Battlefield 4: China Rising Review

Battlefield 4: China Rising Review

Have you seen those Battlefield 4 adverts on TV? You know, the ones where a guy is sitting in a studio, talking excitedly about jumping out of a helicopter onto a tank or skydiving off a cliff? Well, they’re not very realistic. To say this launch has been a mess would be like saying the new Sim City was a ‘little misguided’. DICE and EA have conspired to create a game that’s quite wonderful in many ways, but launch it in such a state that it’s almost impossible to actually enjoy any of it. Since the game first appeared in late October, it has been impossible to see how many players are on a server.

This means there’s no way of selecting a map to play on, rendering the DLC packages pointless. If you do manage to get into a match, you’ll be wrestling with a bug that enables players to kill each other with one shot, randomly. You’ll be praying that it launches past the initial loading screen. And, most heinously of all, you’ll be battling in constant anxiety that your game is mere seconds away from crashing, and all your XP gain is lost forever. This would be bad enough on a ropey free-to-play game, but if you've laid down 50 quid on the Xbox One version (and another 40 for Premium) it’s downright criminal. And it’s getting in the way of such a cracking game. Even at the Xbox One’s irritatingly jaggy 720p, it’s still a lovely looking next-gen game, with DICE’s true vision for online warfare finally realized on a home console as 64 players run around like gold-tinged psychopaths looking for the nearest chopper to nick and spiral into a wall.

Of the four China Rising maps, three are actually new. Dragon Pass is a remake of Battlefield 2’s Dragon Valley, an unremarkable bowl of death that was once a classic but is now a relic. The rugged mountains of Gullin Peaks offer choke points that result in more death than Sparta’s Hot Gates, along with terrain that’s perfect for the reinstated dirt bikes. Playstation 4 Bundle, console, killzone shadow & battlefield 4.

Silk Road’s sand dunes promise even more dirtbike destruction, but combine it with a cramped, generic base in the middle that offers all the mediocrity of a bad COD map, with shotgun jousts being the order of the day. Lastly the snowy peak of Altai Range delivers something truly different, offering satisfying sniping from the icy summit that overlooks the frozen fields of cannon fodder below, demanding real coordination between teammates on each level. Tragically, none of the maps feature Levolution – we hate the term, but not as much as we hate the stages feeling like unloved leftovers from last year.

China Rising also adds five weapons, though none are worth shouting about, and the Air Superiority mode from Battlefield 3: End Game, but the aerial dog fighting feels more like a Mars bar plonked on top rather than the cherry on a well formed sundae. Still, scary planes aside, new maps are new playgrounds on which to enjoy games of death tag. The on foot action is the sharpest it has ever been, with clean, accurate gun-on-gun combat, and the divide between classes more distinct. Many will decry the loss of the medic (as revival now only awards 1/5 the number of points it used to), but it’s clearly an adjustment to decrease the power that one squad can have.

Engineers are still the most useful class on the field, with instant access to a rocket launcher (although it’s a bit of a pea shooter) and the always useful repair tool that enables a well drilled team to run riot with a chopper or a tank. Snipers (or Recon) now have access to C4, making them a little overpowered, while Assault’s large machine guns and ammo boxes do seem a bit lacking when they don’t have the explosive firepower that they used to.

Thankfully the classes morph and evolve more than before as you level them up, making Battlefield 4’s longgame more of a journey than a grind. And even on these lacklustre maps, it’s still a journey well worth taking… that is, when you can actually get it to work.

And this is it: when Battlefield does work, when it clicks, when it flows, it is unbeatable – which is why it’s a damn crime that it’s in the state it is. This is a premiership video game. A 20-million seller. It simply cannot be allowed to remain in this state and we cannot support anything that outwardly treats its loyal fanbase like this. Sort it out, DICE. New Playstation 4 Bundle w/a PS4 Console, Madden NFL 25 & Battlefield 4 

Conclusion:

It could have been more complete and more coherent, but China Rising still gives you more bangs for your Battlefield bucks. And when it all works, it’s pretty much peerless – but those words are crucial: when it works. At the time of writing, Battlefield 4 is an unacceptable mess; a nightmare of broken matchmaking, hard crashes, lost progress and instant-kill bugs. DICE has vowed to fix it all but, until that happens, it’s hard to recommend spending any more money. And even if it does get fixed, is it all too late?

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