Battlefield 4 Single Player Campaign
The campaign sucks. Examine the picture above, the man is not leading the charge, he is getting the fuck out of here. I thought it was a whole new campaign story line, but apparently it is a continuation of the previous campaign from BF3. I never finished BF3's campaign due to lack of interest, but BF4's campaign to me sure didn't make enough effort to explain where it came from. It might have been due to all the attention to head shot detail and fucking lame ass cut scenes.
Don't get me wrong Dice can make great campaigns, BFBC and BFBCII are perfect examples. I enjoyed those campaigns greatly. BFBC was a great turn away from the hellish difficulty of the COD series. BFBC had no infinite spawning enemies and I think BFBCII might have had infinite spawning enemies so it might has missed by a few marks, but it was still a good campaign. In my opinion the BFBC series campaigns are better than the regular BF series, but the regular BF series multiplayer far outmatch the BFBC series multiplayer.
I remember reading somewhere the previous co-op option from BF3's campaign was removed from BF4's campaign to improve it. I am failing to see the improvement besides the new engine and a ton of glitches only the brave can adapt and overcome. What if someone asks the developers?
***** Cutscene *****
Envisioned Dramatized BF Developer board meeting
Lead Developer:
We have released BF4 and with Premium we have the combined profits of a billion billion dollars.
"I hope it doesn't sound arrogant when I say that this is the greatest campaign in the world."
Secretary:
"The internet is here, they say they need to talk to you about irregularities in the game?"
Lead Developer
Developers:
...
In response to the Lead Developer's demise, the development team patched PS4.
***** Cutscene *****
Features
Collectibles
Considering collectibles, the dog tags are well hidden and about the same with the weapons. The dog tags are stupidly hidden and most times in a not functioning unprotected area. The hidden dog tags are on the same competition level as Waldo so most players will either find them or forget them. However my advice, put the difficulty on hard and use a collectibles guide*. Every level, collect all collectibles to avoid a rerun, head shot every enemy to complete gold assignment, rush the last mission twice choosing a different option each time. Check and verify you have all campaign related achievements and unlocks. End the campaign, eject the single player disk and place it in the case, remove the multiplayer disk from the case and place in the console, start playing BF4 multiplayer and never look back.
* This guide is the best BF4 collectibles guide I have found.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/45643/battlefield-4-mission-1-dog-tags-and-weapons-locations-in-baku/
Cutscenes
The cutscenes are trash and most are interactive cutscenes with large amounts of waiting to start the mission or in some cases continue the mission. Cut scenes are good if a player is given something to watch or interact and even better the option to skip the entire cut scene in general. Many times there are interactive cutscenes where you are given control of your character somewhat (move around) while you wait for the games NPC's to finished talking. Mission Tashgar has two of these so called cutscenes.
Worse, there is a cut scene were all you do is be a fucking doorman, I'm looking at you South China Sea. In fact keep it in mind whenever you are on the Valkyrie, your cover is well protected as your job as a highly trained government asset is changed to a low level schmuck who opens doors. Perhaps I should be handing out smiley face stickers as well. I don't care to open another door in any game again, at least GTA5 doors self open. Good thing multiplayer does not have any doors, well it does have elevators, but squad mates online are usually courteous.
Keep in mind I consider any part in a game where you are not in the action a cut scene such as a video and any part in a game where you are slightly in control as an interactive cutscene. Perhaps the developers wanted to immerse me in the campaign experience, but I was instead immersed in boredom to move on.
Weapons
The variable cornucopia of available weapons is next to useless against the fact to gain the highest gold assignment score a player has to head shot a large portion of enemies. Remember if you are not fast enough your squad will steal those potential kills for you. Playing BF4's Campaign is horribly similar to Halo4's multiplayer where head shots are the way to go. Automatic weapons can kill enemies fast, but without gaining the head shot you are reducing yourself by -25 with each kill, but still better than a squad kill steal. Weapon unlocking is not fun, but feels more like a chore. Most weapons are hidden or have to be unlocked from good scoring and by the time you get most unlocked you might not care much anymore. The MK11 MOD 0 is a starting weapon you have access to and it was the weapon I used to be the best to get all those head shots. I always carried it in the inventory. If you are fast enough you can get a multi kill bonus with head shots and when you are low on health risk your life for an adrenaline bonus. Going for straight multi kills didn't add up good and if you use an explosive you may only get one kill missing out on that potential lost head shot bonus.
