Battlefield 3 Multiplayer – What We Know So Far
By Alex Co | June 9, 2011 | News | 3 comments | Share
Battlefield 3′s multiplayer is being demoed at E3, and we’re fortunate to have a few trustworthy people list down the things they’ve uncovered from playing a round or two so far.
Some of the information might please you, some might anger you, but do also keep in mind that the multiplayer demo is a pre-alpha build. That means some things might change when the final build hits retail stores.
Without further ado, here are the things we know to be in the game right now.
Game Modes:
- Team Deathmatch
- Rush
- Conquest
Classes
- Rifleman – Uses Assault Rifles and has medpacks and defibrillator ability
- Recon – C4 and the usual Sniper class
- Support – Can give out ammo and uses the light-machine gun (LMG) can mount the LMG on bi-pod for “suppression effect”
- Engineer Can repair vehicles and still uses rpgs, also has a flashlight attachment that can blind enemies in close range for added tactical advantage in CQB
Melee/Dogtag System
- After you’re killed, a screen will pop-up showing the dogtag/rank of the person who killed you
- The knife can be equipped but there is also a quick-knife button (F for PC – same as Bad Company 2)
- You have to quick-knife someone from behind to earn their dogtag - When pressed you enter into an animation that will pull you close to your enemy and you will grab their head and execute them by slitting their throat
- The knife seems to be a switchblade than the standard knife we’re used to
- Dogtags are now customizable and you can choose what stat it shows on it. Example image below
Health and Revive System
- There’s a “health counter” on the bottom right of your HUD. It starts off with 100
- There is still regenerative health, but it will not regenerate if you’re under fire from the enemy
- You can opt out of being revived, no more Rambo-reviving!
Squads
- It will be four players per squad
- Squad leader is indicated by a “star” next to their name
- Like in Battfield: Bad Company 2, you will still get squad point bonuses for doing things for your squad
- When deployed it displays on the bottom of the screen a countdown of when a squad member can spawn on you, and who’s about to spawn
Other gameplay facts compiled:
- Weapons will have three slots for customization, if I had to guess, it would be the same as Medal of Honor’s scope, barrel and ammo
- Teams in the demo were USMC vs. Russians.
- Prone is back, it feels like it takes a second or so to go prone. Not too fast, not too slow, just right.
- The map offered a lot of variety: you can enter lots of buildings, go up to the second floor, camp etc. We already saw a few campers who loved the new buildings.
- Destruction is extensive and a lot more detailed. Even shooting a wall looks amazing in BF3.
- Weapons feel and sound like Bad Company 2 (on first impression), meaning they feel and sound fantastic.
- Player animations are far better than Bad Company 2 and other Battlefield games. Very fluid and lifelike, almost as if you are watching someone run in real life.
- The scoreboard looks a lot simpler than in Bad Company 2 – might be because the demo was still pre-alpha
- We had a few awards pop up during the game (ribbons) which looked a lot like those in Battlefield 2.
- You can mount LMGs on the ground and on most surfaces, but the gun can only pan approximately 90 degrees to left and right, which feels realistic
- Ability to spot a Enemy Squad Leader
- Falling debris from destruction 3.0 can kill players!
- Ability to change fire modes in multiplayer (semi/burst/auto)
- Suppression effects from LMG, blur vision
- First Person Animations in Multiplayer
- Faction Specific Weapons + Unlocks
- Vehicles can be immobilized before being destroyed
- 3D spotting
- On the death screen it now displays statistics of how many times you have killed the person who killed you and how man times they killed you (e.g. 2-1)
- After you are killed the health of the person who killed you is shown as a heath bar over their head
- When you’re in a vehicle and stopped the camera begins to shake from the rattling of the engine
- Flashlight can blind you momentary if someone points it directly at you
- 100 points for killing someone, 10 extra points for a headshot, 100 points for reviving
- In order to revive you must hover over the dead body and hold down left mouse button while your character rubs the paddles together and charges them before the player is revived
- Two grenades were given by default and they can be equipped
- Recon class must hold their breath to steady their aim, also has heavier gun swing to limit quick-scoping
- Commo rose is not in the build shown. EA wouldn’t give a firm yes or not when asked if it would be in the final version of the game
Phew! That’s way more than what we know so far, no? Are you feeling good with what we know so far or do you think DICE needs to revamp a couple of things? Again, I want to stress that this is pre-alpha and some things might change before the game’s final release.
We’ll know more once the beta hits in September.
Battlefield 3 will ship in October 25 of this year.
Another quality article! Keep it up!
Please dont bring back faction weapons, maybe one unique on for each class of each army, but dont do anymore, if i want to use a gun ill have to wait for a few matches to use it, that will dissapoint me, please !
@Luke Thanks! I try to please. :)