DICE has made some subtle but very important tweaks to the character classes in Battlefield 3. The soldier now doubles up as a medic, packing medikits and a defibrillator, as well as an M16 assault rifle with combat optical gunsight. The engineer has access to a repair tool for fixing vehicles, as well as a SMAW antitank rocket launcher for blowing them up, in addition to an M4 carbine with flashlight. The support soldier is able to dish out valuable ammunition, while also laying down suppressing fire using the M249 light machine gun with bipod and M145 optics. Finally, the recon class has access to C4 explosive packs and the MK11 sniper rifle with 6x scope. All classes also have access to an M9 pistol, hand grenade, and knife by default, and they can be fully customized as you gain experience playing the multiplayer game.

Vehicle damage has also received a major overhaul. In Battlefield 3, if the enemy fires a rocket into the back of a tank, only the guy in the rear will be killed, rather than everyone in the tank. A vehicle can now be incapacitated, but the gunners will still be able to fire out when it's at low health; it just won't be able to move anywhere until an engineer repairs it. DICE will also introduce new rewards for players who act sneakily when playing. You will be able to customize your own dog tags and then steal other people's by performing a stealthy knife kill in multiplayer, for instance.