From Call of Duty to Battlefield, a Beginners Guide

Jun 24, 2011

With a new contender in the fight for the FPS crown and each respective publisher putting their all into Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, the stage is set to be a great Timmie-squashing fall for PCP. But we have been (in recent memory) a clan who plays predominately the Call of Duty franchise and some might be skeptical/confused/curious what the differences are, especially if you have never played a Battlefield game before. Fear not; no pig will be left behind!

Scale: The first thing you will notice about Battlefield MP is the daunting size of the battle going on around you. Matches are capped at 24 players on 360 and the size of the maps accommodates this many times over. Every map released with Black Ops could fit in just one Battlefield: Bad Company 2 map. Snipers will run for minutes on end to get to that perfect spot, Humvees will ferry troops across entire cities and all the while jets will fight for air superiority.

Destruction:CoD4 took a big step with the addition of bullet penetration and has been a staple of CoD ever since. Battlefield took it even further with fully destructible environments. With enough damage any structure will turn into a pile of rubble and anyone who’s unfortunate enough to still be inside when this happens is a goner. Even large pieces of debris can fall off of a building and damage/kill someone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Enjoy that camping spot while it’s still around Timmie!

Vehicles:Vehicles have always been Battlefield’s strong suit. While CoD uses “vehicles” as increasingly powerful rewards for racking up kills and turning the tide of battle, BF gives each team different kinds of jeeps, tanks, APCs, helicopters, and jets right from the get go depending on the level . Although they can be game changing like CoD, they take some time to get good with (especially air vehicles.) They also vary from CoD in two big ways; the first is you don’t have get X kills in a row to use them, just be the first to grab them when they spawn. The second, is that they can hold multiple players fulfilling a variety of roles. As an example, a black hawk in B:BC2 can hold a pilot, two passengers, and a left and right gunner making teamwork and communication essential.

Game Modes:Unlike CoD fantastic selection, Battlefield has few game modes. Along with TDM, the only other announced modes are Rush and Conquest which are unique to the Battlefield franchise.

Conquestis similar to Domination where players fight for control of 3 points. Unlike CoD however, there is a permanent base at each end of the map for each team and this is where players first player spawn is along with the majority of their teams vehicles spawn. With this much more predictable spawn system at the beginning of each match (more on spawning later,) flag B can become pure chaos while flags A and C change hands less often.

Rush has become the quintessential Battlefield game mode and is best compared to demolition in BO where there is 2 objectives that have to be destroyed by means of planting bombs within a time limit. Demolition players switch between rounds of offense and defense. Rush games however take everything up a notch; the principle is the same with one team having to destroy two objectives while the other team protects them but there can be anywhere from 2 to 4 other sets of objectives that have to be destroyed after the initial two objectives. Think of it this way, the defenders have failed to stop the initial onslaught and their last objective just blew up. The defenders get issued new orders to retreat and protect new objectives deeper in their territory that were previously out-of-bounds to all players. They are allowed about 30 seconds to set up new positions until the attackers no longer see that area as out-of-bounds and are allowed to continue the attack. The attackers now operate out of the defenders previous base. This goes on until either a.) the attackers blow up the last set of objectives, or b.) the defenders kill enough attackers at any set of objectives. This preset kill limit returns to it’s original number for each set of objectives. In addition to setting bombs to blow up the objectives, they can be destroyed with enough explosives/vehicles, and depending on location bringing a building down on top of it. To counteract excessive camping/repetitiveness on the defenders part, the attacking team ALWAYS has more vehicles.

Squads:Players are matched in game to 3 other players to form a squad. They can be formed on the fly and set to only let friends in. These players show up as a different color on your minimap and even though details on the new squad leader option still vague, squads promote teamwork greatly.

Spawn System:The spawn system is probably the most complained about necessary evil of CoD; sometimes spawning you seemingly in the path of bullets one life and within knifing distance of an enemy the next. BF uses an entirely different system, allowing the player to choose where they spawn. The catch is that the player can only spawn at their home base, a currently held flag in Conquest, or your squad mate (the details of this system has yet to be confirmed, some saying that you can only spawn on the leader of your squad.) This can be a godsend if you can sneak a person behind enemy lines and have seemingly endless people pour in from a flank. Many advanced strategies revolve around using this system to your benefit.

Spotting:Spotting is a system off calling out enemy infantry and vehicles to your teammates. All you have to do is point your cross hairs near an enemy and press (presumably) back. Then for the next 10 seconds or so that enemy will have a marker above them that you can see regardless of your position/field of vision like the objective markers in CoD. There are few things greater in BF than spotting an enemy out of your guns range and watching a tank shell make that mark disappear seconds later.

Classes:Although CoD has no formal classes to speak of, BO’s first perk does influence how you are going to play to an extent i.e. if you pick Lightweight you are more likely to gun and gun, Flak Jacket capture objectives etc. In BF there is four classes each with their inherent strengths and weaknesses designed to further enhance teamwork and communication. These classes all choose from different unlockable primary weapons and cannot use the other classes weapons. The majority of these weapons will have alternate firing modes (semi, burst, full auto.) Additionally each class has special abilities used to support their team.

Assault: This class uses assault rifles with under-barrel launchers as their main weapon. They are crucial to winning as they can throw first aid packs on the ground to greatly speed up health regeneration. Also, they carry a defibrillator and can revive fallen teammates within a certain time of their death. This class in the past been crucial for keeping the momentum going when attacking.

Engineer:The tank killers of BF this class uses SMGs against infantry and their rocket launcher against enemy held buildings, vehicles, and objectives. They can also repair damaged vehicles which drastically improve vehicle survivability if your lucky enough to have one as your gunner.

Support: The support class uses machine guns with large clips and firepower to suppress enemies. When an enemy is suppressed their vision is blurred, and they are unable to recover health. They can also throw down ammo packs to refill themselves and others ammo, but is the only class without anti vehicle and anti building options.

Recon: The sniper. On top of exactly what you would expect, they can call in versatile mortar strikes with their binoculars that have a long cool down. They are also the most effective spotting class at times giving up half a teams position to your friends on the front line.

I hope this guide has been helpful and the Battlefield franchise won’t feel like starting from scratch if you do decide to give it a try this fall.

Please keep an eye out for more from our newest writer Nejin!