God dag Thomas.
My suggestion is that you purchase this game. I can not compare between BF1 and BF3 since I havent played either. I have played BF4 however so I can give you my five cents (or five öre maybe) on the similarities and differences. The similarities would be the type of roles you can choose from and the supression from incoming fire (it was a very long time since I played BF4 but I seem to recall your character being rattled by bullets flying over your noggin) and that is basically what I remember from BF4. And the squad system ofc. There is plenty of differences though. Mostly in a good way according to me.
First of all, the good ones: The sound design is absolutely amazing, it is more focused on realism and actual teamplay than BF4 is. Not to say BF4 doesnt rely on teamwork whatsoever but RS2 is more rewarding regarding teamplay. Both in the sense of getting more points for staying close to your squad in objective capping/a firefight and as a gaming experience. The RS2 community is WAY more engaged in the game and barely two months after release there is already a shit load of custom maps, a feature BF1 and 4 doesnt even have (at least to my knowledge). Another good one is that the developers (Tripwire and Antimatter Games) actually listens to the community and are very comitted to give the players what we want as much as possible. Their previous game Red Orchestra 2 also have a strong focus on realism, even MORE so than RS2, which tends to make people hesitate or even disregard the game entirely. RS2 on the other hand is a bit easier to learn and play while still focusing on realism. For example you get a little colored triangle when looking at teammates, to help discern them from the enemy, which RO2 doesnt, so you have to be REALLY sure before you fire when playing RO2. I could go on and on, bu I got to be fair and move on to the negative aspects of the game.
The downsides: As you said, the graphics are dated which is kind of sad (it doesnt ruin the game however) and there is no destruction, a feature that I loved about BF4. It feels kind of weird to fire an RPG at a straw hut with it still standing afterwards. The cover system is flawed and was way better in Red Orchestra 2 and the hit detection can be straight up awful sometimes.
I will gladly tell you more if you wish, but right now my urge to play RS2 is getting too strong so I just got to play some. Let me know if you want to learn more, now Im off to the jungle for some sweet action. 🙂
