When DICE announced it was working on a Battlefield game set during the Great War, fans were a little sceptical. The guns, vehicles, and general gameplay would have to be vastly different from the popular, bombastic Battlefield 4. Even the brilliant launch trailer couldn’t dispel the fears that DICE was going to ruin its winning formula.
Just how was the studio going to render the hellish scenes of the First World War in a way that respected those who suffered during the conflict? How was it going to turn a pretty stationary war of attrition into something that people would want to play? Somehow, Battlefield 1 did both, and it did it brilliantly. The game turns five years old this week, and it’s still the most atmospheric entry in the series. Its set-pieces, sound design, and gameplay are unparalleled.
Picture this: the steep cliffs of Monte Grappa, 40 players hunkered down inside a bunker throwing grenades at each other, snipers’ rifles glinting on the far-off ridge, and the gigantic Behemoth airship coming crashing down from the sky in a rain of fire and grinding metal.
In the swampy pools of Passchendaele (one of the best maps in the game, perhaps one of the best in the series), you experience the claustrophobia of the trenches as the soot and smog burn your eyes. A whistle rings out from a nearby trench. Soldiers, players, follow the sound of it. Your boots clink on the piles of spent ammunition. A bomber hurtles overhead. Artillery and mortars explode around you.
The deep green shadows of the Argonne Forest - a train rumbles down the line as the game falls oddly quiet. A moment of peace in the woods before chaos breaks out. Smoke billows out of bunker windows. Players race through the haze with pump-action shotguns. Objectives fall and are recaptured, only to be lost again.
Under the burning sun, riding across the dunes of the Sinai Desert. You find a safe spot and set up camp with your rifle. A biplane skitters across the sand nearby and bursts into flames. Two players race past on a motorbike and sidecar. You pick the driver off with a headshot - there’s that satisfying ‘ping’ Battlefield 1 players remember and love.
Battlefield 1 is a game that does some justice to the conflict it represents. There are unrealistic elements, obviously. Many of the guns are not historically accurate (some players really didn’t like the gunplay, but I always found it to be pretty fun), the use of tanks and planes is clearly overblown in the game, and much of the conflict during WW1 wasn’t fast-paced, but a slow and pointless grind through the muddy fields of Western Europe. It is a video game, not an experiment in historical storytelling, but DICE nailed the atmosphere. Parts of the game are oppressive. They are bleak. You are immersed in this feeling. It’s all a bit bloody horrible.
In comparison, Battlefield 2042’s set pieces feel a bit… soulless. They look fantastic, don’t get me wrong. Hurricanes and sandstorms raging across battlefields inhabited by over 100 players is no easy technical feat, either. But there’s something missing. The Battlefield 1 sensation is gone.
It could be to do with the lack of game modes and maps available during the beta. Grand Operations, Battlefield 1’s incredible narrative game mode that spanned across multiple maps, is returning in 2042. I’ve got hopes that these experiences will give me the same feeling as Battlefield 1. But they might not. It could be because of what DICE intends Battlefield 2042 to be: a return to the explosive chaos of Battlefield 3 and 4. An ode, a celebration, of everything that makes Battlefield Battlefield. That is what the players want, and I won’t argue with them.
DICE’s foray into the historical FPS genre was pretty short-lived, but BF1 is one of the best shooters I’ve ever played. It’s a shame Battlefield 5 flopped. There were parts of it that were just fine, but it soured the pot for potential new historical Battlefield titles, and that kinda sucks. I’m still going to play the hell out of 2042, but there’s always going to be a part of me that remembers the whistles, explosions, and atmospheric grimness of Battlefield 1.