Battlefield 3 End Game Impressions

After some 34.4Gb of total game files, we've finally got the last installment of Battlefield 3's downloadable content, End Game. At one point rumored to be based around dinosaurs (which, lets face it, would have been awesome) End Game brings us four new maps, new vehicles, game modes, weapons, challenges and heaps of fun. Battlefield 3 is now well over a year old (if you haven't, make sure you take a peak at our lookback), so does this downloadable content bring anything new to the table?

Patch Notes

As well as the new game types and maps, the release of End Game brings Battlefield players a general patch. This latest update bring a number of small fixes and tweaks, here are the most notable changes:

• TV missiles should no longer blow up the helicopter they are being fired from.
• In Gun Master mode, you can now move around during the loading timer to prevent instant death from an enemy spawning in direct line of site of you.
• Anti-tank mines no longer count as vehicle kills, but now as engineer kit kills.The repair tool icon stays within the field of view when you're next to a vehicle repairing it, where as previously it could disappear off screen. This should make it easier to work out when the vehicle is approaching full health and how long you need to keep repairing it for before moving off.
• On Operation Metro certain objects have been altered so that you can now position and mount a bipod weapon on them (because Metro didn't have enough bipods to begin with?)
•  The spawn system has been altered to push the person you spawn on out of the way slightly. This should stop new spawns being trapped in corners or appearing in walls

Maps

DICE, as with the previous DLCs, have given us four new maps to play with, with each one being based around one of the four seasons.

For spring, we've got Kaisar Railroad. This map features a strategic railway stretch across the map, designed for covert weapons delivery to the small Iranian city of Kaisar, and many height changes and hidden jumps built into the landscape. Due to its spring setting, its a fairly green, lush map, which gives fans of the green weapon camouflages a good excuse to use them.

In the summer, the vast arid deserts of Eastern Iran are the setting of Nebandan Flats.  Due to the season and setting, most of the terrain is sand or light brush, dotted with small warehouses and plants, used as secret munitions stores. It features wide, sprawling landscapes with little cover for ground forces, meaning that moving quickly from point-to-point is essential.

Operation Riverside, set in the autumn, takes place in a verdant river valley and is based around infantry combat, rather than all-out vehicular warfare. There is a river running down the axis of the map, with an electric substation as the pivotal point in the center. There are broken bridges and construction equipment that can be used to spectacularly and quickly jump across the river, rather than finding a fording point.

Finally, set in the snowy winter, we have Sabalan Pipeline. DICE have said that due to the popularity of the snowy environment in the Armored Kill map Alborz Mountain, they wanted to produce another winter map. Sabalan Pipeline, as its name suggests, its based around a pipeline stretching across the map, with a central processing plant being the focal point. This plant is based around the one from Operation Firestorm, so the levels and ladders should be easy to navigate for seasoned BF3 players. It is also the the smallest of the maps released in End Game. Now lets take a look at the new game modes, vehicles and unlocks.

Game Modes

End Game brings us two new game modes, capture the flag and air superiority. Air Superiority, or AS for short, is much like tank superiority, brought in with the Armored Kill DLC, in that its a vehicle-centric evolution of conquest. AS is pretty much a dogfight of epic proportions. On console, its 6 versus 6, while on PC its theoretically 64 player, but due to issues at launch, you're unlikely to find a working server over 24 players. You spawn into a jet and that's it, no taking off, just flying. The general premise is to capture the airspace around three blimps, conquest domination style, but really its a glorified shooting gallery, and something that will be very welcomed by jet pilots, who haven't had as much love as ground drivers over the DLC product span.  AS is only available on the 4 End Game maps, which are fairly flat, and I found after a few hours, fairly dull. The game play experience is directly affected by the quality of the opposing pilots, it would have been nice to have perhaps a helicopter mode as well, and for the maps to have more varied terrain. I feel AS might be better if it were set on Gulf of Oman, where the towers can be used for cover, or on Alborz Mountain, where the terrain could be used to block locks and the like. Having said that, I'm a fairly terrible pilot, yet I found myself unlocking nearly all the perks in jets in about 20 minutes of flying. The addition of all the jet perks made it a lot more fun than when I jumped into my plane as a rookie. The second mode is that old FPS staple and a fan favorite, capture the flag, or CTS for short. Using the four new maps, capture the flag, is as you might guess, a mode where you need to steal the enemies flag, and then return it to the base with your flag. Every time you take their flag to your base and your flag is there, you get a capture, and the server sets the number of captures to win, the maps also have an overall time limit in case of a stalemate. With the addition of dirtbikes, which I'll cover in a minute, its an utter blast. Its fast, frantic and so much fun. It feels more like an evolution of rush than conquest, but where tactical placement is key. The flags can be carried on foot, as well as in vehicles, this means you can either be fast but weak in a dirtbike, or slow but strong in a tank or LAV. Support players are sure to have fun putting C4 and claymores around the objectives, and engineers are going to love sending a Javelin chasing off after a dirtbike with the flag on the back.

