So, this is EAs big one for this year, and while I had my doubts about how good the game would be surrounding the pre-release hype, and the disappointments that were Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline and of course Star Wars Battlefront, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. So does the game live up to the hype? Does it redefine the FPS genre and finally end the COD curse? Is it the second wind that will revive this slowly decaying genre? Well, lets find out...
Story and Plot:
Of course, lets begin with the Single Player. The Single Player takes place across a variety of theaters of war and essentially puts you in the shoes of a front-line soldier and does an impressive job unfolding the events as viewed by the player character. Now, I have my doubts about historical accuracy about these characters but the game does a splendid job as it reveals major events in very articulate fashion, and maintains a great, immersive atmosphere with its grand set pieces of war and its portrayal of the futility of war is done well(albeit not without cliches). The Single Player Campaign should take you, yes, wait for it: 5-7 hours complete, (7 if you're brutally lazy, and even then playing on the hard difficulty). Like what? This campaign had so much more potential, in the end I was just left high and dry.
Single-player Campaign Rating: 7.5/10
Gameplay:
So, how does the game play? It should come as no surprise that the FPS genre is fairly simple to play. FInd your target and kill them while minimizing the damage you take (multiplayer experience differs vastly, which I will explain in a bit), and BF1 doesn't deviate from the genre one bit. It doesn't reinvent the wheel and it definitely isn't a genre defining game, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do as a competent shooter( by competent I mean not broken). But the guns, which look spectacular by the way, are way to overpowered to feel like a WW1 weapon, no seriously, they're just reskins of the BF4 weapons and will rip anything into shreds. And, that's my only gripe here, it sort of breaks immersion, I mean if you look at the trench warfare scenario
And compared to charging across battlefield like Rambo in power armor, it kinda breaks the grim and hopeless atmosphere of the war of attrition.
Now I'm not saying its a bad thing, but its an experience just too familiar with, as in common with almost all FPS games. And BF1 genuinely had a chance to enhance this atmosphere of tension with its excellent visuals and audio quality.
Gameplay Rating: 9/10 (Because Multiplayer is a whole different beast)
Them Technical Aspects (Visuals, Sound Design, Production Design blah blah blah blah blah)
The game is, ahem, a technological masterpiece and that's saying something, It is possibly the best looking FPS game all year (yep better than Mankind Divided and even DOOM). Which is also helped by the fact how well optimized it is, the Frostbite engine is offers some of the most vivid visuals in recent memory, from the character models to the environment effects to the almost completely destructible gameworld (yes, you can destroy buildings so don't expect to turtle out). I mean just take a look at this screenshot (1080p Very High Settings):
Just Beautiful.
Even the obsessive level of detail can be observed in minor things.
KABOOOOOM!
I've only played on the PC, with my Nvidia 750ti, and the visual fidelity the game offers for my humble GPU is quite impressive. With zero crashes and game breaking bugs, its one of the most solid releases in recent memory. I can't speak for the console versions but there have been no major issues reported by the respective XBONE and PS4 communities.
The sound design is spectacular, every gun has a unique sound design, from how it fires to reloading(if you're manually bolt or a magazine, you can hear clink of the bullet loading into the chamber). Its awesome, From the firefights to the explosions to the orchestrated score in the background. The Sound Quality is excellent.
Tech Design: 10/10 (YEP)
Multiplayer:
Multiplayer is the champ of the Battlefield franchise and its easy to see why, but MP of BF1 is especially noteworthy since it was STABLE at release(at least, for me). It carries over everything that's good from the previous games and adds its own little tweaks(in fact there's so much to cover, I could write another whole review) but to keep it short.... It just works, never once will you feel like quitting it, even if the MP is hugely unbalanced when boyfriend veteran enters the field(they will destroy you). Now, all that being said, I would recommend this to anyone who prefers multiplayer over single player. Eighty percent of the games content lies here and the MP is the heart of BF1 (the entire series actually). Just with that being said.
Multiplayer Rating: 9.5/10(not gonna cover the whole thing, but the score should speak for itself)
Verdict:
Now, I know that with such high ratings across the board, BF1 should come across as a great game right? Right? Well... Yeah.... No. Nope. Don't get me wrong, BF1 is a good game, but really, its nowhere near great or outstanding. Its just an extremely polished shooter, which does what it sets out to do. And its a lot of fun, but its generic fun, the kinda fun you've already had if you're FPS gamer. And in that regard, EA plays it safe. Because most BF1 players be like.
And that's what it is, with the game itself priced at fifty dollars and an additional fifty dollars season pass, for extra content in the coming months like the French and Russian army expansions (apparently). It just feels cheap. The game really isn't worth that much and the fifty dollars price of admission is just right and not a cent more.
Essentially what this does is, it encourages game developers to create half baked games for the full price while extorting more money from its gamer base under the name of additional content, dlc, so on and so forth. With that being said on to the final score.
Battlefield 1 Rating: 7.5/10
PROs:
-beautiful visuals and sound design
-engaging SP campaign(albeit very short)
-MULTIPLAYER RAWR!
-great support from DICE so far
CONs:
-generic by FPS standards
-very short SP campaign
-cheap extortion tactics by EA
And if you're still wondering, what's the best shooter all year.
FUUUUUUUUKKKKKKKKK YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
Thanks for reading
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