An amazing journey into World War 2 and the people involved. Epic in every way!
War Stories
We begin with Billy Bridger being slammed down on the floor of a prison block floor. Two guards fiercely doing their job while holding the prisoner down. A man of military stature greets this well-known criminal with an offer that is way better than his odds in prison. Bridger's expertise are explosives with the mix of attempted armed robbery and a hint of assault. Explained by Mason, the mysterious army figure, he is willing to offer him freedom in exchange for Billy's recruitment in the army. After a reluctant 5 seconds of being in the "hole" Billy opens the slide and asks what type of unit was it that he had in mind, a slow turn around with a humorous "do you like the seaside" reply form the man while wearing the most dangerous smile ends our scene. At seaside, a dark, rainy and gloomy afternoon Mason and Bridger get ready for an off the grid mission. Thus, starting us off with the first War Story mission.
That is the first War Story, there are three others. Nordlys, Tirailleur and The Last Tiger. All very different and all very in depth. In Nordlys you are a young Norwegian woman sent on a mission to rescue your mother from the Germans. They are making a deadly water chemical that will either put an end to the war, or the beginning of the end.
1944: High Intensity, all-out warfare with the infantry of OPERATION DRAGOON, France's forgotten southern landings. Fight to liberate a homeland you've never seen. Two young brothers are caught up in the war, they are sent to dig ditches for the regiment until all of the reinforcements failed, then they were volunteered to fight the front lines. Two lives that make a difference in the war that was fought.
1945: Command a Tiger 1 In a last stand against US forces as they push toward the Rhine. Fight a defensive battel without hope from the command seat of one of the most feared vehicles of the war. General Bradley's Twelfth US Army Group presses the borders of Germany. 17,000 tanks, 28,000 aircraft and 4.5d million soldiers press eastward. Meanwhile, German lines are in disarray. Units are broken and separated. They are not many. They are poorly supplied.
In these War Stories, you have challenges available in every single mission, along with letters. The challenges are pretty hard on a lot of the stories, but as far as the letters go, they are scattered across the map and are not as straight forward as the challenges which are blatantly spelled out for you. Achieving these challenges will grant you melee weapons upon completion in multiplayer.
These are meant to be played and soaked in. Please take the time and enjoy these beautiful stories and it will give you a look into the lives of both sides of these brave human beings that fought the war.
Multiplayer
This game has been enhanced from BF1. The mechanics are smoother, and the bullet drops all sorted out. The main game modes still exist, Conquest, Team Death, Domination etc. This year some new modes were introduced. Grand operations, breakthrough and more to come in the future. All things and modes considered, it was a great outcome. There are though, some things that need to be fixed. The bugginess, it is so irritating, but it won't take away from me having fun. It is a bother, yes. When you hear and read other reviews, you will hear people say that they think BFV is not good. That is not my opinion. The overall functions have paid off. The easiness of stabbing people is so great. Jumping through the windows looks way better too. The fact that you can demolish houses completely I feel brings a lot of good feelings to the veteran players. I know they took that perk away in BF4, so to have it back is great. I ran around for hours just taking my rocket launcher blowing the tops off of houses to make sniper nests for the people I was playing with. It is so much fun. Let's say if knew someone was in a house and I couldn't shoot them, well I'd simply pull out the rocket launcher in my assault class and shoot the house. Most times you will get lucky and get a debris kill, with some of the architecture falling on the other player, a great feeling.
I know in BF1 there was a problem when aiming at other players the names wouldn't properly show up all the time and made it hard for allied players to know who to shoot. This time around I have not found any problems, though the biggest problem was in hardcore and I haven't seen hardcore in this game yet. I am hoping that they will. I love hardcore. Another thing between Battlefield and CoD is the team chats. Hardly anyone in Battlefield will chat unless they come in with a party. The maps are huge on conquest. I absolutely love the freedom given to us players on these maps. I have not been in a lot of vehicles yet but running into a house and completely crashing through it and watching the house crumble is astonishing.
Weapon Upgrade System
Under "Your Company" while customizing a weapon that you want to deck out, you will see an option that says "Specialization". These are the weapon upgrades. For instance, the top selections for the Sturmgewehr 1-5, you will see two options to select from. These options are either, Quick Reload or Quick Aim. Let's call these perks for your weapon. As you go down you will find more perks that may help your gun grip, custom stock, which helps improve accuracy while moving or lightened stock which will allow you to move 60% faster while aiming down sights. All of these are great improvements and there are many more where these came from. Each of the perks also vary from class to class. The ones I mentioned above are a part of the Assault class, so you may not find them in the Scout weapons. Though having this option is great, it's hard to decide which ones to pick from because you cannot have them all. You can only pick one or the other. You must be LVL 4 and up in order to specialize your weapon. So, save up you in game points if you want to improve your favorite guns stats.
Customization / Your Company
I am so happy Dice brought personal customization to the game. I am a big fan of making my character mine. From the head all the way down to the toes, well pants and boots. I am going to start by saying that you have up to 7 or 8 variants of camo color for your character. As you go on in a certain class like let's say assault, you have to lvl up in that class and then you will get special assignments to unlock more color options. As do you unlock other outfit options. The items are rated, common, uncommon and epic. Some you can simply unlock by spending points on them, others like I mentioned will take a special assignment. Face paint adds a little warrior, bad ass looks to your character as well. Though this may not be the most detailed customs brought to gaming, it is good enough to satisfy me.
Allied forces and Axis Forces
Two different types of battle companies. The first, is Allied Forces, the second, Axis Forces. These are the sides chosen when you are thrown into a game. Depending on what side you are on, it will pick a custom load out that you create. For instance, if you select YOUR COMPANY, you will see on top the two sides Allied and Axis. Press LB and RB to switch between the two. LT, RT if you play on PS4. After you are under your desired side go under the class you want to throw customs on and fix your loadout up. If you decide to do it under Allied, when you are thrown into a game under Allied, you will find you Allied loadout, not Axis. So, it is good to go ahead and set up your two-sided setup before you are in a game and realize that your using a loadout you do not want to lvl up or just plain don't like. Also, under these two sides, you will find that there are also two very different character selections. Yes, you can select your own character. They all have names given to them, so you don't get that joy, but still a nice touch.
| Characters Under Allied | Characters Under Axis |
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Vehicles
You have skins for your vehicles too! I'm not really a vehicle user, but they are cool and the option to hook them up is sweet.
| Tanks | Planes |
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Graphics
Crisp, clean and very smooth. The detail in the explosions are so real. You can see the bits of debris rush past your face as the blinding light distorts your vision. The snow seems like crystals gleaming in the distance. The grain in the butts of the guns pop out like 3d. You can see every grain carved into the weapon and every paint chip from the gun from the use over the war and the years of use. The blowing up of the houses and buildings are so on que, when an enemy is in the structure, the debris will kill the opposing player under the death explosion. Sniping from a couple hundred feet away and seeing the blood escape from the exploding body part, priceless. I can't say enough about this game. I love it in every way.
My Opinion
I give this game five thumbs up. There are little things that can be fixed, those would mostly be the bugginess. The glitching when running, maybe not being able to fully see your reticles while aiming and reloading and not having any ammo. These are minor things compared to all the wonders put into this game. I absolutely recommend this to any Battlefield Veteran and Rookie.