Battlefield 1 Review

The newest instalment of the Battlefield franchise heads back to a time period that needs more attention, The First World War. When the game was first announced I was worried that the developers would gloss over the horrors of the war but I am glad to say that this is not the case.

The story mode in battlefield has had a complete overhaul and instead of playing one character throughout the story there are 6 separate stories, the first introducing you to the different aspects of the game in a tutorial style mission where every time you die you are introduced to a new aspect of the game by hot swapping to a new soldier. After completing this mission you can do the stories in any order that you choose and even the stories that I presumed would be boring were not, for example the British tank driver has to escort a tank through a forest and has you sneaking in on foot with the tank as backup if you decide to go loud, the following mission has the tank break down with you sneaking through an occupied town looking for the parts to repair it, whilst utilising suppressed weaponry to thin the enemy forces. The story telling itself reminded me of the Battlefield Bad Company games without the humour.  There are collectibles in the form of field manuals that are hidden throughout the levels that unlock codex entries, which are also unlocked by completing side missions, and this unlocks information about the war and also multiplayer content, nothing completely game changing just some weapon modifications.

The Multiplayer classes have been changed, starting with the four Infantry classes Assault, Medic, Support and Scout, Assault being your standard Anti vehicle class, Support giving access to some of the heavier weapons and Medic and Scout being your healer and sniper. There are another three classes that are used when you spawn in a vehicle, these are Pilot, Tanker and Cavalry. New to the Series is the premise of Elite classes which are special pickups found around the battlefield that have better health and defence and some very special weaponry. The Sentry is an Armoured LMG user that's perfect for laying down suppressive fire or holding choke points, but don't expect these choke points to last for long due to the destructive environments. The Flame Trooper is a close range anti infantry class armed with a flame thrower that is good for defending bases against infantry. Just make sure not to leave the fuel tanks exposed as it's obviously a weak spot. The last class, which is my favourite, is The Tank buster. The tank buster is pretty much an anti-vehicle Scout and comes armed with the WW1 equivalent of a Barrett Light 50.

Ranking up in each class unlocks more weapons and items to use for that class but now you have to purchase the unlocked items, exchanging war bonds for them. War bonds is the new currency that is used and is gained by levelling up (each level up gives you 90). Primary weapons cost more than secondary weapons or equipment, also used is Scrap, which is found by breaking down duplicate items that you receive in battlepacks and can be used to get more battlepacks.

Battlefield 1 has all the normal game modes that the battlefield franchise has e.g. Conquest and Rush with the addition of a few surprises  the largest being Operations. Operations is a new Multi map game mode where the outcome of the previous match affects the next match. Also new is War pigeon where the aim is to find a pigeon hold it until a message can be written and then release it to score points. Making a welcome return is Air Superiority not seen since BF4.

As what seems to be standard now the game also has its Premium pass available to purchase for £39.99. You get all the DLC with 2 weeks early access, 14 free battlepacks given at a rate of 1 per month, 14 dog tags and priority server access.  The battlepacks are awarded on a certain date so even if you buy this pass at a later date you will get all previous battlepacks awarded.

All in all this is a great return to the battlefield formula that I believe has been missing since BF4 and although I liked the story in BF Hardline it never managed to reached the highs of the BF Bad Company series. Battlefield 1 however did, my only gripe is the lengths of the campaign. I would have loved more stories as they seemed to be over just as I was getting in to each character. Each story portrayed the difficulties faced within the war but it was the tutorial mission that highlights how many people believed the old lie - Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.