Battlefield 3: Aftershock – First Look (iPad)

Recently at Gamescom 2011 I got to play a pre-alpha build of Battlefield 3: Aftershock running on an iPad. As DICE is a little bit busy finishing off the blockbuster PC, 360 and PS3 versions of Battlefield 3, Digital Legends is in charge, the developer behind the iOS versions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

If you’ve ever played Dead Space on a smartphone/iPad before, you’ll feel right at home playing Battlefield 3: Aftershock as the control system is practically identical. The left side of the screen controls your movement and the right side is used to aim your weapon with a button to fire. It really didn’t matter where I planted my grubby mitts on the screen as I was still able to control my character. The auto-aim feature also made it a lot easier to shoot the enemy soldiers. If you are playing whilst on the move, although FPS purist may balk at the idea, auto-aim does make the game a lot more playable. You don’t want to be screaming at the screen in public when you miss a headshot now, do you?

With no single-player campaign planned for the game, instead I was pitted against wave after wave of enemy soldiers in a fight for survival like the horde mode in Gears of War 2 and 3. All the fighting took place within the confines of a small courtyard in the Middle Eastern city of Tehran.

For the first few waves I was able to wander around shooting the enemy soldiers as soon as they appeared but pretty soon they got an intelligence upgrade and I had to start using cover to avoid being killed. For this point onwards my tactics involved strafing around pillars of buildings to escape the enemy bullets before hunkering down behind the barricades in the courtyard. Every so often I would peek out above my barricade to take pot shots at the enemy while they were reloading their weapons. This worked really well until I got flanked by a few of the enemy soldiers and died.

If you are expecting a mobile version of Battlefield 3 then you are going to be disappointed. Aftershock is a game developed specifically for mobile devices but set within the Battlefield universe. It’s all about short bursts of gameplay rather than long, drawn out single-player campaign levels. This type of gameplay suits me as I’m able to fit in quick game whilst commuting rather then having to pause a game mid-level. Perfect for the iPad, really.

Summary

Even at this early stage the graphics and control system in Battlefield 3: Aftershock are impressive. If you are looking for a quick FPS fix whilst out and about then Battlefield 3: Aftershock might just be the game for you.

Battlefield 3: Aftershock will be available for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad later on this year.