Major Greenland
BF4's campaign like Halo4's Spartan Ops portrayal of female officers in command is atrocious where insulting and belittling fellow marines is customary. BF4: Fuckheads Halo4: Eggheads This is evident in the mission Tashgar. While I am at it in the mission South China Sea while you are in the lower innards of the Valkyrie being a fucking doorman as usual I felt a scarce amount of racism between the US troops concerning the Chinese refugees in their dialogue. Really? i could be wrong, but I'll confirm it at some point.
The following videos show Major Greenland at her best.
Beginning cutscene here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irmVhMad71g
End cutscene here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLnEeG8SFSo
Considering Major Greenland, a far better major of anything would be Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson. Now he is someone who can lead and finish the fight, Greenland appears to me as a privileged piece of shit.
Vehicles
The campaign does feature usable vehicles. You get to drive various water craft, a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle (I think), a tank, an anti-air tank unit (Although no enemy air power). No Helicopter or Jet. The Anti-air tank (In Tashgar of course) is available to use, but you are surrounded by anti-armor weapons ahead (Of course), I wonder if it was placed in the mission as an after thought. One tip, shoot the anti-armor weapons till they explode to kill the gunner as well for 200 points.
If there was any enjoyable part of the game I am afraid I missed it or was not paying attention due to the fact I had to make sure I head shot every enemy before my own squad does. Whenever there is a cool scene it usually has some half-assed thought out possible death area included negating the chance to experience any awesomeness. The first mission where you almost fall out of a vehicle during a helicopter attack you have to aim your grenade launcher in a dazed state to destroy it and the grenade launcher is way the heel of in the wrong direction. Lame idea, make a cutscene where the player shoots it down in script showing the squad you are badass. Instead you get an interactive cutscene where if not do good enough in the dazed state the helicopter kills you. The helicopter killing you makes you watch the entire cutscene again. Boring after the first death. One part I am glad is in the prison escape when you are hoping around the pipes there was no "Oh shit, I'm falling" better press button combo or repeat bullshit.
Your Squad
(AKA Tombstone)
(AKA Trollstone)
Remember this of all things.
Your squad mates are the pros of kill stealing.
You have an option to press RB to mark enemy targets just like in multiplayer. You think this would be good training for marking enemy targets, wrong. In campaign if you press RB and mark an enemy target you are also telling your squad to engage and steal the kill(s). Most times I would have preferred shooting my own squad and finished the fight alone. Instead, I stopped telling my squad to do anything. For the math a squad kill steal is 50 points (rarely 100 points), a player kill is 100 points, and a melee/head shot is 125 points. What is the significance of taking the enemy AIs dog tag? You don't have an enemy AI dog tag count I am aware of. It is probably a portion of the same animation used in multiplayer. Just think every squad kill steal is a -75 hit against your overall score. In any mission where there is allied vehicle available to help eliminate enemies, don't do it, at all. WTF did they put this feature in the missions anyway as it eats up portion of your overall score.
Another note is your squad most of the time are some rude lazy assholes, they expect you to open the door and then they all go through first, they open the door and they all go through first.
Very rarely do you get the privilege of not being the fucking doorman or get to open a door for yourself. Your squad is also inconsiderate by taking the best cover where possible, especially in Tashgar when you have a very limited amount of room for advancement and cover.
I think the enemies in cahoots with your squad as when an enemy tosses a grenade at you, your squad go for the kill steal. If a good enemy has suppression on you or a group of enemies have suppression on you, your aiming ability goes to pure shit doing a figure eight loop. Ducking and or re-aiming seems to correct it, but never if you are suppresses, your cross hair will never find its way back. This is yet another chance for your squad to kill steal on your noob ass.
Some missions notably the mission Irish helps you defend Dima, Irish actually helps kill enemies, however these same enemies can get dangerously close to you. When Irish helps you defend Pac in Shanghai, I noticed the last two enemies of each wave tend to run straight for me passing Irish like they paid him off. I stayed upstairs near Pac to get maximum head shots, but then again a close enemy is stupid as I could hide next to Pac behind a small alcove and be safe. During mission Tashgar, your squad acts like the moronic AI in COD WWII based games and allow enemy units to jolly right up to you from a far and shoot you. Your squad shoots at close range enemies from a far of course. The amount of suppression fire your squad uses on a close range enemy looks like the enemy is pissing himself through his clothes. If the enemy is not pissing himself then he must have a bad case of crabs. Most missions the enemy units are lazy bastards and won't care to move towards you or they change cover position.
