Battlefield 1 Successfully Revisits the Past
And proves why an open beta is the smart thing to do.
Ever since Call of Duty decided to stick with their futuristic spin on every single one of their shooters, I’ve been waiting for an old school war game. Not a war game that shoves me in a robot or a drone. A game that puts me in a tank in gorgeous parts of Europe. A game that lets me use the weapons that don’t have three laser sights and a grenade launcher. Call of Duty kept pushing for the future, Battlefield did the smart thing and reached for the past.
When Battlefield 1 was announced I was skeptical. Battlefield had never really been my cup of tea and I wanted COD to put out a WWI or WWII game, not Battlefield. However, I wasn’t going to be close minded. After Call of Duty released Black Ops I haven’t really liked any of their games. The controls were as smooth as ever, but it didn’t capture my imagination in the least.
The first Call of Duty game I played was COD III. It was an old school WWII game that featured what I thought was an amazing campaign and fluid gameplay. Now most of that could be bias due to it being my first “shooter”, but the game itself took on such a fascinating time period it was oddly a historical lesson. It caused me to consider what happened during the war and actually do research. Now that obviously isn’t the point of the game, but the point remains, old school war games are fun. Battlefield 1 showed in their beta that they understand that concept well.
The end of the Battlefield beta comes after a highly successful attempt at luring on the fence buyers, myself being one of them. I probably wasn’t going to buy this game before the beta. I never liked any of the previous Battlefield games and the most recent Call of Duty games had burned me out on any fps shooters. I was sticking with FIFA and Fallout, there was nothing anyone could do to stop me. Until I knew Battlefield 1 had tanks, Gewehr sniper rifles, bombers, horses, and a spiked club.
Battlefield’s beta consisted of two game modes, conquest and rush. Conquest is a 64 man all out war, and rush is a 24 man demolition game mode. The beauty of Battlefield 1 really comes through in Conquest. The 64 man massive multiplayer game mode brings out the true war feel that Battlefield 1 captures. It feels like you’re in a movie as the dust settles over the map and the tanks pass by. You can see a sniper rifle’s glimmer in the distance and the sounds from the airplanes flying overhead. If your team is behind in conquest there is also a chance to board a massive armored train with a few of your teammates to attempt a comeback, and yes, it’s as amazing as it sounds. This game is a haven for those who love WWI games and movies.
The amazing vehicles, weapons, and scenery aren’t the only great parts of Battlefield 1. The gameplay itself is really solid. I’m not an expert on the physics of shooting mechanics, nor the character interactions with the environment around them. What I can say is that the gameplay felt smooth and intentional. A great first person shooter shouldn’t feel clunky at any point, Battlefield does a great job at always feeling smooth despite weapon inefficiencies. Which since the weapons are WWI weapons, there is some expected clumsiness.
Vehicles are always something difficult to master in shooters. Especially when they are so essential to the overall feel and strategy of the gameplay as they are in Battlefield 1. The driving mechanics, the guns in the vehicle, or even the process of switching from one seat to another within the vehicle can be cumbersome in most video game vehicles. Battlefield 1 does an amazing job at making their vehicles easy to shoot, drive, and switch seats. All while keeping the authentic feel of WWI tanks, trucks, and airplanes.
Battlefield 1 is a gorgeous example of why multiplayer beta’s are the smart move for unproven video game commodities. Since there has been a gap in WWI or WWII period video games, Battlefield 1 is an unproven commodity. They may have not turned every skeptical eye into a buying one, but they proved to me they’re serious about making a completely engaging WWI game.
Whether the game itself ends up being successful in sales, they’ve already been successful in their attempt at a really solid WWI game. Time will tell whether they’ve built a solid game from top to bottom. But their attempt at building a solid, old-school WWI game was successful. A brief glimpse into their game during the beta showed their intentional, successful attempts at an authentic WWI video game.
