DICE has kept the cooperative mode that will ship with Battlefield 3 pretty quiet throughout the last few months. Â Recently, the developer showed the mode to the world at Gamescom and later PAX Prime. Â Earlier, a Product Manager for DICE Tommy Rydling Jr. took to the PlayStation Blog to reveal even more about the mode. Â He describes the mode as having teamwork not “forced up on you”, but after playing the mode at PAX, I can tell you that you’ll be having an extremely difficult time if you aren’t on the same page with your partner.
Rydling also describes missions that have an “asymmetric” feel to them. Â Which means you’ll be working together to complete different tasks in tandem.
“This means that one mission can have you piloting a helicopter while your friend is the gunner, for example. Other situations have one player disarming a bomb and the other one defending him. Or (as you could see in our press conference playthrough at gamescom) you can do tandem kills to avoid detection. There are also other mechanics requiring teamwork, such as spotting enemies to make large firefights easier, or the essential concept of reviving one another to avoid ending up at the game over screen.”
Rydling also touches on the difficulty level in the coop modes, which we saw with a brutal display at PAX over the weekend. Â Though even when you do manage to make it through to the end of the mission, the mode also has randomized elements to keep another playthrough of the same level remaining fresh.
Battlefield 3 Co-op on the PS3 was one of the best things we played at PAX Prime, for a number of reasons. Â If you care to read them they can be found here.
