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Battlefield 3 “Operation Métro” Multiplayer Trailer Analysis

By David Bucur | June 7, 2011 | Features | 10 comments | Share

Welcome back Battlefield fans. June 6^th was a glorious day, as 67 years ago the D-Day landings took place in Normandy, in northern France, leading to an accelerated downfall of the Third Reich. But that’s not exactly what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about something else, that also happens in France…

Operation Metro. During EA’s press conference at E3 2011 we got a taste of Battlefield 3’s multiplayer, and boy do we have a lot of cool stuff to see. Prepare for an information overload.

Operation Metro takes clearly takes place in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower standing tall in the background of the opening scene. The game mode played is Rush, as we can see objective Alpha’s marker on the screen.

To list a few HUD elements present in the multiplayer besides the objective marker:  In the lower left corner we will get a compass, right under the minimap, vital for a game that puts a lot of emphasis on teamplay. As we had in Bad Company 2 we will also have a list of squad members, with a small icon to the left, showing their current loadout.

In this scene we have a squad made up of a Medic and three Assaults. But notice something different. There’s a star next to the first squad member’s name. DICE has brought back the squad leader feature from Battlefield 2, to create a better chain of command.

In the lower right corner we have weapon and health stats. The top part shows the current health of your soldier. This might also mean that regenerative healing from Bad Company 2 is gone. The bottom part shows the ammunition in the current magazine. In this scene it shows 31 rounds, which means the player has executed a tactical reload. Tactical reloads are also a new feature in Battlefield. What this means is that when you haven’t completely emptied your gun and you reload, you keep the bullet that is in the chamber and gain the additional 30 rounds from the new magazine. We see the total ammo count for the selected weapon. We also see what firing mode is selected, this beign another Battlefield 2 feature revived. Last but not least we have the number of grenades remaining displayed.

Kill messages are displayed at the top, on the left side, showing the person who kills, the weapon that executed the kill and the person that got killed. Looking at the weapons listed there we see the SVD Dragunov makes a comeback from Battlefield 2, we see a new addition to Battlefield, the Pecheneg PKP, a Russian-built LMG belonging to the PK family of weapons, which fires 7.62 x 54mm rounds. The AK-74M is another cool addition to the stockpile of available weapons. In case you’re wondering the “M” stands for “Modernizirovanniy”- Russian for “modernized”. The ever-present M249 SAW LMG will also make a return.

The player here is holding what looks like an M16A4 assault rifle equipped with an ACOG scope.

The following scene shows the gunner’s view from inside an LAV-25 belonging to the USMC. The gunner will control a .50 caliber M2 machine, as indicated by the text in the upper left corner. On top we also see some sort of numbers. We believe these indicate the distance to the target. At the bottom we see the orientation of the main turret and machine gun, compared to the hull of the LAV. The shorter line represents the .50 and the longer line represents the LAV’s main chaingun. Last but not least in the lower right corner we also see the vehicle’s health indicator, and the occupants of the vehicle, the LAV-25 seating a maximum of 6 people: one driver who also controls the main weaponry, one gunner that controls the secondary armament, and 4 occupants who will probably be able to fire via firing ports on the sides and in the back of the armored vehicle.

The next scene shows the player, looking into the scope, aiming at a group of enemies, one of which is probably an engineer, judging by the RPG-7 on his back. Note that here the player’s health dropped to 77%.

After that we can see the player, holding an M4A1 carbine running next to an LAV-25. Looking at the kill messages again, we realize another weapon makes a comeback from Bad Company 2: The MP-443 “Grach” pistol. Also note the crosshair in the kill message. This probably means that the respective soldier was killed by a headshot.

Next up, we see the player shooting at an enemy with his M4A1 shortly after the set of objectives was destroyed and the base taken. Someone else is also firing at that enemy, and judging by the explosions, it could be a fellow teammate and his LAV-25.  At the bottom we get a glimpse of the scoring system. The player here got 100 points for the kill, 10 points as an “avenger bonus” for avenging a fallen teammate, shot by the respective enemy and something new: a “comeback bonus” worth 40 points. This bonus is most likely received when making a comeback from a recent streak of deaths.

