So, Battlefield 1 offers an insightful look into not only how can we age back modern FPS' to an earlier time period successfully, but it also gives us a look at what DICE *could* have done had they put their nose to the grindstone on Star Wars Battlefront (though even then it would still be dwarfed by the mere existence of the classic Battlefront 2), and by that I'm talking about the multiplayer experience, not the potential for a single player campaign. But, we're not here to talk about that, so let's shelve that conversation for another time. What Battlefield 1 does well is delivering a full experience of how trench warfare and the industrial revolution really changed the world. You get a sense of the massive scale of the first world war, the ominous feeling of having to fight through what would later be called "The war to end all wars", and also the sheer lack of establish rules of engagement of the time. It's honestly impressive, but at the same point it still feels very samey to the other Battlefield games, and while that's not a bad thing, DICE had a chance to truly reinvent the genre, and they kinda just let it slip through their hands.
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I'm going to start off talking about the campaign, and how that particular beast played out first, because it's an easy starting ground for me, and while I'm not really going to be discussing major story spoilers, I will talk about the environment of the game, and some of the battles so I'm tagging it anyways.
In my mind, the campaign does a good job at adding a human face to a very violent and faceless era of human history, but you really only ever experience it from the side of the Allies, though no surprise there, the victor is whose truth gets written, meaning it would have been nice to experience the game through the eyes of an Ottoman or German soldier. Overall though the campaign is a good experience for me, plenty of opportunities to approach most missions how you feel like it, though often times it felt as if I was still going at the missions alone, which historically isn't really accurate, these were large scale battles after all, and really only a couple of situations even sold themselves as "this should be done alone" kinds of things. The other big thing the campaign suffers from is what I like to call "wave mentality" or, sit here and defend this position while we just throw waves of enemies at you. One moment in particular is while you're defending a train depot as a sole tank crew from waves and waves of German tanks and infantry, it's cool, but it's not exciting or remotely believable for this era in warfare (typically you would have had a platoon support you with maybe one or two other tanks, or your crew would have surrendered the objective for a more feasible one). One of the good things it does though is allow you to try and learn a variety of weaponry, but the lack of a distinct tutorial (how do different weapons work vs support weapons like the dynamite work) is a bit frustrating and forces players to get a handle on things all on their own. While I enjoyed the story missions I was also left wanting much more than I was given, especially considering that they're relatively small areas, unless you're playing the pilots missions, and they get reused VERY frequently (one campaign had me fight in the same area for nearly 2/3rds of it). Overall not bad, but it has a lot of areas to grow.
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A lot of people would say that the multiplayer has long been Battlefields strongest aspect, and I would agree, but the unfortunate truth is that games outside of the new Operations game mode (think of it as massive 32 vs 32 asymmetrical multiplayer) just aren't as good. The Operations are incredibly fun however, and do deserve all the attention they've been getting. In my brief time with the multiplayer I've really enjoyed getting the reinforcements as the attacking team, and being able to dig in to highly defensible positions as the defending team. The weapons really make the game shine, as well as the chaotic nature of rushing from objective to objective trying to push the front lines forward. My biggest gripe however is that from what I've seen melee weapons seem to be nothing other than cosmetic reworks of each other. The shovel isn't any more useful than the mace. i was hoping for at least some utility use to them, like the shovel could help you to dig out a bit of a better fortification, or the mace would allow you to pierce through armor, but that really isn't the case, they just kind of do the same thing, or if they do work differently I haven't seen it.
Another nice aspect to the game is that some of the multiplayer item enhancements are obtainable in the single player campaign but finding field books or completing challenges for codex entries, which really give credibility to the campaign and doesn't make it feel like its just there for anti-social people like me who really enjoy a good single player experience. The weapons are diverse enough to be fun, but I still feel we run into the classic issues of people using the same 5 or 6 guns because they're just objectively better than others and you really can't do anything about that. The graphics and sound are very nice, but if they weren't I wouldn't be playing a Battlefield game (tbh it feels like they sacrificed in some areas in exchange for graphics, but hey what can you do), and my only other main gripe is that main menu is a little clustered and can be a bit confusing if you're not super used to it. I like the behemoth war machines in the multiplayer mode, and how they're good for the balance, and not just one sided win machines like they very easily could have been, they pose a nice threat, but if your team works together they're nothing you can't overcome.
The map design is really nice, lots of areas in most of the maps to get around and ambush enemies, or hide depending on your play style, and while personally I've never been a huge fan of Battlefields destructible environments I can see their appeal and find it a nice way for a map to evolve over the course of a match.
Long story short, if you like Battlefield games, you're bound to like Battlefield 1, but your like me and you're new to the series and are hoping that it will break the cycle that modern online shooters have been offering you're barking up the wrong tree, especially since DICE and EA just can't leave their $50 season pass behind despite the addition of microtransactions to the game. Sadly its just not enough to keep me on the bandwagon. Overall I give Battlefield 1 7 misplaced artillery shots, out of 10.
I played Battlefield 1 on Playstation 4 system, the copy I played was a retail copy that I acquired at Walmart on Black Friday.
