PC Gamer

This revisit highlights just how much
things have changed in the 16 years since
Battlefield 1942’s release. For better or
worse, Battlefield is now far bigger and
brasher. While the core remains intact

• two teams fighting on large maps over
  land, air and sea – the difference in tech
  fidelity and polish is substantial.
  It’s also worth remembering that the
  time period DICE is so excited to return to
  is World War II – a setting ill at ease with
  the fanfare and buzzwords that
  accompany EA’s biggest release of the
  year. At last month’s reveal event, I’m
  struck by the tonal shifts between
  enthusiasm and sombre reflection. The
  announce trailer is pure B-movie action,
  as a squad of four soldiers fight a chaotic
  battle behind enemy lines, pausing only to
  deliver snappy one-liners.
  In stark contrast, the next thing I see is
  a short teaser for War Stories – an
  anthology series of solo missions, similar
  in scope to Battlefield 1’s singleplayer
  campaign. It’s quiet and solemn, featuring
  a Norwegian resistance fighter, who,
  according to creative director Lars
  Gustavsson, is “about to pay the
  unthinkable price” for her cause.
  I leave the reveal event with a sort of
  emotional whiplash, but one that isn’t
  reflective of the full game when taken in
  context. After all, Battlefield 1’s story
  featured everything from the grim,
  relentless churn of human death on the
  frontlines, to a campy, fun adventure

featuring an unreliable narrator. War is a

setting that can support many genres,

and Battlefield’s increasingly sprawling

nature means that each game is now a

platform for different styles of storytelling.

At E3, I get a chance to play Grand

Operations. Here, different maps and

modes are woven together to tell an

experiential story where each round

represents an in-game day. I play the first

two days of a Grand Operation set in

Norway, as the British try to recapture

territory now occupied by the Germans.

DEATH FROM ABOVE

On the first day, attackers parachute out

from planes, tasked with destroying the

Germans’ AA guns. I’m playing as a

defender, and so jump into an armoured

truck with a cannon in tow. New for

Battlefield V is the ability to hitch a

mounted weapon to your vehicle and drive

it around. I manoeuvre the vehicle into

position as another player fires away on

the cannon, trying to bring down planes.

The more AA guns the attackers can

disable, the more respawn tickets they’ll

have for the next round. But they’re unable

to destroy even one, so we move on to day

two in a strong position. This is a more

traditional territory capture mode, with

the attackers trying to push us back. They

come in strong. As a medic, I try to keep

my defenders up and about, but we’re

quickly overwhelmed by their vehicles.

When I die, rather than being sent to

the deployment map, I get an over-the-

shoulder view of one of my squadmates.

This is part of DICE’s attempt to further

reinforce squad play. You’ll be assigned to

a squad by default (although you can

choose to leave), and can also revive

squadmates as any class, although it’ll

take longer than it would for a dedicated

medic. Squads can also earn bonuses for

playing together, letting the leader call in

‘reinforcements’ – anything from vehicles

and supply drops to a rocket strike.

I don’t see reinforcements in action –

our squad leader doesn’t seem to know

S

et during World War II, Battlefield V is a
successor of sorts to Battlefield 1942, the
first game in DICE’s long-running
multiplayer FPS series. “We’re going
back to our roots,” says series producer Andreas
Morrell. “It’s so special for everyone at DICE to be
able to return to where everything started.”

The many faces of DICE’s World

War II shooter

BATTLEFIELD V

NEW FOR BATTLEFIELD V IS THE

ABILITY TO HITCH A MOUNTED

WEAPON TO YOUR VEHICLE

RELEASE
October 19, 2018

DEVELOPER

DICE

PUBLISHER

EA

LINK

http://www.battlefield.com

NEED TO KNOW

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PREVIEW

Battlefield V