Battlefield 4 is a military first-person shooter set shortly as a direct sequel to Battlefield 3. The multiplayer mode, like all games in the series, is the focus, with players taking on the roles of assault (front warriors with medic powers), recon (snipers), support (front soldiers who can throw out ammo), or engineers (explosives experts). Every class has unique skills and gadgets that can be unlocked over time. Players face each other on usually large maps with a variety of vehicles to use in a variety of primarily team-based playing variants, most notably conquest in which the own team must hold specific points on the maps and the faster rush mode with a defending team and an attacking team that must destroy particular issues.
Of course, this installment differs from its predecessors in various small and significant ways. The most notable is the interactive “Levolution” features that highlight the destroyable parts, one of the Frostbite engine’s unique selling points: each map contains one level element that substantially affects how the level looks and plays when destroyed. Battlefield 4 also brings back two earlier installment features: naval warfare and the commander mode. The commander is an additional player who can see the level from an overhead map, issue instructions to team members, and launch missiles. Unlike in Battlefield 2, the commander is not a player character on the battlefield and so cannot be killed. New game modes include Defuse (in which both sides must detonate a bomb in a target zone, with each player having only one “life” per round) and Obliteration (in which only one bomb pack spawns on the map, which must be used to detonate three spots on the map).
Battlefield 4 has a single-player campaign, just like its predecessor. A Chinese general overthrows the government, declares war on the entire world (but is partnered with Russia), and forces the US to intervene. The player assumes the position of Recker, a nameless soldier to whom he can issue basic instructions as commander of a tiny platoon, and who must survive multiple missions of the standard Call of Duty variety: linear levels with a lot of boom and hundreds of adversaries to kill. Compared to Battlefield 3, some groups are more prominent, and the player sometimes drives a vehicle. There are also the standard stealth and torture routines. There is no longer a co-op mode.
The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions only enable 24 people at a time, rather than 64, and so have smaller multiplayer maps.
