Battlefield 4 - MP Launch Trailer

While the game still has to unlock here in the Netherlands the reviews are starting to come in for DICE's latest shooter Battlefield 4: CVG: 9/10, Joystiq: 4.5/5, Shacknews: 7/10, Polygon: 7.5/10, Gamespot: 8/10, Eurogamer: 8/10, Videogamer: 9/1, GamesRadar: 4.5/5, IGN: 8.5, PC Gamer: 84%, Xbox 360 Achievements: 80%, US Gamer: 3.5/5, Machinima: 9.5, GameTrailers: 9.5,Game Informer: 8.75, AusGamer: 9.4

Battlefield 4 has all the necessary components for a good, story-driven shooter campaign. It's got a well-developed set of mechanics, oriented as much around strategic movement — vaulting over barriers, a workable lean system that works nearly auto-magically — as they are around the first-person shooting that so often takes center stage. Guns roar as concrete flies off of barriers and columns. 

But for all the fury and fire that Battlefield 4 promises when you pull the trigger, there's little impact during firefights. There's a dizzying disconnect present in the damage it felt like I should be doing and the damage I did. In Battlefield 4, shy of a headshot, you'll be reloading often as you fling magazine after magazine at AI opponents. This combines with the enemies' tendency to hide behind cover for, well, forever, popping up every few seconds or so, leading to extended firefights where it doesn't feel like anything interesting is happening at all. 

All of which directly contradicts a campaign that otherwise seems hellbent on throwing you forward, or down, or out of something — just about every chapter ends with your character getting tossed out of something at high speed and/or losing consciousness. Battlefield 4's campaign is a jumbled, minimally coherent collection of guided shooter clichés. It isn't just forgettable, it's consistently, often willfully stupid.