In 2002, EA DICE released the maiden edition of the Battlefield series. Ever since, the game has continued to serve the gaming community with high-quality first-person shooter MMORPGs. Although not the latest, Battlefield 1, in my opinion, has to be the most iconic addition to the collection. 

Released in 2016, DICE produced a masterpiece that depicts the realities of the first world war. BF1’s venture into the century-old World War 1 was initially greeted with a lot of skepticism amongst critics. Their greatest concern was whether or not a video game would be able to do justice to a topic as sensitive as the WW 1. Despite all the criticism, no one can deny that BF1 came closer than any other first shooter has ever come to depict the Great War’s goriness. 

Gameplay

From the whistle’s blast, BF1 makes it obvious that the goal isn’t to create a heroic character. The game promotes the certainty of death as no character ever makes it out alive. In the single-player story mode, each player gets to control many soldiers during the Campaign. The war efforts are told through the experiences of the different soldiers you get to control during the prologue. Your role in the war changes as per the role of the soldier you play. Thus, providing an insight into the war realities of the Great War. Upon a soldier’s death, you simply switch control to a new soldier rather than respawning from a previous checkpoint. Afterward, the fallen soldier’s real name and birthdate are displayed as a form of epitaph. 

The game features different war stories through the voice-over narration that wets the ground for another story and continues as the battles progress. Your first contact comes from the POV of the Harlem soldiers, a battalion made up purely of black soldiers. The Harlem Hellfighters is charged with holding off the invasion of France by the Nazis. You are to survive the invasion; however, you would soon discover that casualties are certainly in wars. Finally, the battle is interrupted by a barrage that leaves one German and one Allied soldier as the only survivors. When confronted by mutual weariness and futility, both soldiers are forced to give up the fighting. It is this prologue that paves the way, through a cinematic introduction, for other stories. These stories vary and are arranged in an anthological pattern, with no preference as to chronology.

These stories do not portray a heroic lead character; rather, each story portends to be just a simple war story. The gameplay differs with each story mode. Although the single-player story mode is very captivating, much of the BF1’s attention and competition is derived from its MMO mode. In what could possibly a bid to encourage competition and teamwork, the gameplay becomes more difficult for players who do not belong to a squad.

Game Modes

Just like in past editions of the BF series, the multiplayer packs a lot of big team matchups and battles to be explored. In the Conquest mode, players team up and are paired into the Offense and Defence. The teams are to capture positions on the map and earn points as they do. The more objectives your squad captures, the more points you guys earn. The game provides assistance in the form of a war vehicle for the team that is far behind on points. This, I believe, is geared at ensuring some sort of balance, a very commendable gesture considering that the import of BF1 isn’t to deify the conflict but to create a verisimilar depiction of war. 

The Rush is one of my favorite modes. Here the opposing squad attempts to demolish the telegraph of the allied army. The essence of the station, in this series, is amplified in that it can be used to request for artillery back up. The opposing army must either prevent the attackers from seizing the station or defuse the bombs. The battle is won or lost when all the stations have been demolished or if the attacking team exhausts their respawns. Some novel modes have been included in the game to spice up its central theme. For instance, the War Pigeons mode where the goal is to capture the enemies’ messenger birds used during the war to call for back up; while the other side does everything possible to ensure they successfully send out their birds. For the group sending out the message, it is important to protect the writer of the message until it is fully composed and tied to the bird’s feet. The opposing army will be allowed a small window to shoot down the bird; if this is missed, it counts against them.

On the downside, most of the MMO modes tend to be repetitive or just mere adumbrations of larger modes. Although the game boasts a robust map, the big maps can be very frustrating. You may experience minutes of running around for miles without any action. You may also encounter slow loading time, and sometimes you may find the hints a bit of a nuisance. For a game so captivating, the campaigns’ brevity can be quite frustrating as it leaves you aching for more.

Apart from these minor glitches, Battlefield 1 reinvented the first-shooter gaming experience. The gameplay, attention to detail, weaponry’s choice to reflect the time and age, the storyline, and character development are all impressive. Battlefield 1 can be said to be the best warfare campaign DICE has ever released so far. The idea of chronicling different soldiers’ lives is brilliant, and I would love to see other warfare games emulate this approach.