I finally got a chance this morning to try out the Battlefield 3 beta and it is everything I have been hoping for since Battlefield 2. The weapons are amazing, the game play is fast paced but still requires tactics, and the game is just amazingly beautiful.
I started out on the american team of Metro, attacking into the city. It is the only playable map at the moment and I suspect that it will be the only one available till the game comes out. I first decided to try out the recon class. I found the default weapon, the MK11, to be versatile and fun to play with for the first part of the game. We started in a park of some kind. I followed the water on the right in a attempt to get around the side of the main battle happening in the center of the field. Once I saw a good position I did not run into it like I would in other games. I crawled from cover to cover to get into a good position to not be seen. I found and area on the side of a rock and next to a tree that game myself excellent cover and started to pick off targets of opportunity, not firing unless I knew I could hit them.
The action of crawling into cover and slowly moving as to not be seen is something I I like to do in large airsoft games. That is the closet to actual war I have been in. I felt based on my experiences as a big FPS shooter fan and an airsoft junky that this was the closest I have been able to use cover to conceal and protect myself in a game.
As I played I entered an underground metro system that had a ton of thru holes for people to take you out. It was a dangerous place to attack however it was balanced in a way that there where so many ways to get to the objective that once the enemies spread themselves thin you could push thru. Really smart level design.
After the metro you push into a station then onward to a large structure where you can shoot building to building. This was a good level to chose to the beta and alpha because it was liner and it gave a tinny taste of the long and close range and the open and CQB combat.
The game did have somethings that I was not super keen on that may still be addressed before the game comes out. One thing I loved about Bad Company two was the ability to pull out your knife and use it easily with one key. In BF3 however you must first switch the weapon then use the knife, just like in BF2. Although this is more true to the real world it took some getting used to in this game. It is much easier and faster to pull your side arm. Another thing that I found confusing was the "flare" from players. Occasionally a player will have some kind of sheen or flare that reviles there position. I don't know the reasoning or the cause for this. At first I thought it was a sheen and thought it was great because it meant that you gained an advantage by paying attention to the shadows and light just like in the real world. However as I played I saw the same thing in the subway away from the light. I think this reviled my position as a sniper early in the game even though I had crawled into cover and did not take a shot.
Over all I do love this game and it is living up to its hype! I cannot wait for October!
