep going back every so often to see if anything has improved but just end up getting frustrated and quit after a few matches. However my brother in laws brother just see the issues as the way it is and puts up with it, which may well be the attitude amongst a good portion of the player base. If that may be you then perhaps rent it first, but if you’re a more discerning gamer then avoid.
Bilbo_bobbins
Total agree with you. I love Battlefield. I loved the beta for BF4, I loved playing it on PS3 when it first came out, but on PS4??? Avoid it until its fixed.
There are major problems with lag and rubber banding on the large Conquest maps, and also on Obliteration. DICE have known this for months too and they seem like they have no idea on how to fix it.
Lack of communication from DICE is not a good sign either. I would personal avoid it, for the time being at least. Do not buy Premium either as you don’t much for your money.
For me, I’m gutted, I love the game when it works, its amazing, but with the poor netcode/lag/rubber banding and bugs, its not worth it at the moment.
Muskyy
This is hands down the best FPS i’ve ever played. Even with it’s long list of bugs, it still beats Call of Duty. I’ve been a huge CoD fan over the years. This year I’ve completely abandoned the series. Ghosts is the worst FPS I’ve ever had the misfortune of playing. BF4 has turned me into a true Battlefield fan.
Buy it.
Broonba
Aye mate. My thoughts exactly. I’ve experienced the odd lag and rubberbanding but tbh in a 64 player match I’d expect that to happen from time to time. And this is only my opinion mind but to read some peoples comments you’d think the game was totally unplayable. Even with the occasional lag etc..the game is definitely 10 times more fun to play than Ghosts…imo
So it’s a definite buy It from me.
MrJimmy
Bargain bin it in my case, I picked up on PS4 launch and clocked up 2 hours online and crashed out maybe 7-8 times! Retried this week and seems better, but my KZSF obsession means I simply don’t need another MP game yet. It’s waiting for me…
Nocure-fd
I’ve long been a fan of the combined arms games. Starting with the original BF1943 and soon switching over to the Desert Combat Mod, where Dice first got their feet wet.
BF4 looks and sounds great, I can’t find any major fault with it really (PC version at least) and it plays well.
I will go for “Avoid it” though. For one reason. That is Planetside 2. A combined arms game set in the future. From SoE. It doesn’t have the same graphical polish. But in terms of scale and scope, it blows BF out of the water. And it’s free to play. Coming to PS4 soon(tm). Why pay a premium for this when an arguably better game is on the horizon for free….
doug
Having picked this up in January and not having any issues online it’s all I’ve played since. After I got used to it ( sniping isn’t the same as in call of duty) I bought premium for it. I think I’ve played call of duty once since I’ve had this and that was after the new maps came out just to see what they were like,I played the first level of thief and put battlefield back in that’s how good it is.
So in my opinion it would be a buy it
tactical20
Interesting reads. I looked at this when I was desperate for PS4 games, but avoided as I’d read it was totally broken. I really enjoyed Bad Company 2 and played quite a fair bit, however I barely touched Battlefield 3. How would you compare BF4 with these two games?
hornet1990
Can’t hold a candle to Bad Company 2 IMHO. Against BF3 I’d say it’s more like BF3.5 than a different game. But as the lone voice of dissension so far I’m probably not the best person to ask!!
Will say though I loved BC2 (until Blops2 it held my record for most hours in an MP game), and BF3 was alright and I played it quite a bit but it just never grabbed me the way BC2 did. So that probably goes some way to explaining my opinion of BF4, and why I’ve been so utterly disappointed by it.
Amphlett
BF4 multiplayer is drawn out in large maps. No, larger than that… Very large maps!
BC2 was a great laugh but BF4, apart from being next-gen, is much bigger, more serious and has a tonne of new and improved vehicles and weapons.
BF4 over BF3 is slightly less a transition. Perhaps the most obvious thing is the Levolution, next-gen graphics, the weather conditions and the number of players on a map. All considerably improved over BF3.
double-o-dave
(ONLINE) Weird you should say that as I loved BC2 but for some reason hated BF3.
I guess its more to do with the maps. I like all the BF4 maps but can’t think of a single BF3 map I liked. There’s still a few urban maps in BF4 but on a whole it reminds me more of BC2.
They’ve released the Second Assault pack which is 4 maps from BF3 and I can’t stand them even though they’ve had a bit of a makeover.
(SINGLE PLAYER) In my opinion, BC2 was OK, not as good as the first. BF3 crap, BF4 so far so good but I’ve only done about 3 levels I think.
Bilbo_bobbins
BF4 is better than BF3, WHEN IT WORKS! Nothing will beat BC2 in my opinion. I would say avoid it until its fixed.
Foxhound_Solid
Battlefield 3. PS3. Game save glitch towards the end. Traded it. Never completed it :-(
Battlefield 4. PS4. Game. Save glitch towards the end.
Traded it. Never completed it :-(
There won’t be a Battlefield 5 story.