“Battlefield One” is the fifteenth entry in the “Battlefield” series, which began in 2002. (Courtesy of Electronic Arts)
The video game industry has become so saturated with first person shooters that gamers everywhere are positively fed up with the annual combat titles. They provide the same re- tread storyline and gameplay with a new gimmick or game-mode each and every year in an attempt to suck 60 more dollars out of the fan base. At this point franchises like “Call of Duty” are selling copies on name alone. Popular first person shooters are not only white noise, but they are honestly degrading into garbage.
But leave it to Electronic Arts, of all places, to once again give fans everything they have been asking for.
Where every other shooter is diving head- long into the future attempting to reinvent the wheel with jet packs, wall running and the works, “Battlefield 1” is taking a new approach with a game set in the Great War; World War I.
Despite an overall lack of substance, the game exceeds expectations. That is because everything it does, it does beautifully.
The game’s intro is a roughly 15-minute “mission” in which the player is a number of American soldiers fighting their way through no-man’s land in Western European battle.
Each character dies and the player shifts point of view countless times. The introduction gives a fantastic glimpse into precisely how the Great War was: gritty, bloody, messy and seemingly endless. Despite being simply a trial for the player, it is indicative of the entire “Battlefield 1” experience.
The single player campaign is a masterpiece, plain and simple. The play- er takes the role of multiple soldiers from various participatory nations as the men tell their six respective “war stories.” The stories unravel over multiple missions and provide a variety of fun objectives, stories and insights into the war. Each war story is unique, beautiful, well voice acted and intriguing. Bringing the player an emotional attachment, in what is essentially six separate mini-campaigns, is no small feat. EA’s creative team pulled no punches and spared nothing to bring the player a stunning World War I experience, if not always realistic.
The multiplayer experience is no different; positively stunning and incredibly fun. “Battlefield 1” does an excellent job adapting the usual “Battlefield” approach to an unusual setting. The sprawling maps not only look wonderful, but are also incredibly diverse, lending themselves to each and every style of play. The classes and weapons are balanced, leaving no-one unable to make an impact. The leveling system does not handicap new players with atrocious loadouts, but still rewards players who sink countless hours into play. Ground troops not your style? The vehicle combat is still integral to large game modes like Conquest and Rush, where the game finds a way to take primitive modern war machines and make them thrilling to pilot.
The cherry on the cake? The multiplayer experience was expanded tremendously with the addition of one simple yet enthralling mode: Operations. In this new mode, the classic Rush game type is expanded to a massive scale. One team attempts to move forward from one side of the map to the other, taking objectives and gaining ground by doing away with enemies. When the attackers take the final fortress, however, the game is not over, the game moves to another map that is set in the same country and the attackers’ war campaign continues until they have achieved full victory over the enemy forces. The attackers are given a set number of lives. If they are brought to zero, “reinforcements” arrive with a battleship, zeppelin or train to support them on the field. This new mode may be simple, but it provides a new feel. It is long and grueling, progress may come in inches, yards or not at all. The player feels as though they are actually engaging in a full scale military offensive rather than just one battle. It is a fantastic new mode to cap off a fantastic addition to the series.
“Battlefield 1” is everything a first-person shooter should be: realistic, gritty and fun. There is no other way to say it; the game is a masterpiece.
Final Grade: A+
