$39.99Battlefield 3™ Tanks, jets and falling walls
Fight huge team battles across dozens of maps, or play through a short, film-like war story.
Is Battlefield 3™ worth it?
Battlefield 3™ is worth it if…
- you want large-scale multiplayer with tanks, jets and destructible buildings
- you like a short, cinematic singleplayer campaign you can finish in a few evenings
- you enjoy class-based teamwork where squads matter more than lone-wolf aim
- you are happy to tinker a bit to get an older game running
- you want a shooter with unlock progression that rewards sticking with one vehicle or class
Screenshots
Multiplayer built on scale and destruction
Twenty-nine massive maps, wide open ground for vehicular combat, and buildings that break apart as the fight moves through them. You pick one of four classes, Assault, Engineer, Support or Recon, each with its own specialty, and victory leans on squads actually covering each other. The map decides your plan: tight streets for infantry work, open fields where tanks and buggies rule and a helicopter changes everything. Every second of battle feeds Ranks, Ribbons and Medals, and unlocks stack up as you go. Stick with one helicopter and you can eventually fit IR flares to shake off missiles, or lean into stealth instead. It is fast, loud and messy in the best way, and the sound design carries a lot of that weight.
A campaign staged like a war film
The singleplayer story is short and honest about being a B-movie, and that is part of its charm. You play through interrogations, stolen nuclear warheads and a plot that hops between a US marine and Russian soldiers, with set pieces doing the heavy lifting. One mission puts you in the cockpit of a fighter jet, and it is a highlight for its detail alone. The tank mission is the low point, more of a slog than the rest. The atmosphere and lighting hold up well, and the blue-tinted look gives the whole thing a feel later games never quite copied. There is also an online co-op campaign for two, though some missions are known to crash.
What should you know before playing?
Can you still play the multiplayer?
Yes. Servers are still running and a dedicated community keeps matches going, more than a decade after release. The Premium Edition also bundles all 5 expansion packs, adding 20 maps, 20 weapons, 10 vehicles and 4 game modes, so there is plenty of ground to cover. Finding a full server can take a moment depending on your region, but the game is far from empty.
Do you need to play the campaign first?
No. The campaign and multiplayer are completely separate, and multiplayer is what the game is remembered for. The story is a decent few hours with memorable moments, but if you only care about online battles, you can skip it without missing anything the multiplayer needs. The co-op missions, meanwhile, sit somewhere in between and are best with a friend.
