The sound of gunfire rattles off in the distance—the sounds are muffled from the inside of an APC. It’s a tense moment, but the squad’s ready for our third tour of duty—the battle over the Alborz Mountains literally hours behind us. The battle is close. I can hear it, and I’d almost be able to smell it if I wasn’t experiencing it from behind a monitor.
A rocket takes out the APC’s treads and the squad is forced to bail. A couple of the team lay down suppressing fire while the engineer does his best to get the vehicle back up and running. The invasion isn’t going as planned. Within seconds, I hear the distinct sound of the M142 HIMARS and marvel as its rockets streak across the air to pummel the position ahead.
It does little to dissuade the sniper who takes out our only engineer, and we’re forced to abandon the vehicle to make the rest of the way on foot. I can almost feel the chill of Death Valley at night as dry soil crunches beneath my footsteps. Staying here for longer than a few hours could equal death, even if it wasn’t for the bullets constantly whizzing by.
***
Battlefield 3: Armored Kill
Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: September 11, 2012 (Premium/360,PC)
September 25, 2012 (360,PC)
The vanilla Battlefield 3 experience—that is, without expansion packs—offers an assortment of experiences ranging from close quarters battles to larger fights over a variety of maps which differ in size and layout. The vehicular component on each map compliments and encourages a certain experience. For instance, the overplayed but enjoyable Operation Metro encourages close quarters battles backed up by long range support, while Caspian Border is set out in the open, prompting players to scramble for aircraft and board armored vehicles instead of engaging enemy forces on foot.
Whereas Battlefield 3‘s second expansion pack Close Quarters offered CQB experiences comparable to Operation Metro or any number of maps in Call of Duty, the game’s latest DLC Armored Kill provides a Battlefield experience that’s true to the series’ name and origins. If you enjoyed Caspian Border’s overland battles, Armored Kill offers much more of that.
In true Battlefield fashion, no expansion is without the inclusion of new weapon unlocks and vehicles for you to play with. Mobile artillery makes its return for the first time in the series since Battlefield 1942, and the expansion also sees the addition of the AC-130 Gunship offering similar functionality to the aerial bombardment of Titans in Battlefield 2142.
Far from being the invulnerable juggernauts that the Titans were in BF2142, AC-130s are powerful, but terribly vulnerable to both ground and air attacks. They can soak up a beating, but they don’t typically last long on any server with a couple of decent pilots on the opposing team. They can provide a nice, if short benefit to the American side to make a push on a location by softening ground targets.
One of the biggest misgivings I had coming into Armored Kill was the fear that the large maps would prevent me from getting to the action fast enough to keep me interested. The problem with many other games offering large maps is that it often takes minutes before you encounter enemies, and getting killed resets your “fun timer” back to zero before you can get back into the action.
Thankfully, Armored Kill avoids this problem by allowing players to spawn with their squad (as I did by spawning into the APC carrying the rest of my buddies), at one of the few control points scattered around the map, or by paradropping into the battlefield from the AC-130 above. Wherever you are, you’re never too far from the action.
Battlefield 3 might be fantastic by itself, but Armored Kill is where the game comes into its own as a compelling cooperative combat experience.
The Verdict
