First Impressions - Battlefield 4 Dragon's Teeth DLC


You get to visit balmy Pyongyang in Dragon's Teeth

Battlefield 4's penultimate DLC called Dragon's Teeth has now been released for Premium players. Regular players will be able to purchase the DLC later this month. The DLC brings four new urban, infantry-focused maps set in Asian cities (Bangkok being one of them) and the usual assortment of new weapon unlocks. Two new peculiar gadgets includes the R.A.W.R. (an unmanned vehicle that carries a machine gun and grenade launcher) and a ballistic shield (Counter-Strike anyone?). There's also a new map mode called Chain Link.

I managed to give the new DLC a bit of a whirl yesterday and here's what I think of it so far.

What I like

  • Chain Link mode: I actually like this new chain link mode. Basically it tries to bring what I think is a rudimentary modelling of supply lines to the game as capturing flags that are linked together causes the enemy to lose tickets faster. The more you have linked, the faster the enemy will lose flags.

What I don't like

  • Copy and paste: Some of the maps have buildings that are just about carbon copies of buildings from previous maps (like the shopping mall in Siege of Shanghai) - obviously DICE did a rush job with the DLC, probably because they did spend some time investigating the many bugs the game already had, leaving less time or less staff to work on the DLC - at least that's my theory.
  • Infantry focused maps: Get prepared for sniper city again and again. With hardly any vehicles on some maps, multiple skyscrapers and not much space to move around, this is when Battlefield strays away from its original formula. While I thankfully so far haven't experienced another Dawnbreaker (i.e. jets in an urban setting? WTF?) I did experience a map that had nothing more than quad bikes and jet skis.
  • R.A.W.R.: There's now an unmanned vehicle, similar to the EOD bot called the R.A.W.R. but unlike the EOD bot it comes equipped with a machine gun and grenade launcher. WTF? Why on Earth would you add something like this? Sure I know such things are development in real-life and Battlefield wants to be in on the action but sometimes less is more - unless they added a portable sniper-locking Tomahawk missile - I'd put my hand up for that!
  • Bugs: I know nobody likes a whinger but there are still bugs in this game that they haven't got around to fixing, like how the killcam screen only works half of the time. It would be nice if they focused on fixing the game before releasing these new DLC packs but I guess the ship has already set sail with respect to giving Premium members their much needed content on schedule. So we may just have to put up with the bugs forever.

Verdict

It feels like DICE did a rush job with this DLC, copy and pasting structures from previous urban maps to save on time and not introducing anything substantial in terms of gameplay. I really miss the large, open maps from older Battlefield games so lets hope that the final DLC will have more maps like Highway Tampa (even Golmud Railway) and less of the urban sniperfests.

[ LINK: Official Battlefield 4 Dragon's Teeth website ]

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