The final scenes in the park show the player shooting his M16A4, again claiming Avenger points. In the kill messages we see another weapon to be features in BF3: The Beretta M9 pistol. One should also note the view through the ACOG scope. In the Fault Line series of trailers, the view was way back, and following feedback, DICE corrected it, moving the view somewhat closer. Nonetheless, it’s still not entirely realistic, as the view zooms in entirely when aiming, instead of the zoom occurring only “inside” the scope, due to magnification.

As soon as the player starts running, a massive explosion takes place. It could be an artillery strike, or it could be an air-to-ground missile strike. Either way it looks like it could cause a lot of destruction.

The assaults continues, and we’re about to find out why the map is called “Operation Metro”- the fight goes underground, into the Parisian subway system. It looks like a very linear area of the map with no possibility of flanking, just a simple adrenaline-pumping head-on clash.

There’s one scene in particular that might grab your attention: An enemy in an NBC suit stabs you. The whole thing looks very cinematic, and realistic. But you have to ask yourself why the Russians are wearing NBC suits? Could it be that there are chemical weapons present in Battlefield 3’s multiplayer?

In the scene where the player is crawling holding his M16, on the platform of a metro train station, we see a squad member down, with a little lightning bolt-like figure next to his name, indicating he’s incapacitated and needs a medic to revive him. However, traditionally, only Medics are capable of seeing that symbol. The player sees it, despite being an Assault.

We then get a glimpse of the PKP Pecheneg, here equipped with a combat scope, being fired blindly inside a train.

The action once again moves outside, onto the streets of Paris, the player firing his AKS-74u carbine, also equipped with what looks like a flashlight, at oncoming Russian troops. When shot the first Russian drops what appears to be another AKS-74u. What’s interesting about this scene is that the player is firing an AKS-74u, but he’s an Assault trooper. Could this be a sign that the 74u, or other carbines will no longer be available for the engineer as the where in Bad Company and Bad Company 2? Also notice the fact that Russians are again seen wearing NBC suits for protection against chemical weapons.

We then see the obstacle vaulting animation, the soldier jumping down onto the street, holding an M249 SAW with a combat scope. Notice that the uniform has desert MARPAT camouflage. Peculiar, given that Paris is nowhere near any desert. Also, notice the “Battlefield 3” advertisements on the street. A new “bonus” has also been added as it can be seen in this scene. Now players will get extra points for suppressing the enemy too!

In the penultimate bit of footage we can see what the new MCOM stations look like, while the player runs towards an armed MCOM, while reloading his M9 sidearm.

Last but not least we see a building’s façade getting struck, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade. Finally an explosion takes place which knocks the player down and kills him. Some people initially thought the player got killed by the rubble falling down onto something explosive. But he was actually killed by an explosion caused by an M67 Frag Grenade. However, something a few people failed to notice is that the explosion actually takes place elsewhere. Observe the minimap during the scene with the façade being blown up and then look at the scene with the player falling down. Also observe how squad members and their loadouts suddenly change. It’s just edited it for an explosive ending. In the penultimate scene also notice how the player chose the Sniper class and is equipped with an SR25 Sniper Weapon System.

And so ends the first multiplayer trailer for Battlefield 3. It was short, but it was sweet, proving that DICE took the best of all Battlefield games and put them all together into one big game, that might just become the ultimate first-person shooter.

UPDATE

Now we know why it was possible for the player, as an Assault to see the “lightning bolt” next to a downed player’s name. DICE has rebalanced the kits. Now the Assault class, can trade in the underslung grenade launcher for advanced medical equipment and the ability to revive incapacitated teammates. This means there is no more Medic class, as it becomes the Support class, focusing on suppression and heavy firepower, with their light machineguns. They can also resupply teammates with ammo. The Recon class stays basically the same, getting explosives, designated marksman rifles and sniper rifles. Last but not least Engineers remain virtually unchanged, remaining masters at destroying and repairing Battlefield equipment.

Among other features BF3‘s multiplayer will have is the ability to go prone, but with the added risk of the enemy noticing the glare of your scope’s lens, the ability to incapacitate, but not completely destroy a vehicle, the ability to decline a revive from a medic (as not to become a victim of stat-padding or just a greedy medic reviving you in the middle of a firefight).

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Tags: Analysis, Battlefield 3, E3 2011, Multiplayer, Operation Metro

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