Your squad from the first mission out yells out warnings to you as if you are a recruit or something. Pac is the newest squad member following Irish. Dunn knew and trusted Recker (Player) the most and selected him to lead after his death. Of course Kovic he takes not a single fuck of this into account and labels you noob. Maybe on easy they can yell this bullshit, but on hard it is lame and annoying. It is assumed Recker is a highly skilled marine and playing on hard difficulty should enforce this, but apparently no one thinks this out beforehand. Keeping this lame shit to a prologue, first mission, training, or even preferably a training mission you can skip would be nice. In the first mission you do train briefly, but you get introduced to the first interactive cutscene where you can walk around doing diddly shit. Even more, the weapon boxes are in the same room, but you can't access it yet, you have to wait.
Its lame the entire campaign you take the role and play as a highly trained marine whose squad mates are technically lower than you in experience, but treat you like a COD MW /COD MW II prologue mission Fucking New Guy (FNG), fuck that noise. Wait I remember, I'm a doorman, I guess I should be talked down to.
Kovic (Temporary)
Kovic is a douche, his lame ass mission (South China Sea) was a douchefest. If I was able to boot Kovic off the ship Duke Nukem style before heading to the Titan, the mission would have been much more enjoyable. I found the drive he was looking for anyway till Kovic the douche himself took it and stuffed it up his ass for safe keeping. Kovic shows very little respect to you or your squad in my opinion and Kovic and Irish's dick measuring gets out fast. Kovic is an example of an over used power hungry, I am so badass, I call the shots stereotype. Think of Captain Andrew Del Rio and look where it got him. Maybe not the same context exactly, but Del Rio is on the same scale as Kovic.
Kovic's big gay boat ride could have played out so much better in my opinion. It was cool as you got to use the fast attack craft, but my preliminary bullshit alarm told me there is an invulnerable enemy fast attack craft circling your fast attack craft. Once you take command of the fast attack craft the invulnerable enemy craft now vulnerable enemy craft attacks along with another craft which spawns in magically close range as usual to kill you. Sad the whole experience was lame where I had to keep considerable distance between my craft and the enemy craft. Another example of potential awesomeness wasted. Post boat ride, saving the Valkyrie was cool.
Surprisingly Kovic was a character is BF3's campaign, but I am glad I seemed to have missed his presence. Then you meet Hannah. Sigh. Actually you meet Hannah briefly when first meeting Kovik before she flies of to safety in his stolen douche copter.
Unlike Hannah, Kovic is scripted to die. Hoah!
Hannah
How do I explain Hannah?
Hannah is the GOT/WD character you wish would be scripted to die.
When Hannah volunteers to help retake the Valkyrie it is okay, but when she is attached to your unit as one of your squad makes the game go down hill. Her dialogue options are an endless annoyance and useless at times. The whole Irish no liking Hannah or her woman fighter issue adds unnecessary drama you don't need in a small campaign like this. I wanted to happily shoot Hannah and Irish and finish the fight alone since they would be stealing my kills anyway.
Hannah's derp moment for me was when she yelled at me stating "They're shooting at you" when indeed the enemy were shooting at me. I heard Pac saying this so he is equally derp.
Missions
Irish is a twat, during Shanghai during the interactive cutscene (of course) on your way up to go rescue Kovic, he complains about the PDW weapon as a cocktail gun. There is a weapon box right outside the elevator where you can switch out your weapons, which you should as PDW suck shit for head shots anyway. Why do they make you go through a cutscene where you have take a weapon from Pac, but be able to switch it right after, couldn't they just have made a watchable cutscene. Coolness factor, maybe, but the weapons where in his backpack, not hidden in the elevator. Maybe they are putting you into the story, lame. Irish never changes his weapon out, but he can complain, how come I can't complain I'm in an elevator with a shitty weapon along with a bunch of kill stealing bastards, on the way to save a douche and another future kill stealing bastard. I admit, after Kovic selfishly took off with plenty of room on board I cleaned up and began to knife as many objects off the roof as possible. I was bored and this says a lot.
Starting with mission Kunlun Mountains * and continuing forward till the last mission the campaign begins to feel a lot like COD Grenades at War. The enemy units tend to toss grenades at you endlessly and everywhere. A player can carry three grenades and it feels like the enemy units can carry grenades like they were players in Borderlands. Enemy use of the grenade launcher and RPG is out rate super human accuracy as usual. I can seek cover from grenade fire to find the same grenade fire and then seek out new cover to find the same grenade fire, even sometimes when the enemy shouldn't even see me anymore. I remember during mission Tashgar I sneaked up to an enemy pointing his launcher straight at one of my useless squad mates further back. When he fired the launcher, the projectile went left towards me even though the launcher was pointed straight. WTF?
