14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield 4 Open Beta is finally available to everyone that owns an Origin account regardless of having pre-ordered the game or not, so we have decided to make a small preview before we get to play the final release.
Siege of Shanghai is the name of the battleground, and it's one of the ten maps that will be available at launch. Right now, you can choose from two game modes: Conquest and Domination, which will take you in the middle of the action and give you a taste of war like you never had before.
Before stepping on the battlefield, you will have to choose one of the four available classes. These classes won't be much of a surprise for the veterans of the series as they remain the same as in the last game: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon.
The minute I got deployed on the battlefield, bullets were flying all over the place, vehicles were burning on the side of the road and my teammates were on assault trying to capture strategic points on the map.
The theater of war never looked so realistic and the feeling you get the minute you step in is that you are really in a war zone where everything can turn into a life or death situation. The massive level of destruction that can be caused to the buildings around you takes the gameplay to a whole new level and Siege of Shanghai is the perfect example for this.
I never had the chance to see that huge skyscraper fall down, instead, each time, I found myself surrounded by a dense cloud of dust and debris right after the tower collapsed. The attention to detail is amazing this time: working lifts will take you to the very top of the skyscraper while bridge bollards can stop the advance of the enemy vehicles.
For the players that rely on reflexes and sure aim, the weapon handling is very precise and it's complemented by the variety of weapon modifications available. Sadly, I managed to unlock only a few of them and didn't have the chance to really experiment with the possibilities.
On our test platform, the game ran a little under 30fps while on High details with some occasional frame drops that gave me a hard time while I was storming the battlefield to the next strategic point.
Battlefield 4 will be out on October 29 and everyone that participates in the Beta will receive a unique dog tag to use in the game. See you on the Battlefield!
