The first few hours of Battlefield 4 for many folk will be spent hopping through the different maps to see how they will dramatically change. The Shanghai level’s set around a collapsing tower block, there’s one level in an abandoned weapons factory and the unexploded bomb it houses, and Flood Zone? Well that’s a city built below sea level. It sits behind a less than impenetrable levee.
A rocket or two, as seen in the footage below, will send it crashing down and water will pour through.
We’ve seen snippets of Flood Zone before but this is the first extended look at the level. It clearly lends itself to helicopters and infantry. Tanks and other ground vehicles are limited to the few roads built high enough to remain unflooded when the levee breaks.
The helicopters can transport troops to capture points or harass the few vehicles that survive the flood.
Infantry, of course, are left free to navigate the flooded streets and rooftops.
It will be interesting to see how useful boats will actually be when it comes to multiplayer matches. Clearly, the level’s been designed to encourage you to hop into a dinghy and get around the streets quickly but they look like they’d become a target for any engineers or helicopters that catch sight of them.
We’ll find out for ourselves on 29 October.