* Mission Shanghai has an honorable mention for grenade spam somewhat. Plus they appear to be looking one way and the grenade goes the other way to me.
I really never noticed it till when I was exiting the Chinese prison the game seems to only target you and not my squad mates. Targeting my invulnerable kill stealing squad would be nice to stop them from kill stealing. When you get rifle, sniper, grenade fire, rocket fire, and not to mention grenades directed to you all at once over and over it kind of makes me feel, just WTF are my useless squad mates for but only to steal kills. My squad never helps subdue the heavy firepower, they only go for the easy kill steal of course. Even if I order my squad mates to engage the heavy firepower they don't and go for an easy kill steal instead. Once I have subdued the heavy firepower the squad resumes kill stealing activities. Just like all other COD campaigns it feels like you the player and not Tombstone fights and wins the entire campaign. Of course Tombstone takes the credit.
I didn't die a lot and no where near the amount you would expect on the bullshit levels solely owned by COD: Veteran or Halo: Lengendary. For this I am glad. Actually COD MW II's campaign on veteran was not too bad as it did not have re-spawning enemy units. I think the BF3's campaign may have had re-spawning enemies and maybe that is why I never finished it. BF4's campaign has the types of enemies you like. Tough to a point, but once they are gone they are gone.
Just fyi I have beat BFBC and BFBC II on hard difficulty along with COD II, COD MW, COD MW II, and COD BO on veteran as well as Halo 3, ODST, Reach, and 4 on lengendary. I must love the torment and frustration. I have the last mission to finish on COD WAW, but if you have ever braved that game the spawn rate for enemies is outright retarded and COD BO II I gave up on like BF3' campaign. One day I might try to finish COD WAW and COD BO II and even BF3. Maybe I'll try COD MW III if I can find it cheap maybe. I am not sure, but some reason the right to say you have conquered these hellishly bullshit difficult campaigns is a right in its own.
End Game Decisions
The end portion is lame, just like in every movie with a sensed hero's ending, the bomb never works. Having to choose between the three horrible options and forced to go back and choose the other two to unlock two weapons in multiplayer and various achievements for completion is repetitive nonsense.
You have three choices.
You can choose Hannah, her death unlocks a weapon and an achievement.
You can choose Irish, his death unlocks a weapon and an achievement.
You can choose nothing, the Valkyrie's destruction unlocks a weapon and an achievement.
The last choice is more like an out of time option or a bad cutscene where you die an repeat, but in this case you don't die or repeat it, but ultimately should regret it.
I chose Irish first as I liked the weapon his death unlocks. Plus it is nice to finally get back at him for all the damn kill stealing. Next I choose Hannah, I don't care for the weapon her death unlocks, but I dislike the Valkyrie destruction option, but the Valkyrie's destruction has a better weapon unlock, sad. Last I choose the Valkyrie even though I don't like the option at all. Actually you really don't choose the Valkyrie, you just act like a inconsiderate fuck and let the Valkyrie explode. I guess it happens, because Recker can't decide or maybe if Irish didn't make the stupid transmission to tell the Valkyrie he was ready to blow the bridge. Plus Chang's warship hits the Valkyrie once, but can't do it again for x amount of time and then can finally do it in one final shot, dah fuq? How many assholes does he have on that ship?
Choosing to let the Valkyrie be destroyed, I don't see the moral value in it. Irish's character knows his death can happen and is possible. Hannah's character knows her death is possible, but being a spy she could slither her way out of death's grip in the cause to fulfill her mission in protecting Jin Jie. Furthermore since Pac agreed to stay behind and protect JinJie, Jinnie's safety is now Pac's mission, enforcing Irish to accomplish his mission to protect the Valkyrie and her contents at all costs and further releasing Hannah to do the same.
Letting the Valkyrie be destroyed compared to all the innocent lives lost and military personnel, both representing what the squad is held to a higher standard to protect, and the whole story details lost is a complete immoral option. Of course the Valkyrie destruction option has the idea of you can't kill an idea. However the Valkyrie carries the idea with it so only the remnants of a once proud and possible off record squad and a spy carry the idea. I think letting the Valkyrie be destroyed is a smack in the face to Pac and a big down to the Player for the inability to finish the fight.
