Continuing my trend of reviewing the DLC for Battlefield 3, like Close Quarters and Armored Kill, I’m going to sit down here and rap with you for a bit about Aftermath, DICE’s newest contribution to the steadily growing stable of post-launch content for their combined-arms FPS.
Like the previous two pieces of DLC, Aftermath has a “theme” to go along with it, and in this case it’s picking up from the single-player story by giving us four new maps set in a post-earthquake Iran. This means rubble-strewn pathways, and in the case of Epicenter, aftershocks that will shake your camera around a little bit. It’s not too noticeable that it will affect your aim, but you do have to compensate for it a bit.
The new maps are more in the style of the vanilla BF3 maps, having several choke-points leading to wider areas for you to mess around in. Coming off of the Armored Kill maps, which sometimes felt a little too big, this is a welcome change of pace. The maps are more suited to infantry combat, as tanks are a rare sight even on 64-player Conquest. The new hotness is the customized vehicles, which are basically civilian vans and Humvees with a grenade launcher and a machine gun bolted on. They’re a ton of fun to rip around in, and in a nice change of pace from the armored jeeps of the main game you can actually kill the occupants with a few bullets or a grenade.
There’s only one new weapon in Aftermath, the crossbow (or XBOW in the killfeed). The weapon is made out of spare parts, keeping with the whole “post-earthquake survival” motif. The crossbow is a one-hit kill in most situations, but it takes so long to reload that you have to be very precise. There’s quite a few attachments for the bolts like an explosive tipped one, but outside of the new game-mode Scavenger, I haven’t really seen anyone using it.
Scavenger is the new way to slay in Aftermath, and it’s actually pretty fun. You start off with just a pistol and no class-specific gear and you have to pick up weapons (allocated to different tiers) from the ground. Being the one guy with an assault rifle who ambushes a group of dudes who have only pistols is incredibly satisfying, but on the other hand being run roughshod by a team that controls all the weapon spawn points isn’t that fun. That said, this mode actually has some longevity unlike Gun Master, which most people only played to unlock the assignment gun associated with it.
Aftermath is currently the best DLC option for Battlefield 3, and it makes me excited to see what DICE will come up with for End Game, the final expansion for the game. Has anyone else played Aftermath? What do you think of it?
I want to play it, but I still don’t have BF3. At this point in its life should I still buy the game and get my money’s worth with the DLC? Or would I be safer waiting for the next Battlefield game?