Battlefield V
According to Call of Duty, the single player experience is dead. But in the world of Battlefield story telling is alive a thriving. With the now familiar War Stories that tell a more personal story than the traditional grand campaigns of old, Battlefield V takes the look at three lesser known stories from World War II, with the promise of more (free) content to come. Whilst the concept of separate little stories was a little jarring to me when first introduced in Battlefield 1, they do fit nicely telling the story of unwilling prisoners and resistant fighters, and lest face it, just having some single player content to show case the graphical beauty and game mechanics is a blessing in our online-centric world.
But online is still where Battlefield shines, and in my opinion, out-shines the competition. With massive maps and destructible environments, Battlefield has always taken a different approach to first person shooters. Add to this the variety of vehicles and you get a style of game-play where victory or defeat is never certain as the tides of war can change in an instant.
The class system is back, as are the familiar squads. This is one of Battlefield’s secret weapons, as unlike some first person shooters, you rarely feel alone playing Battlefield, even when playing with complete strangers. More often than not, strangers will play together in some form of cohesiveness just because you can spawn on your squad mates. It creates an underlying desire to support your squad.
If all of the above just sounds like your typical Battlefield game, revisiting it’s World War 2 roots, you’d be right. And if that was all Battlefield V was, it would still be awesome. But there is more to the game than that. The progression system that allows cosmetic upgrades to your character as well as weapon and equipment upgrades add’s that extra little incentive, and allows for some degree of personal style.
But the main new feature is the opposite of what Battlefield has long been known for. Now along with destructible environments you have the ability to build fortifications. These fortifications are as destructible as they are build-able, but change up the game. Do you as a team race to secure all locations as quickly as possible, or do you leave mean behind to fortify and defend locations? fortifications really up the ante in Battlefield V and adds different priorities to different classes, with the support class being able to build fortifications a lot quicker than other classes.
All together, visually and sonically, Battlefield V is impressive, but it’s those oft coined Battlefield moments that really make the game the experience it is, and these moments are most certainly back in full force in Battlefield V.
Rating: R16 Restricted to persons 16 years and over. NOTE: Violence and offensive language.
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