Hey guys! Today I'll be talking about Battlefield 1, which will be released in October on PS4, Xbox One and PC. I'll be giving you all my thoughts on this game and opinions on the demos and livestreams that I've watched so far. Before we begin, I know that not everything I say will be representative of the final product. These are just the impressions that I got after gathering a bit of info on the game. So without further ado, let's get started!
As you all know, back in early May the reveal trailers dropped for BF1 and CoD Infinite Warfare. CoD got absolutely torn apart by most gamers who didn't want a futuristic entry for the fifth year in a row, while Battlefield received lots of praise for doing the opposite of Infinite Warfare and going back to the past, which is what FPS players have been asking for for a while. In the gameplay trailer, there were all sorts of cool things shown, like trench warfare, horse riding, and all sorts of unconventional melee weapons that were unique to the WWI time period. So based on this, I assumed that we would be getting an authentic World War One experience. However, after watching the first live stream at EA Play on the 12th, I realized that the game wouldn't be like that at all. After it was over, the only takeaways I had were that the weapons look different and have a lot more recoil, there are dynamic weather effects which don't actually do anything in the match as far as I'm aware, and that's pretty much it. The game seemed underwhelming to me, and just like a re-skin of Battlefield 4, albeit a much better one than Hardline.
Of course, you've still got the large scale 64 player battles, fully destructible environments, and large levelution events, such as a massive airship crashing when it's shot down. To be fair, I thought that this event was really cool since after the airship is shot down, it could land anywhere on the map, although it seemed rather random and there wasn't any way to control the landing area. When the airship crashed, it would destroy any buildings under it and create some wreckage that players could hide in and use as cover, which did seem like a nice levelution event that did alter the gameplay in some way.
Some of the weather and visual effects looked really nice as well, and I thought the way that raindrops collect and drip off your gun when it's raining was an especially nice touch that definitely added to the immersion. The textures were very crisp and beautiful as well, although I don't think they were much better than those in Battlefield 4 or Hardline. In this area, BF1 gets beaten out by Star Wars Battlefront's photogrammetry techniques to re-create famous Star Wars battles, and surreal lighting and textures. Even though SWBF 2015 was awful in my opinion, the game did at least get the visuals right. Overall, BF1 isn't a bad looking game, and I don't think it will have any trouble keeping up with the other AAA games dropping later this year, but in terms of out-doing it's predecessors it just doesn't cut it.
At the end of the day, I don't think that Battlefield 1 is or will be a true successor to Battlefield 4, and just looks like a reskin. DICE didn't seem to be interested in making a new experience for players, and instead just opted to go the lazy route and just throw a new coat of paint on BF4, which made far more innovations compared to its predecessor, such as massive levelution events, 64 player matches on consoles, and commander mode. So far, this game doesn't seem to have anything super innovative about it, and that's a shame because they could have done so much more with this setting.
As you probably know, there will be a beta sometime this summer or in September that will give me the chance to actually play BF1 for myself. As such, you can definitely expect another "thoughts" post after the beta is over. There's still a lot more of the game that we haven't seen yet, and I'm hopeful that something that's in there is innovative or different from previous Battlefield titles that makes it worth checking out.
Before I go, I also know that a lot of people are super hyped for this game, and I'm not trying to extinguish your excitement at all. I'm just highlighting some important points on the game that Battlefield players and gamers in general should pay attention to. I also don't think that this will be a bad game, because as you know, there are people out there who take things like this out of context sometimes.
So, that's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed, thank you so much for reading, and with that, I'll see you guys later!
As you all know, back in early May the reveal trailers dropped for BF1 and CoD Infinite Warfare. CoD got absolutely torn apart by most gamers who didn't want a futuristic entry for the fifth year in a row, while Battlefield received lots of praise for doing the opposite of Infinite Warfare and going back to the past, which is what FPS players have been asking for for a while. In the gameplay trailer, there were all sorts of cool things shown, like trench warfare, horse riding, and all sorts of unconventional melee weapons that were unique to the WWI time period. So based on this, I assumed that we would be getting an authentic World War One experience. However, after watching the first live stream at EA Play on the 12th, I realized that the game wouldn't be like that at all. After it was over, the only takeaways I had were that the weapons look different and have a lot more recoil, there are dynamic weather effects which don't actually do anything in the match as far as I'm aware, and that's pretty much it. The game seemed underwhelming to me, and just like a re-skin of Battlefield 4, albeit a much better one than Hardline.
Of course, you've still got the large scale 64 player battles, fully destructible environments, and large levelution events, such as a massive airship crashing when it's shot down. To be fair, I thought that this event was really cool since after the airship is shot down, it could land anywhere on the map, although it seemed rather random and there wasn't any way to control the landing area. When the airship crashed, it would destroy any buildings under it and create some wreckage that players could hide in and use as cover, which did seem like a nice levelution event that did alter the gameplay in some way.
Some of the weather and visual effects looked really nice as well, and I thought the way that raindrops collect and drip off your gun when it's raining was an especially nice touch that definitely added to the immersion. The textures were very crisp and beautiful as well, although I don't think they were much better than those in Battlefield 4 or Hardline. In this area, BF1 gets beaten out by Star Wars Battlefront's photogrammetry techniques to re-create famous Star Wars battles, and surreal lighting and textures. Even though SWBF 2015 was awful in my opinion, the game did at least get the visuals right. Overall, BF1 isn't a bad looking game, and I don't think it will have any trouble keeping up with the other AAA games dropping later this year, but in terms of out-doing it's predecessors it just doesn't cut it.
At the end of the day, I don't think that Battlefield 1 is or will be a true successor to Battlefield 4, and just looks like a reskin. DICE didn't seem to be interested in making a new experience for players, and instead just opted to go the lazy route and just throw a new coat of paint on BF4, which made far more innovations compared to its predecessor, such as massive levelution events, 64 player matches on consoles, and commander mode. So far, this game doesn't seem to have anything super innovative about it, and that's a shame because they could have done so much more with this setting.
As you probably know, there will be a beta sometime this summer or in September that will give me the chance to actually play BF1 for myself. As such, you can definitely expect another "thoughts" post after the beta is over. There's still a lot more of the game that we haven't seen yet, and I'm hopeful that something that's in there is innovative or different from previous Battlefield titles that makes it worth checking out.
Before I go, I also know that a lot of people are super hyped for this game, and I'm not trying to extinguish your excitement at all. I'm just highlighting some important points on the game that Battlefield players and gamers in general should pay attention to. I also don't think that this will be a bad game, because as you know, there are people out there who take things like this out of context sometimes.
So, that's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed, thank you so much for reading, and with that, I'll see you guys later!
