PREVIEW  –  The war between Call of Duty and Battlefield has been ramping up, with Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. With Call of Duty gaining a record number of dislikes. While Battlefield 1 gathered unbelievable positive hype, and the tide is in favor for Dice, with all the marketing of EA it seems that nothing can stop the inevitable awesomeness of Battlefield 1… or can it?

Battlefield 1 seems to be an interesting promise, as the oversaturation of Modern and Near Scifi shooters have chocked the FPS market, EA decided to (Supposedly) take a risk, and go back to the past with Battlefield 1. Which at first seems like a fun idea, in fact, the singleplayer trailer sold me on it. However, after seeing the EA multiplayer reveal at E3 (with Snoop Dog), I am now hesitant to say that it is a revolutionary!

Trenches and Bayonets

Not much is known about the story of Battlefield 1, other than that it takes place in World War I. Based on the trailer luckily we won’t get to duke it out in boring cities, but we will have more exotic locals, and enemies (Looks like even experimental weapons made the cut). The campaign looks epic and fast paced, which is surprising since it is WW1. We get „fast” bipedal planes and tanks that run over the enemy soldiers. The game looks gorgeous in singleplayer mode, and the sound effects all are up to par with the usual DICE quality. It will be a concert of destruction for our ears, and a sight that will be epic.

The Assault on the Net

While the singleplayer was sold to me by the epic trailer, and action. The multiplayer for Battlefield 1 is lackluster. While this is just an alpha/preview of the game. Based on the gameplay, DICE did not seem too, shall we say risk taking when it came to the product. Yes, I am well aware World War 1 is hard to pull off, especially in the era of twitch shooters, and CODs, but still it seems the multiplayer will be just that.

We do have several classes, though, such as the Assault, Medic, Support, Scout, Tanker, and Pilot class, each with their specific role. In order to avoid problems from the previous games where people were would gank vehicles, only these two classes will be able to drive them. The multiplayer will have a player count up to 64 players per match. Which is great, the problem is though that according to the details released by the devs, the game will initially only have four maps to play. That is unbelievably low, and even with the DLC pass it probably won’t be more than around ten. Let us just hope that I am wrong, though.

The environments of the maps will be luckily varied, from The Alps to Egypt, to seaside locations, it will be a real treat to go and kill each other. Speaking of killing, DICE decided to add melee combat into the game, but after seeing the footage, it reminds me of the lock-on system from Ace Combat Assault Horizon: „Press a button and lock-on / run to the enemy and stab them.” While DICE added some new ideas to the melee combat, they seemed to have skipped on the brutality of it. A simple stab, a few squirts of blood and we are done. Seemed disappointing, and not that great in the end.

Graphically speaking the multiplayer does look a bit rough around the edges (wreckage disappearing instantly, etc.). It looks great, but at the same time, it does show its issues to us rather early. Still, since its in alpha this can be fixed down the line.

Charge?

Not much has been revealed, and it is too early to make a judgment whether this game will bomb Infinite Warfare, or bomb itself. While Call of Duty has been becoming more interesting with every new trailer, Battlefield 1 feels like essential a mod for Battlefield 4. We hope that new footage will be revealed soon, as it is not looking good for Battlefield 1 (Even with all the fancy mass of likes on the youtube videos).

-Dante-

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA DICE

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Relase date: October 21, 2016