Things have been interesting in the digital west. Someone was messing with my WW2 vet neighbor’s laptop, and I had my first encounter with ransomware. Did I mention I cracked that Window’s password? All the happenings have kinda stalled that whole programming thing at the moment. Stories on that can wait though, I knocked the issues out the park like this year’s Chicago Cubs! I’m currently riding the Battlefield 1 hype train. It’s a good distraction while I wait for the the new DCS Jets. Come on F-14/18/Viggen.
I’m an old Battlefield 1942 vet. I think I received my first demo of it in a PC Gamer magazine. The demo CDs they gave out were a lifesaver back in the dial up days. I had so much fun shooting the bots, I bought the game knowing full well I couldn’t use the multiplayer for a long time. I think it was close to two years before I actually got online.
Anyway, I had tried out the Battlefield 1 open beta, and I really liked what I saw. It run well, looked good, and I had fun for the most part. I figured a pre-order would be a safe bet. I just went with the standard edition though. I didn’t see a really good reason to pay $20 more in order to play a few days early. I do realize the early start time edition came with some skin packs, but I never really spend that much time admiring the paint on my enemy’s weapons.
Battlefield 1 takes us to one of the bloodiest wars every fought, World War I, or The Great War as it was called before a German painter decided to attempt global domination. The first real world conflict that unleashed many of the devastating technological advances we’ve become rather familiar with today. Airplanes made their debut among other early flying machines. Fully automatic water cooled machine guns appeared, and sent millions of soldier to an early grave. Then you also have large caliber artillery weapons capable of launching shells for miles. They also had some of the first terror weapons including armed Zeppelins and The Paris Gun. We also see the first use of tracked armored vehicles which were code named Tanks at the time so they’d be confused with water tanks. The name stuck. All this technology created quite the body count. To be more specific, it adds up to 17 million dead and 20 million wounded. I must say that EA does treat the conflict with respect. It reminds you that all of the millions killed and wounded were real people. They had dreams, ambitions, and names. None of them knew what they were in for.
Not many games have ventured into this setting. While there have been several air combat games set in WWI, there have been very few FPS games in this setting. I can understand the hesitation for FPS game developers. When you think of WWI, you usually think of trench warfare, and sitting in a trench taking pot shots at people doesn’t seem like the makings of a fun FPS. However, the whole war was not spent in the trenches of France. It was a World War.
The majority of weapons in Battlefield 1 are kind of new to me. There are a lot of single shot rifles in the mix, but you can still find some automatic weapons. Fans of WW2 games will be happy to see the Browing Automatic Rifle is included in the mix. It might seem odd to have a WW2 gun in WW1, but remember that the BAR was created in 1918. You’ll also see its little brother, the Tommy Gun, is included as it was also created in 1918. Yeah, they were released near the end of the war, but they were still used during the war to some extent. In addition to the rifles, you have plenty of sub machine guns for the Assault class to use. The Assault class in BF1 seems to be mostly equipped for short range combat since they also can equip shotguns if they’d rather not use a sub machine gun. I must admit though, it’s a bit weird playing an assault class without an assault rifle. However, they really weren’t invented until WW2. See Sturmgewehr.
The single player campaign is a nice addition this time around. It isn’t one huge campaign. It is a series of mini campaigns set in different theaters of WW1. You start off in tanks smashing the German lines, and then move on to stealing a British Lord’s airplane after a card game. You get a chance to try out some fancy Italian armor while storming a mountain fortress. Another focuses on an Aussie during the landings at Gallipoli. The final one give you a taste of Lawrence of Arabia.
The missions all give you a glimpse into a soldiers world as they went through WW1. The new guy dealing with the vets. The Vet dealing with the new recruits. The outnumbered facing many with a wonder weapon behind them. All of them hammer the message home that there are losses in war and wounds are not always visible.
The stories themselves start out really well. The first one in the tank is a real treat. It has an incredible amount of depth considering it’s a Battlefield game. However, it really seems like the quality drops off as they progress. The first 3 were pretty good, but I was really disappointed at the final mission in the Middle East. I was really expecting something that would knock my socks off considering the wartime exploits of T.E. Lawrence. However, it seemed pretty shallow compared to the tank mission. Eh, perhaps I should not have power gamed my way through the single player (4-5 hours). I suppose I may have just been tired and frustrated with the final fight of the campaign. However, I experienced some magical stuff in that first mission. I was hoping they’d all be like that.
The multiplayer has proven to be a good time. It hits all the right buttons when you’re working with a proper team, and teamwork is key as in all Battlefield games. The balance is reasonably good between the teams and classes. Everyone can use the same weapons so the teams remain balanced. I still have flashbacks to the overpowered M-60 machine gun in Battlefield Vietnam. Everyone had to be on the US team because only they had the M-60 dead laser. I guess BF2 had a little bit of that with the Blackhawk helicopter. Anyway, I haven’t noticed any major game imbalances. Snipers still suck as always though.
Some neat features to keep the fight possible for the losing team is the addition of the behemoths. If your team is down while playing a conquest map, you can be given an extra boost in the form of an armored train or war zeppelin. These machines can be destroyed at great cost, but the alternative is the machine completely reversing the tide of battle.
I think I’m about 20 hours into my Battlefield 1 experience, and I’d give it a big thumbs up. The game looks fantastic, and it sounds as fancy as it looks. Airplane engines screaming, artillery explosions shuttering, and bullets whizzing past your skull have never sounded so wonderful. Watching a zeppelin explode overhead and crash down onto the map is quite the spectacle to behold. Just don’t stare at it too long, those debris will kill you if they land on you. It really looks great, and it runs alright on my aging Nvidia 770.
So does it live up to the Battlefield legend? It’s nice to have the mix of air, land, sea vehicles in Battlefield again. Hell, with the dreadnought, it’s almost like the old capital ships from 1942 are back again. If only there were two of them out there slugging it out. Honestly, it feels like one of the most ‘Battlefieldish’ games in the series. I would highly recommend it if you’re into team based FPS games.
Now I did record a little bit of gameplay, but I’ve been having trouble getting it to render correctly. My first render looks OK, but Youtube will re-render uploaded videos. The youtube re-render always makes this video look a bit crappy afterward. I know it’s my bad, I haven’t been following Youtube’s guidelines for renders. Perhaps having it be only 30fps would help? Eh, if I wasn’t worried about my ISP’s new data cap, I could keep trying. However, I’ve sat on this post long enough while trying to get the video perfect. So this is as good as it gets for now.