Artillery strikes were last seen in 2006′s Battlefield 2142, where the Commander could call in an artillery strike anywhere on the map. Since there’s no Commander in Battlefield 3, DICE has instead trickled down many of the Commander features to the regular soldier: the UAV is now available to everyone (if UAV stations return), and there will be an unlockable UAV for the Engineer class.
Not only that, according to DICE’s Karl-Magnus Troedsson at the recent Eurogamer Expo, squad leader will have the ability to call in artillery strikes. This is in addition to the unlockable mortar strike, which is available to everyone playing the Engineer class.
While we were disappointed with the lack of a Commander in Battlefield 3, it’s good to see DICE keep many of the assets and spread them out to the squad level.