A Rendezvous With Death: Battlefield 1 Review

Electronic Arts and experienced developer DICE have recently released the newest edition in the Battlefield series. Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter set during World War I and includes a single player campaign and Battlefield's ever popular online multiplayer. This exciting new release features thrilling gameplay, entertaining detail and wicked style. Review complete. Just kidding, we're only getting started. Let's begin.

World War I is the most traumatic and significant event in recent human history, to be perfectly blunt. It is the very first instance of "total war" and it literally changed the face of the globe. More importantly, however, The Great War changed humanity itself. From 1914 to 1918, society was introduced to a litany of technological advancements that would cascade entire populations into an uncomfortable new reality - modern warfare. Machine guns that could cut men in half, cannons so large they could only be transported by locomotive and gasses that made the very air people breathed poison. Young men who had never seen a plane were violently introduced to flying machines dropping explosives. The aftermath of the war left over 16 million people dead, 9 million of those were soldiers, while 7 million were civilians. The collective European psyche was permanently traumatized, and the political future of the world was compromised. The war was a tragedy on an immeasurable scale, to put it simply.

With that horribly depressing bit said and done, let's discuss the game's campaign. Many publications, including Game Chop were concerned that this game would turn the graveyards of millions of people into a belligerent playground. Many were even concerned that it would marginalize the significance of the war by focusing on multiplayer, and subsequently ignoring the weight of its single player portion. We're infinitely pleased to report that Battlefield finally got a campaign right.

Battlefield 1's single-player campaign is called "War Stories," and it acts as an anthology telling stories of different soldiers from various parts of the world. The introductory chapter is called "Storm of Steel" and features a harrowing trial for gamers as they play as soldiers on the front lines. The game prefaces the battle with the sentence "you are not expected to survive." From then on, players get a taste of the chaotic warfare as they fight as soldiers of Harlem Hellfighters, an African American infantry regiment. While the soldiers are famed for not losing a single inch of ground to the Germans, players must endure playing as multiple Hellfighters as they are killed in action. From there, you are free to choose five other stories with five different characters to play through in any order they like.

Some of the War Stories put you in a tank, other in planes, but all of them approach the war with an appropriate level of humility. Battlefield 1 respects the gravity of WWI, and doesn't hide the history from us. We chose "Through Mud and Blood" first, and were put in a British Mark V battle tank. Our character, Edwards had to pilot the tank through muddy fields and intense fire from field guns. Then there's an ace American pilot, an Australian Army Corpsman and an Italian special forces soldier. The narratives are diverse, and employ different styles and tones to deliver somber and thoughtful single-player chapters. They even give players a challenge and plenty of lessons to bring to multiplayer. We died plenty of times in our quest to survive the War to End all Wars.

Video games often speak common languages. For example, most online multiplayers follow unwritten rules on map design, weapon modifications and leveling up. Battlefield 1 may be first game in a while to introduce not only new gameplay traits, but to breakout of those unofficial codes that so many multiplayer games, especially first-person shooters follow. For example, DICE has implemented several developments in regards to "levolution" - a player will progress in rank during gameplay, and increase individual classes, such as medic and assault. As the player's rank increases, as does their amount of War Bonds, the in-game currency. War Bonds give you access to weapons, equipments and gear, a clear enhancement of the in-game currency first introduced with Battlefield: Hardline. The game even introduces a new approach to classes that take to the and or skies in vehicles. Players now choose what weapons and equipment pilots and tank drivers a loaded with.

Certain details throughout the game's massive and intense multiplayer are also welcome changes to the Battlefield formula. During "deployment," players are given their usual bird's eye view of the battlefield. From there you can spawn at available points such as outposts and into vehicles, a classic Battlefield trait. It's when we're on the ground that gives us a fresh dose of different. We were fighting the Austro-Hungarians in the Swiss Alps when a massive enemy zeppelin entered the fray. These "behemoths" are gifted to a team who is falling behind in game modes such as Conquest or Operations. Players can hop into them and blast away others with alarming effectiveness, until the airship, train or destroyer is put down by the opposing team.

A less important but equally entertaining component of Battlefield 1 is its style. We do mean that literally. Clothing, weapons and vehicles are meticulously detailed and push the aesthetic of the game to keep visuals consistent. The entire game is an incredible period piece, as it provides you with a visual wonder of early-1900s assets. This also includes language - playing as an Austro-Hungarian will expose players to the various dialects of the extinct multicultural empire. Music manages to transform the gameplay from a meaningless firefight to a somber and devastating human catastrophe. Information is also in plentiful supply, as players can unlock articles in a massive codex which details every component of the game and how it ties directly to the historical facts on The Great War. What's even more commendable about the game's approach to World War I is its balanced perspective. While you don't get the opportunity to play as any of the Central Powers such as Germany or the Ottoman Empire during the campaign, you do in multiplayer. The First World War had plenty of bad guys (note the Ottoman's Armenian genocide), but not on the scale that some would expect. Battlefield 1 treats everyone from every side the same, creating a vicious relationship between the player and the character? Are you perfectly comfortable killing a soldier who's not that different from yourself? The gravity of this war is present in every aspect of the game.

As players will learn during the campaign, Battlefield 1's mechanics are familiar but refreshed. The aged first-person perspective seems polished and finely tuned, especially in regards to realism. Our solider gasped and panicked at the sight of grenades, he cried and reeled in the aftermath of the daunting bayonet charge and his weapons were caked in mud after he trudged up a hill trying to take the opposing team's objective. If you haven't guessed already, even the game's multiplayer conveys some dark themes. The detail also translates to maps and environments as well. Destruction and weather can transform a map naturally, or on behalf of a team laying down dynamite and field gun shells every which way. Weapons are limited but infinitely interesting, and range from bolt-action rifles to historically frivolous automatic weapons. Customization is a bit null, but we expect some changes and patches early on, as well as some DLC expansions both free and paid (in regular EA fashion).

The best part of Battlefield 1's multiplayer is that it feels like an actual war. DICE has done a magnificent job in cultivating a genuine struggle for dominance. We were fighting on the banks of the Suez Canal as British forces funneled their power in waves of enemy players. Having reached 32 player teams in Battlefield 4, it's interesting to see it perfected - the maps in Battlefield 4 were so large that combat could get spread out and unbalanced. This game provides maps that are large enough to hold 64 players, but compact enough to nurture some really phenomenal fights. As we took a test of Operations, a multitiered hold and defend game mode, our team was focused, determined and tightly wound. A few players were on the field guns and others on horses, while the rest of us charged in an attempt to route the enemy. Foggy weather moved in, and gas grenades had our whole team with masks on. It was a thrilling struggle for the objective. Battles in this game are so beautiful that they almost look like well choreographed campaign missions. They're not choreographed - they are organic and dynamic interactions between icons controlled by real individuals. Battlefield 1 achieves "war integration" better than any other online shooter ever has. Period.

Battlefield 1 brings a spark into an already fun and successful format. It reminds us of the wickedly fun Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and harkens a new era of immersive online warfare. While it covers an incredibly sensitive subject which has previously been unexplored in this capacity, the game manages to find an excellent balance between a playground and a memorial. We believe it accomplishes both as it inspires awe and respect for those who perished so long ago, as well as introducing a fun pass time for the gamer in all of us. Battlefield 1 is fun, huge and important and it has Game Chop's official stamp of "Wow."

#TheWarBattlefield1ReviewSeries