I absolutely adore the Battlefield series, but Battlefield 3 really didn’t nail me like Bad Company 1 and 2 did. I was hoping that Battlefield 4 would extend a defibrillator to the lifeless corpse of the love that I once had for it. Instead, it resuscitated me and brought my love back to the living stunned and confused, but before even a few heartbeats could pump another charge of electricity pulsed through the love I had for it and burned it to a crisp.
Battlefield 4 is a game that should never have left EA’s development cycle this early. When I’m not reviewing games as a hobby, I work as a Quality Assurance Tester for video games as a day job. Generally, I ignore minor flaws in a game I’m playing at home. Battlefield 4 on the other hand set off my tester alarm only about twenty or so minutes into gameplay.
The single-player game is absolutely broken and uninteresting as a result. I have actually compiled a list of fun things you can experience in Battlefield 4.
- You can fall outside of the map on various levels.
- Watch your squad mates do absolutely nothing even in a heavy firefight.
- Find some soldiers standing in a corner in front of a backdrop of a city and nothing else.
- Walk through a metal barrier and shatter it into pieces.
- Shatter a metal barrier into pieces with your body and crush a car.
- Lie down in front of a man and look through his eyeballs into the ceiling.
- Take some gunfire through an impenetrable window.
- Enjoy the view of the enemy ignoring bullets from your squad in an all-out attempt to kill you.
- Get pushed around by everyone as if you don’t even exist.
- Hide behind a destroyed tank only to have it disappear to reveal the other tank behind it.
I think you get the point, just avoid the single-player game at all costs because that’s just an alpha build that made it to release. On the other hand, the multi-player somewhat… sort of… works in the most asinine way possible. Sure, you can get into a game and shoot it out amongst a bunch of other players. Yes, you can shoot and kill them if you aren’t lagging to high heaven. However, the modes that the Battlefield series is known for do not work at all. As of November 17th 2013, Conquest, Obliteration, and Conquest Large servers have zero players on them. If you started playing one of the servers, the game would eventually crash if it filled up, and it’s impossible to play due to the lag.
So the only possible way to play Battlefield 4 is on ground modes like Rush, Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch etcetera. This means with the exception of Rush, you are playing Call of Duty with crumbling buildings. The only difference is that the Call of Duty servers aren’t lagging, and the overall experience is probably better as a whole. As a next-gen title it looks amazing, but what’s the point if I can drive through electrical poles and can’t play the best parts of the multi-player experience? Battlefield 4 receives two stars from Geek Citadel. EA has a lot of patching to do, do not disturb until the multitude of issues are fixed. I didn’t even mention that this game deleted my save data, just totally outright obliterated it. Yeah, stay away!
Other variations have players fleeing on dirt bikes, while a slew of murderous Jets chase them down. The host can modify each match to include a certain type of weapon, change the number of laps, add custom vehicles, etc. When the game is done players will receive a score, and they will be able to rate the mission with a like or dislike. Once the scoreboard is cleared, players will have a choice of returning to free mode or continuing onto a new mission with the group.
Beyond the normal gameplay types, players will receive calls with different jobs from an assortment of characters. There are a few new people like Gerald the drug dealer, but many of the cast from the Single-Player show up to supply the players with jobs. These missions are similar to the single-player missions GTA V, but not as elaborate and scripted as those events. They are designed for multiple players to recover drugs, cars, or destroy vehicles for riches. It’s a blast to head out into the world with your friends and get into all sorts of trouble.
Every activity that’s accessible from the single-player is available in the Online version of the title. From Tennis to Car Customization, your character can do anything available in Los Santos. Unlike GTA V, money and rank are a big deal and are the deciding factor on what you can do in the game. Cash will buy you clothing, cars, guns, and properties. Rank unlocks clothing, weapons, and elaborate missions.
You’ll find yourself bringing a team together and ploughing through missions in search of money and rank points. It’s an MMO at its core but with the mechanics of a smooth third person shooter. Skills are still raised by using the ability, but at a much slower rate in comparison to GTA V. Players will enter lobbies similar to Red Dead Redemption, where catching a stray bullet from another player is almost a guarantee. You can select Passive mode for a small amount of money, but cars can still kill you and fighting is off-limits.
The other methods rely on creating a crew , invite, solo, or friend only game. This will allow you to roam the world free of overzealous little kids or rabblerousing adults. As long as the matchmaking system is set to open, players will still be able to invite other people to jobs and missions without issue. So if you’re not up for slaughtering people in PVP constantly, there is still a way to play without suffering online woes.
GTA Online has limitless potential, and when you’re able to get a game going it borders on addicting. Rockstar has teased player created missions, heists, and continuous support and updates for years to come. As of now though, the nagging issues and ridiculous character-deleting bugs are enough to deter even the most die-hard player. GTA Online currently receives three stars out of five from Geek Citadel. It has a lot of potential, but it also has too many problems that could cripple the community early on.
