Battlefield 4 impressive but suffers from the Denny’s effect

Ever woken up and thought, “Denny’s would hit the spot right now?” As you brave the roads towards that oasis of breakfast delights, the savoury image of a Lumberjack Slam or Moons over my Hammy builds and builds. Upon arriving, you are willing to sit sandwiched on a crowded bench. And when the meal finally arrives ... well, by this point it’s been so built up that no matter how good it is, it leaves you with that little pang of dissatisfaction.

This was my experience with Battlefield 4 on the PlayStation 4. Having pre-ordered the system and game, I had feasted on appetizers of screen shots and dined on previews, even going so far as picking up a copy of Battlefield 3 to immerse myself in the lore of what was rumoured to be one of the best military franchises on console to date. If the latest Splinter Cell game and Beyond: Two Souls was impressive, I wondered what a next-gen game like Battlefield 4 would have in store.

Battlefield 4 became my Moons Over My Hammy, suffering from the Denny’s effect. I should have seen it coming: no matter how good it was, the build-up was the harbinger to an inevitable dissatisfaction.

In my first few hours with the game, I didn’t see what was – I saw what wasn’t. And at first, the game was mediocre at best. The single-player campaign was a notch better compared to Battlefield 3, but I knew it wouldn’t win any awards for ingenuity or originality. The plot was relatively predictable, filled with the typical clichĂ©s of the genre. Twists and changing of allegiances were pretty obvious with nothing truly innovative or original.

My first impression of the graphics as I played through the single-player campaign was that they seemed reminiscent of current-gen graphics. The detail in NPCs (non-player characters) ranged from adequate to subpar, with stiff, wooden movement adding insult to injury. Environmental textures at times were beautifully detailed though most of the indoor surfaces had that smoothed, too-clean look, blips in realism a painful reminder that I was playing a video game.

Destruction modelling was adequate, but most objects broke apart into cubed chunks. Again, after the hype, I expected more from my meal.

After the Denny’s effect abated, I began to notice what was great about the game. Sound was the key to this shift. This is the type of game that needs the accompaniment of a dinner guest I know as Dolby 5.1. Where the immediate graphics fail to awe, the sound of bullets whipping past, pattering across your cover and annihilating surfaces around you immerses you into the intensity of the action.

When I look beyond and into the backgrounds of the set pieces, the game opens up. Thanks to the robust hardware under the hood of the PS4, draw distances and environmental effects are impressive. Draw distance is how far you can see detailed environments. In Battlefield 4, the fact that you can see pristine details farther away makes the action feel closer – a paradoxical truth in gaming. Drawing distances in Battlefield 4 blend with enhanced environmental effects to create an intense backdrop. From seas to rain, water looks incredible. Flames and smoke, thanks to volumetric lighting, are equally fine to behold.

While these ingredients are dished out nicely in the single-player campaign, they shine in what is the main dish of the Battlefield 4 meal: multiplayer. Battlefield 4’s multiplayer has the action, precision and excitement fans have come to expect from the series. It’s one of the few games in which the multiplayer looks better than the single-player campaign.

Here, the environmental effects, frame-rate, draw distance, sound, and graphics all simmer together to create an enticing experience. For those who are playing the game on a current-gen console, tragically you’re missing out on the larger maps, wider array of vehicles, greater detail in set pieces, and up to 64 players battling at one time, all of which are needed to capture the battlefield experience of the game.

One intense addition in multiplayer is the use of “Levolution events,” by which players can trigger large-scale destruction of skyscrapers, dams and towers. These are not only wicked to witness, but they change the strategic element of the game.

While on its surface, Battlefield 4’s unoriginal single-player experience may not live up to the Denny’s-esque hype of immersion and intensity, once you tuck in and feast on the sumptuous multiplayer, you’ll be sated knowing that the next generation has, indeed, arrived.

When he’s not teaching high school, St. Albert Catholic High School alumnus Derek Mitchell can be found attached to a video game console.