Battlefield 3: End Game

The fifth and final Battlefield 3 expansion is live today! Featuring the much anticipated return of Battlefield 1942’s Capture the Flag mode and Battlefield 1943’s Air Superiority mode, as well as four new seasonally-inspired maps and several new vehicles, on top of five new assignments, End Game is shaping up to be a step forward on par with previous BF3 expansions despite the lack of new guns or any non-multiplayer content. That is to say, we’ll take what we can get.

Disappointed

We’ll begin with the disappointing aspects of the newest DLC pack, which are mostly derived from my own wishful thinking. While new single player or co-op content would have been eagerly welcomed by many, most will only dive into the new multiplayer content anyhow. Besides being a multiplayer only expansion, End Game is much more of map pack with new game modes and assignments. There are no new guns this time around, save for the M1911 S-TAC, which is nothing more than the existing M1911 with both a tactical light and a suppressor attached. That said, everything else is right on par with the best of DICE’s efforts in BF3 thus far!

The New Game Modes

The new gameplay modes are exactly what you’d expect. Air Superiority makes some excellent adjustments to standard air combat, including the biggest buff: removing the ability for pilots to eject right before they’re killed, depriving the victorious enemy pilot of their prey. Additionally, a surplus of jets means players must spawn directly into a jet. This removes the worry of anti-aircraft guns or infantry with Stingers and leaves players to focus on the other pilots burning the skies above Iran. The end goal is to capture (by player proximity) several floating dirigibles. If you’re tired of getting kicked out of normal servers for being a little too awesome in a jet, welcome to your next 100 hours.

Capture the Flag plays exactly like the best CTF modes have in the past, while succeeding in translating the BF3 we’ve come to expect into the classic game mode we’ve always loved. The relatively arcade-like gameplay works well with these new fast-paced maps, which reflects DICE’s desire to speed up the action all around. The new super-quick dirt bikes make for fantastic getaway vehicles. Fortunately, the large scale and strategic feel of BF3 stays in tact all throughout this new game type. The random spawn points for the flag can serve to shake up play as well,

The New Maps

The maps themselves are fantastic, with smart design, plenty of options and no severe balance issues. They certainly do seem to succeed in encouraging a faster pace in gameplay as DICE had intended. Each one of the maps is inspired by a particular season:

• The spring map is Kiasar Railroad, which is set in Iran, like most of the maps in End Game. Featuring the new dirt bikes and tanks, the map is as well balanced and planned out as the rest. Set at a logging facility, the several key points on the map vary from buildings and warehouses to forests and high ridges. The presence of attack helis definitely poses a big threat if the enemy chopper crew knows what’s up, especially as the map lacks any mobile anti-aircraft vehicles.
• For a nice summer outing, we have Nehbandan (or Nebandan) Flats. The uneven desert terrain provides some cover but not much, which means it’s imperative to bolt from on point of cover to the next, without any real strategic holding points in between. The fact that choppers are free to rain down hell makes what little cover there is that much more precious. Bring mines.
• Operation Riverside, the autumn map, sets enemy teams to battle across a river (why not) for a general divide across the map, with a spattering of natural corridors and a few bridges to provide key points to hold. This somewhat circular layout serves to force vehicles around over the bridges (save for a few talented bikers), while infantry can easily make their way through the winding streams and spatterings of rocky cover.
• Sabalan Pipeline is the winter map, and also the smallest of the four. Set near the Sabalan Mountains, the snow dusted lowlands have a fair amount of foliage and rock outcroppings for cover in addition to the oil refinery. The size of the map does a great job encouraging faster play, while still providing proper zones for holding out against the enemy or swinging around for a flank.

The overall design of the maps is great, with no obvious slant to one side or the other. Some maps seem to have been split into attacker and defender sides, which might have limited the options of one side or another were it not for some nice and discreet pathways to sneak around back behind enemy lines.

The New Assignments

The five new assignments provide nothing more than dog tags outside of the M1911 S-TAC mentioned above. Most of these encourage players to take on the new content, with assignments for Capture the Flag, jeeps, dirt bikes, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and headshots with pistols. The tiered unlock system provides a little extra time sink for completing the assignments, with the first three assignments available from the get go which will unlock the fourth and later fifth upon completion, all in keeping with replayability we’ve seen thus far in BF3 expansions.

I think it’s safe to say the new videos and guides for Premium members will see minimal use as always, but they are there.