Electronic Arts has put in a lot of effort to show off what the single player portion of Battlefield 3 will offer in demos so far, adopting the attitude that the series’ multiplayer is already highly regarded while people might need some more selling for the campaign stuff. While that’s certainly true, it doesn’t mean that multiplayer in Battlefield 3 is the same old experience, top to bottom.
Senior multiplayer designer Alan Kertz sat down to share some new information about the multiplayer mode’s class system in the latest Battleblog post. There are four classes in this game in all: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. While there are all pretty familiar generics to anyone with even a light amount of online shooter experience, the Battlefield 3 take on each highlights a few key differences.
The Assault class, for example, is built for front line combat, same as ever. Only now, the medic class is non-existent and you must instead rely on the newly added range of healing abilities to the combat-oriented class. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, at least from the standpoint of keeping the game moving. Medics aren’t built for combat on the front, but that’s where Assault shines. Adding the ability to use a medpac or deploy a defibrillator ought to help keep the pace at a constant.
Engineers fill sort of a dual role as well, if an expected one. These are your vehicle-friendly soldiers. They trade in repair kits for the good guys and high explosives for the bad guys, using their more damaging weapons to take out armored targets and even whole buildings.
Every squad should have at least one Support class soldier kicking around. This class specializes in heavier weapons like light machine guns. Support soldiers are able to put an LMG’s bipod to use too, setting up in a static position and using the weapon attachment to create a more stable platform to fire from. Add it together with your average LMG’s superior ammo capacity and you’ve got a powerful tool for laying down suppressive fire.
Finally there’s the Recon class, better known to many as the sniper. Only now the Recon is much less of a lone wolf, thanks to some newly created gadgets that play to the class’s strengths. The post doesn’t go into detail, but the class will have access to “several completely new teamplay oriented gadgets.” Also to be detailed later is class customization; there will be presets, but those will be supplemented as players progress by a variety of choices.
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