Genre: First Person Shooter
Systems: Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3
Release Date: October 25, 2011
Developer/Publisher: Dice / Electronic Arts
On Xbox 360 the game comes with two disks. One for the single-player campaign and the other for the on-line multiplayer and co-op. The hype around this game before it came out was huge. They've shown many amazing trailers to ramp up our anticipation. Lets see if they deliver.
Gameplay: 7/10
It has typical first person shooter controls. There's a lot of slow motion when something major happens like a big explosion or a team mate getting shot. The slow motion is pretty cool and adds emphasis to epic moments. There are tons of weapons ranging from assault rifles to crazy shotguns to rocket launchers. There are also a lot of quick time events such as pushing A repeatedly to do a certain action; this works for some games, Resident Evil 4, and although it can be intense at moments it falls short as a whole. A few earthquakes happen throughout the game and although they're cool, it's mostly done through unplayable cut scenes. I wish they would've incorporated this more into the gameplay. The vehicle warfare sections are a lot of fun and add something new to the typical over saturated military shooter genre.
The ally and enemy A.I. can be really dumb at times. They'll stand in the wide open waiting to be killed. At one point there was one enemy, I had about five allies, and just for kicks I wanted to see how long it would take them to kill this poor soul; about two minutes..... But wait there's more. This was actually quite comical. I was moving in on a large group of enemies; I had a huge allied force with me. We were eventually face to face with the enemy. And when we get there, they're all running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, but for some reason my allies still can't seem to kill any of them. So once again it was up to me to save the day. So I stroll around walking slowly, I might as well have been skipping, shooting them point blank and stabbing people. But what's this? A jeep cruises in with a mounted .50 Cal burning through ammo. Finally some action! So I go prone behind some cover. Try to take aim at the soldier manning the gun and ......... What the crap! My cursor keeps gravitating away from him like some crazy reverse gravitational force. This happens over and over again until I'm killed by the same guy I can't aim at. So I restart that section and the same thing happens again! It's not until I stand up and move away from the area that I actually take him out. One other time my character just dropped dead out of nowhere. There was also an instance where my gun changed in a cut scene from the one I was really using.
The auto aim is very lenient but you'll need it as you get more into the game. I really enjoyed being able to shoot enemies through their cover, this brings more realism to the game. Fighting in the streets with the tall buildings is a lot of fun. Mission objectives are boring and some aren't clear at all on what you're supposed to do. Because of this you're left re-playing parts until you get it right.
Story: 7/10
It's very hard to follow at first, but this is typical in these types of games.You play as Sargeant Blackburn. You're being interrogated, as if you were the enemy, about a threat to New York that you say is going to happen soon. The two agents doing the interrogation want you to tell them about your missions you did in Iran. You end up playing through these missions in flashbacks. The story continually switches back and forth between the interrogation and the flashbacks. You even play as other characters every once in a while to switch things up. Does any of this sound familiar? If you've played Call of Duty: Black Ops it should. The whole interrogation and flashback thing was done in the popular Call of Duty game and honestly they did it better. The enemies call themselves the PLR and appear to be led by a man named Faruhk Al-Bashir. I don't want to spoil anything but the story gets pretty wild as it unfolds. Although a little confusing the story will finally make sense just before the game ends. It tries to pull you in and get you emotionally involved and does an adequate job at best.
Graphics: 8.5/10
First of all let me say, the graphics on a high end PC are much better than console versions. That being said, they are still pretty dang good on console. Although the destructibility is good, I was hoping for much more considering this was a huge selling point for the game. Not even close to everything is destructible, but those things that are will make you want to pause and admire the detail put into it. For instance, watching a building crumble to the ground is quite the site to see.
Animations such as climbing and leaping over ledges looks awesome. Facial animation in cut scenes is top notch and can hang with the best, but fails to deliver in the actual real time gameplay. In fact, the graphics in general look fantastic in cut scenes. At one point you're flying in a jet over the open sea with carriers, battleships, and gray clouds all around you. And even though enemy fighter jets are trying to take you down, all I wanted to do was admire the truly stunning scenery. Fire effects are very unimpressive. Shadows seem to be non existent. The physics engine isn't very good. And I had many instances where the screen got choppy. But a midst all these drawbacks it's still a stunning game all around.
Rain looks awesome, especially when it hits your face because it leaves little drops of water. The lighting looks fantastic and gives the game sense of realism. I love the way the light penetrates the dark city streets and reflects off the raindrops as they pour down your face. Settings range from city streets to lush green jungles to open desert plains. Some of these set pieces look amazing.
Sound: 9/10
Yes, the sound was the best part about this game, sad I know. There is a ton of chatter between squad mates. They use military lingo, this is realistic but hard to understand if you're not familiar with it. The voice acting is really good. It has seven voice over languages such as Italian and French. I was very impressed with the other languages, they sound very good and not like they were just thrown in. The sound of a giant skyscraper crumbling to the ground is fantastic. The music ranges from fast paced symphony with loud drums to heart pumping electronic with deep base. The sound of gunfire and bullets whizzing passed your head gets the heart going. I had a few instances where some of the sound would temporarily cut out. That's just one minor complaint amongst fantastic sound quality.
Replay Value: Medium
I covered multiplayer in another review so I'm not including that into my decision to give it a medium score. There are three difficulty levels to choose from: Easy, Medium, and Hard, pretty generic. They've also added co-op in which there is no split screen option. I'm miss the days of split screen, it seems to be diminishing in games these days and that's not cool with me. Anyway, co-op consists of you and one other person. There are six playable missions that are separate from the single player campaign. You can unlock weapons for the online multiplayer by completing co-op missions. Although there is no incentive to replay the single player campaign, there is to play the co-op missions.
In closing, there really isn't a whole lot going for this portion of the game. I think the fact that it was hyped so much and compared again and again to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made it disappoint that much more. It plays just like every other military shooter and in all honesty there are a lot out there that do it better. It's really not a terrible game, but don't expect much out of it. On a brighter side, the multiplayer is amazing. Check out my review where I gave it a 9.3/10. Happy Gaming!
If you like this game you might also enjoy:
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Homefront
video credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfrrAp1blaM
all photo credit: gamespot
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