Battlefield Is Returning to World War 2 and We Have Some Ideas About Where It Should Be Set
According to sources, the next Battlefield game, titled Battlefield V, is going to be set during World War 2. While the title could be hinting at a game that is focused on British soldiers during WW2, we still don’t know which military campaigns the next Battlefield game will be about. However, we at COGconnected have some suggestions and ideas for the presumed singleplayer campaign that we’d like to see. Here are five suggestions for theaters of war that Battlefield V could focus on!
1. Japanese-American or African-American Soldiers in Europe
While American efforts during World War 2 have been extensively covered in video games (such as in the recent Call of Duty: WWII), there has been little to no focus on what non-White American soldiers did during the war. The U.S. military was racially segregated until 1948 and non-White American military personnel were often considered to be inherently inferior to their White counterparts.
These soldiers had to deal with a lot, from both the enemy and their own allies in the military, and this was especially apparent in the forced internment in America of Japanese-Americans during the war. Japanese-Americans were targeted for internment primarily because they were seen as potential traitors and also the virulent anti-Asian racism that was in American society at the time.
Thousands of Japanese-Americans volunteered for the military to fight the war in order to prove themselves loyal to their country and one of the units that were formed was the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team.Â
Japanese-American troops weren’t allowed to fight in the Pacific Theater (since on that front America was at war with Japan), so they mainly fought in mainland Europe. The 442nd saw combat in both Italy and France and was a highly-decorated unit (21 of its members were awarded the highest American military honor, the Medal of Honor).
Despite everything they had to deal with, these men fought bravely and it would be pretty interesting from both a gameplay and story perspective to have a singleplayer campaign focused on them. American actions in Italy during WW2 aren’t really shown that much in videogames, so fighting in the Italian countryside and in Italian towns could provide some interesting level design and gameplay opportunities. There’s also a lot you could do with the story as well, with themes that focus on what it means to be “American”, the loyalty one shows to a country that hates them and the scourge of racism & segregation in the U.S. military back then.
These themes would also be apparent if Battlefield V focused its story on African-American soldiers during the war. While African-Americans weren’t interned in camps during World War 2, they still had to deal with racism both at home and overseas. One of the most famous African-American units that fought in the conflict was the 92nd Infantry Division.
We rarely ever see African-American soldiers in World War 2 games and Battlefield V could do a lot of things with its story (similar to Japanese-American troops) if they decided to focus on the 92nd Infantry Division. The unit mainly fought in Italy and played a part in destroying the Gothic Line, a German defensive line in Italy which was fortified with many bunkers, machine gun nests and artillery guns and defended by thousands of German troops. Like we said, the Italian Front is rarely depicted in World War 2 games (at least in FPSes) and it would be something new to see in a AAA World War 2 game like Battlefield V.
2. The North Africa Campaign
The last depiction of the North Africa campaign of WW2 in an AAA FPS that we could think of was Call of Duty 2 which came out in 2005. You played as a British soldier in countries like Tunisia and Egypt, fighting his way through port towns, the unforgiving North African desert and even participated in some intense street fighting against German soldiers. With current gen technology, DICE would be able to take a singleplayer campaign in this theater of war even further. Imagine having survival mechanics a la the Metro games or the survival mode in Fallout 4. Since you’d primarily be fighting in the scorching desert, imagine having to keep track of things like your character’s thirst or even their tan (OK, we’re joking with that one but still there are a lot of things they could do with the gameplay).
The last Battlefield game, Battlefield 1, also had a campaign level set in the desert which took advantage of the wide open space that type of environment provided and allowed players to tackle a variety of objectives in any order they wanted. They could revisit that type of level design if they set their next game on this front. Imagine being an SAS commando having to destroy German military structures and assassinating high-ranking Nazis in open-ended Far Cry-esque missions during the singleplayer campaign? Or being an Australian soldier defending the city of Tobruk against Axis troops? A North Africa campaign provides a lot of unique and fresh opportunities for a Battlefield singleplayer campaign.