There was a three week stretch in 2016 that in hindsight was completely insane. I’m not talking about Steph Curry’s MVP push - I’m talking about video games, obviously. You get what you pay for, fam. (But damn, Steph Curry was insaaaane that year when he led the dubs to a 73-9 finish, he got all 131 first place votes and he deserved them).
But hey, back to video games:
On October 21st, 2016, Battlefield One was released.
On October 28th, 2016, Titanfall 2 was (confusingly) released.
On November 4th, 2016, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was released.
Those are all top tier shooters but there’s only so much time in a day. I initially bought Call of Duty and absolutely loved it. I then got Titanfall 2 because giant robots will always be cool and that’s since become one of my favorite games of the generation. The one that fell through the cracks was Battlefield One, but I recently corrected that and I’m so glad I did. Between its varied single player campaign and its insane multiplayer offerings, Battlefield One offers a comprehensive experience even years after its release.
While Call of Duty took to the stars in Infinite Warfare, Battlefield One dialed the clock back to the beginning of the 20th century to offer a detailed look at World War One. Instead of a traditional campaign that follows a single character the way Battlefield games had traditionally been done, Battlefield One features vignettes that focus on different aspects of the war. There are six multi-level stories that tell shorter, more intimate tales. It’s pretty amazing that for a conflict so large it has to be called a “World War” how small and personal the devs got while highlighting the mechanics that separate Battlefield from other franchises in a crowded market.
Before I get into the game proper I want to talk about the prologue for a second, because it subverts how first person shooter games traditionally begin and I love it for that. This prologue sets a completely different tone than what you expect and is very reverential to the conflict it’s set in. They run you through the basic controls the way you’d expect a tutorial to do, but does so in a very impactful way, and damn, I love it.
Needless to say, this game is gorgeous
Through Mud and Blood focuses on a British tank crew pushing through German lines. Friends in High Places follows an American who lied his way into the Royal Air Force to fight Germans in the skies. Avanti Savoia tells the story of a heavily armored assault special forces operative looking for his brother in the Pyrenees mountains. The Runner shows a an Australian recon vet looking out for greenhorns as they try to conquer a fort held in the Mediterranean. Nothing is Written shows Lawrence of Arabia assisted rebels in the Arabian Peninsula fighting against the Ottoman Empire and their new incredibly powerful armored train. It’s an anthology that touches every front of the war and showcases the technology of the time in what’s probably an unrealistic way, but is a respectful and entertaining way.
The stories are all well told and the fact that they’re short means they generally don’t outstay their welcome, which is my favorite aspect of the decision to switch to this style of storytelling. I never got bored with any one character because even the two-level stories had a beginning, middle, and end all punctuated with incredibly fun and tight gameplay. The only real bummer I have about each of the missions is I feel like there’s an overemphasis on stealth gameplay. I get that; it’s obviously easier to sneak around than it is to engage an overwhelming occupying force but each vignette has extended stealth sections that grew tired, especially on harder difficulties, which may not matter to you, but mattered to me.
This is from the campaign about airplanes
What’s really brilliant about the campaigns is that they’re essentially extended tutorials for multiplayer, arguably the more important half of the game. I chased the Platinum trophy in Battlefield One because I’m an idiot whose anxiety abates when playing video games and for the first time since I first got my PlayStation 4, I got incredibly sucked in to Battlefield’s multiplayer. The tank campaign assures that if you finally do get into a tank online you’ll know what to do, same with the airplane campaign. The Italian campaign teaches you how to use a specialty class, something you can unlock mid-match after reaching a certain score. The Fort capturing campaign teaches you about capturing control points for modes like Conquest, Domination, and Operations. The Arabian Peninsula campaign prepares you for when a Behemoth shows up. This can be a train or a zeppelin or the like and it shows up for the losing team in the larger multiplayer modes; destroying it is critical because they can very quickly change the the course of the game.
I really like traditional first person shooter campaigns but since Battlefield is beloved for its multiplayer suite, I’d be very ok if every Battlefield game in the future was structured like this. It sucks when you finally get to do something special in a multiplayer game and you die immediately because you never get to do anything special and you have no idea what you’re doing, since you never get to do anything special. This setup mitigates that enough where it helps you be more successful online.
I didn’t see “Squad Wiped” often, but when I did it felt awesome
Even though it released a little more than two years ago, Battlefield One still has a very active player base, I’m guessing in large part due to its recent inclusion in PlayStation’s PlayStation Plus program, and frequent sales thanks to Battlefield V’s recent release. That made trophy chasing way easier, and actually pretty fun. The three modes I spent the most time with were the previously mentioned Conquest, Operations, and Domination. Those were generally larger maps where every aspect of Battlefield comes crashing together in impressive chaos. Planes dart through the skies as tanks tear through frontlines at a fast clip. Charging infantry are picked off by snipers in the distance but are quickly revived by medics before rushing towards flags hidden by buildings in the town center.
This game is fucking nuts
There are four main infantry classes (Assault, Medic, Support, Scout) and each excels in certain regards. So keep that in mind when you squad up with other players because a balanced team is more useful than you’d think.
The Assault class was loaded with explosives, making it best fitted to take out vehicles. They unlock submachine guns faster so they’re way more adept at taking on multiple targets. Medics can revive fallen teammates in the window between being downed and respawning, so they can keep momentum when you’re pushing into enemy territory. They unlock semi-automatic rifles faster so they’re pretty good at harassing enemies from mid-range but are easily overwhelmed by groups of them. Scouts can use flares to show all the enemies in a given area and use blot action rifles to pick off enemies from afar. Support can provide ammo and repair vehicles quickly. They sport Light Machine Guns (LMG’s) which is fun if you like your character dying with a lot of unused ammo.
The reason I gravitated towards the larger game modes is because it felt like it took large maps and larger player counts to really demonstrate what made each class unique and powerful. I’d routinely switch up my class when the situation called for it. This was frustrating at first because progress isn’t shared across classes. So if you’ve unlocked a lot of weapons as a Medic and you need to switch to support, well… I hope you like the stock weapon that class comes with because otherwise you’re shit out of luck. Thankfully though progression moves at a pretty swift pace. In addition to the generous leveling you can also use experience multipliers you get from lootbox-like prizes (I’m sure you can buy them with real dollars, I got them for free just through playing) that dole out weapon skins among other goodies. Even cooler, that experience boost shares with people in your squad, meaning that when someone else is using one, it’ll share with you too.
All things considered, Battlefield One remains a complete package, even all these years later. The single player campaigns move at a brisk pace and do a good job of putting you in cool situations where you can do cool things while still treating the subject matter with dignity and respect. I don’t normally get into graphics but it’s worth saying here - this game is absolutely gorgeous and helps sell the characters as real people with real feelings and real motivations. I wish that the missions didn’t rely on stealth sequences so much but pure chaos of the multiplayer more than makes up for the silence most campaign stories inevitably ask you to complete.