Sometimes Steam has these "free weekends" where you can play a game for free for a couple of days. This is the first time I've taken advantage of one of these. BACKGROUND:
Battlefield is one of those military-style shooters that I'm not really into, so I've not really touched the series apart from watching the odd stream here and there. FPS games in the style of Call of Duty and Counter Strike don't really appeal to me (the realistic military style doesn't exactly inspire a sense of excitement in me), but I'm always willing to give them a try if given the chance despite my indifference to them. PLOT: This game takes a novel approach to its campaign, as it's actually split into six standalone stories (quite literally called War Stories). It's like an anthology series, but in video game format. All these stories are set in WWI, and majority of them take inspiration from real-life events from the game (or at least spin a tale using specific historical facets of the war). I actually learned quite a lot about the real war looking up some of the details of each story; WWI isn't as prominent in the minds of people as WWII, so I think a piece of media like this that shows some of the history is neat. Each War Story has a unique protagonist, and you get to see the different events of the war in their perspective. Their stories range from harrowing (a British tank driver watching his team die one by one), tragic (an Italian shock trooper losing his brother despite successfully completing his mission), kinda adventurous (a duplicitous American lying his way into a Royal Air Force pilot position), and heroic (an Australian veteran staying back to face enemy forces to ensure his young apprentice escapes the assault). They all feel like short war movies, with all the drama, action, and bonds forged under fire that you can expect from similar stories. I really enjoyed this anthology approach to tackling WWI. Not only was each individual story engaging in some way, the fact that it covers many aspects of the war (including ones that I knew nothing about) made for a worthwhile learning experiences. Perhaps the only thing one could throw out as a criticism is the fact that the focus is exclusively on portraying the Allied Powers as undisputed good guys, but that's a whole can of worms I don't want to open here. PRESENTATION: Battlefield 1 is one of those games that boasts what I call "AAA graphics", and holy moly, does it look amazing. The level of realism is pretty impressive, with detailed textures, polished models, and lots of neat flourishes like with all the destructible elements and the particle effects. What I find doubly impressive is that this is a game that came out in 2016, and it can hang just fine with even the newest gen releases. Though the sound design leans more on ambient sounds and the more intense sound effects of combat (both of which are rather well done), the game does have a few music tracks that feel like they belong in epic scores to blockbuster movies. GAMEPLAY: As there were only a few days for the free trial, I primarily played the single player campaign and didn't mess around that much with multiplayer. I'll talk mainly about the former, but I'll comment on what little I checked out of the latter where I can. Battlefield 1 is, as established, a first person shooter. The basics are the same: shoot enemies, don't get shot yourself. The game has aspects taken from more modern FPS entries (like the regenerating health mechanic and weapon customization), but other than that, you'll be duking it out with (mostly) period-accurate firearms, grenades, and melee weapons. The guns range from bolt-action rifles, powerful snipers, machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and even a few silenced weapons. Explosives are more or less straightforward, with typical grenades, remote explosives, and even tripwire bombs. In addition to these, it's possible to use tools like poison gas, flamethrowers, and even artillery to lay waste to your enemies, but you only get to use such weaponry in multiplayer. In the campaign, that shit is almost used exclusively against you. The game also features a decent amount of vehicular combat, with tanks and planes taking the forefront. Controlling these vehicles takes some adjusting to, but they're simple to use otherwise. You can mow down infantry pretty easily with these things, but you're not invincible, as tools like field guns and anti-aircraft trucks can rinse you pretty quickly. It's also possible to repair your vehicle on the fly in the heat of battle to restore some HP, but doing so leaves you open to attack (since you can't shoot back). Multiplayer has access to more vehicles, like zeppelins, warships, and even armored trains. In the campaign, you take on a variety of objectives in order to progress the story. These range from capturing key points on the map, eliminating enemies or key installations, defending friendly units, and retrieving key items. This all takes place on a surprisingly open map, and there's a bit of freedom as to how to approach missions; do you go in guns blazing, or do you take advantage of stealth? In multiplayer, you have access to a small variety of modes. You have your standard Team Deathmatch, Conquest and Domination (which are capture-the-points modes), Rush (which is vaguely reminiscent of Counter Strike where attackers try to plant bombs on a site and defenders try to prevent that), and War Pigeons (an interesting spin on capture-the-flag where you fight over a messenger pigeon that can be used to signal an artillery strike). I didn't get time to play all of them, but based on what I've seen, they're mostly standard fare as far as FPS game modes go, and having staples like these is always nice. The one multiplayer mode I do want to highlight is Operations, which is a more time-consuming mode where the battle takes place across multiple maps (giving the feel of an actual war campaign). Attackers attempt to push through and capture all the maps while the defenders try to eliminate the enemy troops. I was really fascinated by this concept; most FPS game modes only take place in one map, so having a mode based around winning across multiple maps was a fresh idea to me. I wish I had time to complete a full round of it, though. Multiplayer has a bunch of features you don't have access to in the campaign. Aside from the aforementioned unique vehicles, you can only customize weapons and equip character classes in multiplayer modes. From what I can tell, these features are unlocked through grinding (the game has an XP system), though there's an option to fast-track progress with a concerningly expensive purchase. I also noticed that this game has a sort of loot box system, but as far as I can gather, these are simply earned through gameplay and not something you have to pay for gachapon-style. The game gives you a bunch of free ones at the start, so I tried opening one. Seems like you mostly earn cosmetic items like weapon skins and the like. It was quite worrisome to see something like this in the game, but it also seems like it's something that can be freely ignored. The game has a bunch of DLC packs that add new weapons, modes, and maps. The free trial actually grants access to said DLC, but sadly, none of them added anything for the single player modes. VERDICT: I can only really judge Battlefield 1 for its single player campaign, so in that regard, I can say that I enjoyed this game quite a lot. Gameplay-wise, it isn't anything I haven't seen before, but shooting feels mostly good, the vehicles are fun once you get the hang of them, and the single player missions have variety to them. The game is also impressive in terms of visuals and sound design, and I enjoyed the anthology approach to the story that shows you many different facets of WWI. As far as the multiplayer goes, the game offers the usual assortment of modes that interest me, which is all I could really ask for. Stuff like weapon upgrades and classes appear to be locked to a grind, however, so enjoying multiplayer to its fullest will take some time investment. Operations in particular was an interesting concept to me, and I wish I got to play more of it. Considering this is a five-year-old game at this point, however, I see little reason to pick it up just to invest time in the multiplayer (especially considering a new Battlefield game was just announced a couple of days ago). I don't know how this stacks up compared to the other Battlefield games (especially in terms of multiplayer), so I can't say for certain if this is the most recommended starting point for newcomers (and I certainly can't speak for veterans of the series on whether this is a standout entry in the franchise). All I can say is that if you're interested at all in the campaign mode and how it depicts WWI, I think it's a game worth checking out just for that (wait for a sale, though, because this game is still steep at full price). Here's the game on Steam: Battlefield 1 ™ on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|