Why use the repetitive model instead of a choice at the end to let who a player wants to choose including the player themselves and if the player can't decide then the game does. The three options are essentially three separate endings, but the endings only change with a lame ass change of dialogue. Plus we'll never know if Dunn's wife gets called or receives a letter in the mail. A perfect example of alternate endings are from Biowares first Mass Effect game, where each ending choice completely signified altered the ending outcome and you get a good cutscene to top it off. Fallout New Vegas was ultra repetitive (don't get me started), but all the endings where thought out.
I think my main beef with the ending is it forces a player through an immoral option in order to complete the game. I use force strongly here as you don't choose the destruction of the Valkyrie, but fail to finish your mission, Pac, and country.
Dick move DICE.
A better option compared to the Valkyrie's destruction is to let both Irish and Hannah go for all the damn kill stealing or let the player go to end your role in this shitty campaign for good. Irish does have a wife and kids and Hannah I am not sure so another vote for Hannah.
Another option is to allow the player to detonate the explosives with your own explosives, oh wait the game must have removed them prior to boarding the boat to Chang's ship. I could have sworn I had them equipped, I mean I was right on the Valkyrie deck using them. Maybe my equipment was too heavy to take, as the first time heading to General Chang's warship I traveled to the left and my craft froze slightly above the water. Hear me right my game did not freeze, but my craft froze, all the squad mates were alive stealing their last kills as usual, but by this time it didn't matter I completed gold. My explosives must have been too heavy to include in my inventory, FAIL, readiness my ass.
Oh yeah I gave my explosive to Hannah and again the game treats Recker and the player as a fucking noob and can't fucking go hoah hell fucking glory.
One last detail, once the charge on the warship is set and you raise to safety cool music starts. Once the crap decision must be made the music goes like a fart in the wind an you get left with some lame ass cry me a river credits crapola. I gladly skipped the credits as no one gives a hill of beans about credits. Unless I get an achievement out if it, yell no. No fucking epilogue, not even one last cutscene for me to wait or one last chance to insult my military skill level with opening one last door? Shame.
Tashgar
I have a lot of hate for Tashgar, but Tashgar has to be the derpiest mission. One point when there were no more enemies, Irish I believed was suffering from shell shock, I think. Irish, behind cover he began yelling and shooting at a non-existent enemy in the ground. Hannah at the same time suffering the same mental issue began running from cover to cover near Irish yelling "Were is he" concerning the non existent solider in the ground. Tashgar is also the mission you meet the obnoxious female commander and of course during a cut scene you can't do diddly shit. Later when I traveled to destroy a dam both Irish and Hannah yet again amazed me. I found the elevator to go further in the mission. Both Irish and Hannah were no where near the elevator of course. Irish was further back behind cover stating "We found an elevator" and Hannah was in a shipping crate somehow stating "You coming".
At this point I was beginning to worry about the mental stability of my squad mates and in the words of Gordan Ramsey, Fuck me.
The first Oldtown cutscene before the obnoxious commander cutscene features a few groups of US marines in similar vicinity examining the same map. Either every soldier in the Oldtown is a 2nd lieutenant or the US is portrayed as a bunch of disorganized marines.
When I entered Oldtown I had good weapons for head shots and good explosives. Leaving Oldtown and starting the Dam portion my equipment is switched with some default trash. Then the game produces a weapon box shortly after starting the Dam portion.
One interesting point was at the end of Tashgar, the part where I would blow the bridge, I had not completed the gold assignment by a few head shots and I feared I was out of enemies. Luckily at the end I took cover behind a barrier and above I notice two enemies who seemed to endlessly re-spawn. Infinite re-spawn + head shots = gold assignment complete FTW! All while my useless squad mates were yelling to blow the bridge and had stopped kill stealing as well, figures.
I discovered I was missing a weapon collectible from Tashgar.
Then I found out
It began with the forging of the Achievements.
Six Achivements for Kills
Seven Achievements for Points
Seven Achivements for Missions
Seven Achievements for Endings
Eight Achievements for Collectibles...gifted to gamers who of all else desire gamerscore.
For within these achievements was bound the strength and will to govern each category.
But they were all of them deceived.
...for another achievement was made.
In the land of DICE, in the fires of Development, DICE forged in secret a Master Achievement to control all others.
...and into this achievement they poured their cruelty, their malice and their will to dominate all players.
One Achievement to rule them all...
But there were some...who resisted.
And ...
Not a single fuck was given that day.
Best of all my friend gave me his insight in a nutshell.
"I finished it, it was lame".
I LOLed.
Well put and thanks for the well deserved rant! I hated Irish the most...
ReplyDelete