Battlefield 1 Hands-On Impressions
Battlefield 1 is another title that has received a lot of focus leading up to E3 ever since its pretty wicked trailer dropped. Taking place in The Great War, Battlefield 1 is ditching the modern gear, and has us suiting up in old tanks, gas masks, and bayonet-adorned rifles to tear up various maps. I will put the disclaimer in that if you weren’t a fan of the previous Battlefield games this might not be for you. But for fans of the series, you have a lot to look forward to, and you can read more of my Battlefield 1 hands-on to figure out why fans of the series should be excited to get their hands on this title.
Throughout my Battlefield 1 hands-on time, I got to take to the pristine plains of St. Quentin in the game’s Conquest mode. Fans will immediately be familiar with it, as multiple points will be hotly contested over the course of a match. The map is downright massive, and even with 64 people in one battle, it can still feel a little daunting to deal with. The various classes are all quite familiar as well, with Assault, Support, Medic and Recon being the primary roles available to me. There are roles promised specifically for vehicles, such as pilots and tank commanders, but I didn’t personally get a chance to try them out as the vehicles were always spoken for by my teammates. The match even lended the chance to encounter one of the game’s Behemoths, a massive weapon that can sway the battle for one of the sides. In the case of St. Quentin, it’s the gigantic Zeppelin we see at the end of the trailer. Taking it down is a monstrous undertaking and shifts the focus towards it and away from the objectives, which is a fun way to mix up the battles.
I have to give Dice and EA major props though as Battlefield 1 feels quite good to play. It’s a treat on the eyes, and the dynamic weather system had reared its head multiple times during the course of my Battlefield 1 hands-on. St. Quentin went from foggy to sunny over the course of it, and the tactics changed up quite accordingly. The foggy weather forces you to adopt close quarters tactics, and there wasn’t a single bi-plane in the sky as a result. Tanks took the field though, and they are downright scary to deal with in the fog. The weather system has to be my favourite change, as it wildly changed the atmosphere and pace of my battle multiple times. Across my 20 minute match, I was in two totally unique scenarios. One, a full on, tense land-based conflict. The other, a full on aerial dogfight, with land units scrambling to the nearest cover or anti-air weaponry to help turn the tide. The weather system is a big factor to consider, as it helps shape the flow of play, and works insanely well with the Battlefield gameplay that we know and love.
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“The weather system has to be my favourite change, as it wildly changed the atmosphere and pace of my battle multiple times.”
The land vehicles feel dangerous, thanks to the revamped destruction. No location on the map felt truly safe, and more than once I’d had to deal with a tan Once the sun had come out, the bi-planes and AA guns began to see heavy, heavy usage, and it creates a completely different atmosphere than the foggy battle I’d been stuck in before. Dice has done one hell of a job with the sound design, and hearing planes and bullets whizzing through the sky has never sounded better.
As I’ve briefly noted, this title has taken an interesting direction. With Call of Duty opting to step even further into the future, Dice has chosen to take us backwards, but only in terms of setting. It doesn’t punish the arsenal, as World War 1 had some massive technological advances and those are all apparent in the weapon choices given in the demonstration. There is a lot to play with, and for those who have enjoyed past iterations, Battlefield 1 presents the right way to progress a series, building off of the mechanics in place rather than shake them up entirely and possibly alienate fans. A simple change is sometimes all that is needed to make things feel fresh, and Dice has hit the nail right on the head with this new weather system.
