Platforms: Xbox One, PS4 (Reviewed), PC
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: DICE
Disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher
Introduction
The latest installment in the Battlefield franchise has been released. Gone are the tropes of modern day warfare or futuristic sci-fi combat that other shooters seem to be currently mired in. DICE decided to go back to square 1 and set the game during the events of World War 1. Now if you were like me, you start to envision all of the misery and horror of trench warfare and mustard gas that seemed to be norm for that war. We are talking about the introduction of some truly deadly weapons that needed to be banned after the war for the sake of humanity. Most of the content I picked up in history class and media seemed to drive home the fact that ground warfare in WWI was pretty static and terrible as it was just a grinder of soldiers and resources. DICE either took some artistic license with World War I or I must have fallen asleep in some history classes because this game has a ton of excitement and epic moments packed into it. There are a large amount of vehicles and weapons at your disposal in order to battle against others to see who can rule the battlefield of the First World War.
The intensity of the campaign
Not too many people purchase First Person Shooters for the single player campaigns, but Battlefield 1 took another step away from the norm with their unique perspective. There is a narrative driven by characters who were pulled into the war and explain how it affected them, their humanity being front and center. The campaign starts with a harrowing mission where you just need to hold out against an onslaught of enemy troops attacking your position. Things seem to be going alright until you realize most of your squad is going down without getting back up. Soon you get overwhelmed and get taken out by the enemy only to see the name of the soldier you were along with their year of birth and (the current) year of death. Then you jump to another soldier who is in a similar situation and dies shortly thereafter. The theme becomes evident as every soldier you play dies and you just witness the death and destruction of the war. The other missions have some great cinematic moments and really hammer home the sheer brutality of war in general.
The gameplay is similar to most of the Battlefield games with a high level of refinement and smooth animations throughout. Running in a field and hopping over small obstacles becomes second nature as you are fighting your way from one point to another. Getting the jump on an enemy and smashing them with your shovel or charging them with your bayonet are intense and somewhat gruesome with very detailed sound effects. Pulling off long range sniper shots is very satisfying as well since chaos surrounds, you trying to distract you from your goal. All of the controls feel right and infantry combat is quick and decisive while vehicle combat feels overpowered until you realize that there are many counters for tanks rolling down the street or planes flying overhead. There are a multitude of weapons available to each of the classes that can reduce those pesky pilots or drivers from ruining your squad’s day.
All out multiplayer warfare
The gameplay refinements and fine tuning are then fully realized in the massive warfare that is multiplayer. It's huge, it's loud, and it's entirely chaotic, from the very first time you touch the ground and set off running toward your objective. Sure, the player on player warfare is still just as gritty as it is during the single player campaign. Combined with the environments, however, whether you're weaving through a ruined city as buildings are crumbled, and in most cases still crumbling around you, or wider fields with tons of high ground and tunnels to weave through, dodging enemy plane fire from up above, you get a sense of awe among all the death and destruction.
The modes available offer something for anyone, whether you're interested in all out warfare including vehicles on expansive maps in Conquest, or smaller maps without vehicles in Domination, or straight up Team Deathmatch, if you want to worry less about capturing and holding various points. But, as you've probably heard from nearly everyone already playing the game, Operations are the true show stealer.
In a way, you can think of them as expansive Single Player missions, but in a multiplayer environment, where playtime can run anywhere from an hour or more, as you're moving across different locations and maps, depending on how well your team does. It once again drives home the absolute chaos and carnage of WWI.
Always progressing
There are various progression systems that ensure you're always working toward some sort of goal. One of the most basic ways to progress is to unlock new weapons and gear with War Bonds, which you earn as you level up your profile. However, certain equipment will also require class proficiency, meaning you also have to have amassed a certain amount of cumulative points as that class, in order to be able to buy a specific gun, even though you might have enough War Bonds for it. This encourages players to stick to a particular class, rather than switch around after each death.
The Medal system is yet another fantastic progression system that gives players a set of five goals to work toward every few days, at which point they're switched out for new ones. These include everything from getting kills with a certain kind of gun, completing certain modes or winning them, and even performing specific class actions during combat, such as repairing vehicles or resupplying your fellow squad mates. Completing these challenges earns you some solid XP, so they're always worth completing.
Lastly, Battlepacks make a comeback, but in a different way, and I'm not very sure it's a better solution. The upside of these Battlepacks is that they only contain weapon skins, with a slight chance of getting a puzzle piece to unlock a new melee weapon. This certainly makes them a bit more trivial than in BF4 or Hardline, as in those you could also unlock various attachments. However, unlike those games, you earned Battlepacks as you completed various missions or simply leveling up. Battlefield 1's solution to Battlepacks is straight up RNG. You only earn them if you stick through an entire match, which is fine, since it encourages players to not leave, but then it randomly awards players with them.
One could argue that since the rewards are so trivial, that it doesn't really matter. However, it will grate on your nerves when your squad mate just got their fourth Battlepack in a row, while you sit there and just watch it happen.
Interface and presentation
The menu seems to have some intuitive but frustrating features built in. Quick play is enabled and friendly alerts pop up to let you join your friends when they are playing in a server. It also does its best to keep you together on the same team and squad as long as there is room on the team. There is an issue where you can’t easily quit the game when you are on the results screen so you have to wait for the next match to start in order to quit., essentially wasting everyone's time. Aside from a few oddities, the menus and matchmaking seem to be doing a good job to keep you focused on the gameplay instead of trying to find a good server although the options are there if you like the manual approach. Of course, this is all thanks to DICE ditching the Battlelog system once and for all.
In conclusion
Despite some stumbles, Battlefield 1 is fantastic, and it's once again a shooter many of us have come to love and expect from DICE. Small maps focus on intense infantry firefights while large maps show off the grand scale and environments and that vehicles can turn to dust with a few well-placed shots. The unlock system relies on in-game currency that you earn when you level up so you can focus on the weapons you want to use instead of waiting for higher levels, but still try to retain your focus on a single class in order to unlock some of the better weapons.
The level of detail and the fun gameplay allow for some epic moments that are made even better when you're grouped up with friends. Shooting down the blimp for the first time or blowing up a tank with dynamite gives you that great sense of accomplishment, that you are making a difference on the battlefield. These epic moments are what make the Battlefield franchise great and keep people coming back for more.