Vehicles & Unlocks

End Game comes with 3 new vehicles, and a new-mode of vehicle delivery to the battlefield. Firstly, we've got a pair of lightly armored anti-air vehicles. For the US, its the HMMWV ASRAD (Advanced Short Range Air Defense), or as its more likely be known, the AA Humvee. On the Russian side there is the Vodnik AA. Both of these anti aircraft vehicles can carry 4 troops, one driver, one gunner and two passengers. The gunner has access too two types of missile, standard anti-aircraft missiles and then rocket pods, similar to those on the helicopters, which can be used on ground troops or whatever you want to shoot at. Ever since the artwork was first revealed for End Game, gamers the world over have been looking forwards to dirtbikes, and they certainly don't disappoint. The US and Russian bikes are the same, and they are both awesome awesome fun. The bikes are only available on the four new End Game maps, and as such the maps are designed around them with jumps and fun terrain everywhere. On Riverside for example, there is the obvious broken bridge as a ramp, but also many other jumps and landing ramps seamlessly hidden in the terrain of the map. The dirtbikes can take two passengers, the driver and another soldier on the back. This read soldier has full use of their weapons and perks, such as firing an IGLA or Javelin whilst driving, shooting a main weapon or dropping C4 off the back. Much like the quad bikes in Armored Kill, the dirtbikes have no external defenses, and the passengers are exposed and can be easily shot off. However, the speed and maneuverability of the bikes makes that a fairly difficult thing to do. Finally, as with many of the vast vehicles, I doubt I'll ever grow tired of jumping in as a support player, covering the front of my bike with a load of C4 and finding an unsuspecting tank to plow into and blow up. Although strictly not a new vehicle or unlock, we get a new method of spawning into the game with End Game, the drop ship. Based on an AC130, when the central position is held in conquest, one side can spawn with a parachute from the drop ship, which constantly circles the map. On top of this, an IFV (like the LAV or BMP) can spawn and be airdropped in with you in the drivers seat. Its quite and experience to behold and a neat little touch. Unlike in Armored Kill, the drop ship has 'pilot' or guns, it can however still be shot down, but has its own set of auto-reloading flares which it fires off automatically when locked onto. We've also got a new weapon, the M1911 S-Tac pistol. A silence version of the classic M1911 handgun, complete with tactical flash light. In order to get your greedy little fingers on one, you have to jump through some serious hoops to get it - a full 5 End Game specific challenges, including shooting down air vehicles with the anti-air systems, 20 head shots with pistols and capturing a certain number of flags in capture the flag. They should be fun challenges to do, and are set up to make sure gamers experience all that End Game has to offer. Finally, there are a new pair of camos for the SCAR-L, G53, M39, QBB-95 and MK3A1 Jackhammer upon completion of certain challenges. We are also given a full 16 new dog-tags to try and unlock as well as the new medals and ribbons for capture the flag and air superiority game play modes.

Thoughts and Conclusion

To put it simply, dirtbikes are awesome. That's my overriding feeling of End Game at the moment. Its a very solid product and genuinely expands on the already vast Battlefield 3 experience. Capture the Flag is a great addition to see and will keep seasoned FPS players very happy, and is a nice balance between rush and conquest modes. I think air superiority is a good idea, but it could have been better implemented. I also think they've shot themselves in the foot a little bit with their choice, or lack of, maps for the mode. The four maps in End Game work well for the other game types, but don't have the vertical nature of a map like Alborz Mountain, or the buildings of Gulf of Oman. It always feels like you're simply flying over the terrain and not really interacting with it, it would have been nice to make evading locks by diving behind cover a particular skill involved. Don't get me wrong, its a fun mode, but I'll be leaving it for the seasoned pilots.

After a few hours of playing all the modes and maps, I've really enjoyed End Game. If I had to choose my favorite DLC, it would still have to be Aftermath or Back to Karkand, as the map designs and size play to the strengths  of my preferred infantry based combat. That being said, I can see myself having an awful lot of fun in the future with End Game, and that's the most important thing. Sure, it would have been nice to get another set of new weapons or the like, but beggars can't be choosers, and DICE have to save some things for BF4 so it doesn't end up feeling like another piece of BF3 DLC. Here's to many nights jumping blown out bridges on dirtbikes covered in C4! Picked up End Game? Let us know your thoughts in the forums!