Battlefield 1: Through Mud and Blood.

The last decade was saturated with FPS games that revisited the two World Wars, so much so that I was soured on the Battlefield and Call of Duty series for quite some time. This decade saw a turn towards modern day warfare, with the Call of Duty series then pushing even further forward into the world of fictional, future based combat. It was something of a surprise then to see DICE return to their old haunts, pulling themselves back from modern day to explore World War I. If I’m honest I was sceptical, the World Wars have been visited so many times that a fresh take on them seemed all but impossible. Surprisingly though DICE has managed to bring a fresh perspective to this well trodden field whilst retaining much of what made some of their previous Battlefield titles great.

Battlefield 1 visits many of the large scale battles of the first World War, picking out 6 different stories that you can play through. These include such events as the Battle of Cambrai during the Hundred Days Offensive, a fantastical air battle between zeppelins and the first fighter craft and even a show from the ANZACs as part of the Gallipoli campaign. There’s no story tying all of these different stories together, instead they each serve as little vignettes that give us a glimpse into the horrors of war from different perspectives. If there’s one thing that Battlefield 1 does well is impress upon us the true costs of war rather than glorifying the combat and sacrifice that the millions of troops made in this war.

The Frostbite 3 engine returns once again to the Battlefield series and brings with it the exceptionally high level of graphics that we’ve come to expect from this series of games. As all of these in-game screenshots will attest to Battlefield 1 is an absolutely stunning game, making good use of any amount of graphical firepower it has at its disposal. The environments are gigantic, brimming with detail and surprisingly destructible (if you have the right weaponry, of course). This will mean that you’ll probably need to spend a little bit of time tweaking settings here or there as the defaults seem to be geared more towards beautiful, 30fps gaming rather than slightly less stunning but buttery smooth game play. Of course such prettiness is really only appreciated in the single player campaign, rarely do you have a moment to think when you’re in the middle of a multiplayer match.

Battlefield 1 sticks to its roots in terms of game play with the equipment layout being instantly familiar to fans of the series. You’ll have 2 guns at your disposal (with numerous ones littering the map so you’re never wanting for something new to try out), a couple gadgets that line up with the traditional Battlefield classes and your trusty melee weapon. The war stories follow the typical FPS mission style with Battlefield’s trade mark open environments, allowing you multiple avenues to approach your intended goal. The multiplayer modes will be familiar, however there’s one new mode called Operations which are probably the best aspect of Battlefield 1. Other than that Battlefield 1 is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from DICE with the exception that everything is set almost 100 years in the past.

Combat feels much the same as it always has in the Battlefield series. You’re a small cog in a very large machine, both in the single player campaigns as well as the multi. Slow, considered approaches to the battlefield are rewarded whilst rushed, less thought out strategies are likely to get you killed. It’s the line in the sand that Battlefield and Call of Duty have drawn between each other, one favouring small scale, chaotic engagements whilst the other favouring large, more strategic battles. Whilst I tend to prefer the former I can see the appeal in the latter, especially when you’ve got a group of 5 or more mates to play with and can actually get some objectives done. However it can be an exercise in frustration sometimes, especially when you walk out of your spawn location only to be nailed by a sniper who you had no chance of seeing.

The Operations game mode, the stand out feature of Battlefield 1, takes its inspiration from Star Wars Battlefront’s Supremacy mode. Each map is divided into sections with points that need to be captured. Once each point is captured the enemy then retreats to the next section to start the battle all over again. The attacking team has limited lives however and should they run out the defenders win that round. When the attackers lose a round however they get reinforced by a giant weapon of war, potentially a zepplin or destroyer warship, which helps them turn the tides in their favour. This back and forth can happen a grand total of 3 times before the game is over. What makes this game mode so great is that it can feel like both sides are making progress at one point or another, preventing one side from completely dominating. Of course that’s not always the case but at the very least it feels little more fair than say Conquest when a really good squad can make the other team’s life a living hell.

The class system is the same as it always was with the only real change being the weaponry, all of which are from the World War I era. You have your medics which can heal and res, the support who will ensure you’ve got an endless supply of bullets, the scouts which will make sure that you can’t get anywhere without a couple shots coming your way and the assault class which is capable of dishing out endless amounts of hurt. Battlefield 1 also brings with it the hero class idea from Battlefronts, allowing a single player to become far more powerful than everyone else for a short period of time. You also have classes for the various vehicles including the calvary which can be both fun and a complete waste of time depending on good your enemy’s aim is. Indeed many of the ideas which were so-so in Battlefront have been refined significantly for their inclusion in Battlefield 1 and, hopefully, that means Battlefront 2 has a chance at being a lot better than its predecessor was.

Battlefield 1, like all games in this series, brings with it a certain level of jank that pervades both the single and multi experiences. I can’t tell you how many times the physics engine has completely bugged out on me with ungodly winds tearing flags and people’s capes in all manner of weird directions or tanks moving in ways that just weren’t possible. It’s certainly a lot better than it was in the beta, if the videos on YouTube are anything to go by, but the trademark weirdness that all Battlefield games built on the Frostbite engine have is ever present in the latest instalment. It’ll likely get better over time, as it always does, but you’d think that DICE would’ve figured out all the kinks by this point in the engine’s life.

The war stories were, for me, not particularly engaging. Whilst I’ll praise DICE for their depiction of the true horrors of war the experience was, for me, not the most enjoyable thing. That might be the point (and indeed I’ll applaud them if that’s the case) however it meant that after playing 3 out of the 6 campaigns available I simply didn’t feel the urge to play the rest of them. It’s a shame really as I’ve always enjoyed the various campaigns in the Battlefield series but this time around I just didn’t feel compelled to go back and play through them. This could also be a testament to how good the Operations mode was in comparison as I definitely drawn back to that, time and time again.

Battlefield 1 is an excellent return to form after the disaster that was Battlefield Hardline. The graphics return to their trademark industry leading standard, bringing us glorious battlefield filled with detail that few other games are able to deliver. The game play is familiar yet fresh, integrating the best ideas of the Battlefield and Battlefront series into a cohesive experience. The single player campaigns, whilst undoubtedly well crafted, failed to grab my attention like the previous ones have. Battlefield 1 also suffers from the few teething issues that seem to plague all of DICE’s releases of late; things that will no doubt be fixed but definitely sour the launch day experience. For fans of the Battlefield series the latest instalment is very much worth your time to play.

Rating: 9.0/10

Battlefield 1 is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One right now for $89.95, $99.95 and $99.95 respectively. Game was played on the PC with 11 hours of total play time and 26% of the achievements unlocked.