In Battlefield 3, players step into the boots of U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Henry Blackburn as he fights across various global hotspots to stop a looming terrorist threat. The story unfolds through intense flashbacks as Blackburn is interrogated about a series of catastrophic events.

The campaign takes players from urban firefights in Tehran and Paris to large-scale battles in New York City, where a nuclear plot threatens millions of lives. Alongside Blackburn, other playable characters like jet pilot Jennifer Hawkins and Russian operative Dmitri Mayakovsky add different perspectives to the story.