Battlefield 1 (PS4)
Battlefield 1 (PS4)
Weather Changes the Battle
Dynamic weather and intuitive destruction create an ever-changing landscape. Make your mark on the world with earth-shattering destruction, whether you’re blasting craters in the ground with artillery strikes or ripping apart walls with gunfire.
Push the Frontline in Operations
Take part in a series of inter-connected multiplayer battles spread across multiple maps in the new Operations. Attackers must break through the lines of defenders, and push the conflict onto the next map.
Massive Behemoths
Pilot some of the largest vehicles in Battlefield history. Rain fire from the sky in a gargantuan Airship, tear through the world in the Armoured Train, or bombard the land from the sea in the Dreadnought.
War Stories from the Far Edges of the World
Discover a world at war through an adventure-filled campaign that captures the variety of a global conflict through the eyes of several different characters all united by this first modern war.
| Dimensions: | 19 x 13.5 x 3 cm; 81.65 Grams |
| Model: | 1024110 |
| Dimensions: | 19 x 13.5 x 3 cm; 81.65 Grams |
| Origin: | Austria |
The single player campaign is enjoyable to play, and is broken up into multiple shorter ‘War Stories.’ While these are fun to play through, they seem to lack the personal feel that other battlefield games have (BF4 for example) where you are interested in the direction the story takes and can make decisions based upon that.
The multiplayer is similar to other battlefield games in respect to the scale of the maps and the way this is balanced with weaponry and vehicles. Weapon customisation is unfortunately not really to the standard we have grown to expect from battlefield. A different scope for example isn’t an attachment, it is a different weapon selection that you have to purchase with the in-game currency earned from playing games and ranking up.
The Achievements (or Codex in BF1) are also extremely basic and don’t keep you busy with various challenges to work on, rather just very basic tasks such as killing 10 enemies with a certain weapon.
On PS4 I managed to get the platinum trophy just 2 weeks after release, and that was even only being able to play in between working. Even after this though there are still things to work on and progress with in the game.
These facts aside though, there is a huge amount to do in both the story and the multiplayer – It’s battlefield after all! It just doesn’t seem to go into as much depth and detail as former Battlefields have. But it is set in WW1 – a simpler time, so reviewing it as its own game rather than trying to compare it to modern setting games I would still give it 4/5.
I find it increasingly difficult to find new games that excite me for days or weeks. I only play the missions, no multi-player. BF1 missions are great, they take you around the world to fight in the most famous WW1 war fields. You actually learn a little about the war, well as long as you read the content and don’t skip the cinematics.
This is an adrenaline fuelled, full-cinematic spectacle (especially on a 65 inch 4k absolutely great), soundtrack is amazing, sound effects great and the story is a bit different (jumping into different characters on different locations), which is great.
In terms of difficulty some missions are actually pretty hard and took me a few tries for some of them to get through. (this is a good thing for me, I don’t like too easy FPS)
Overall a great game with decent depth to story and characters.
The game plays and performs well and it is, when looking at previous BF releases, comparatively stable and running smoothly.
Gameplay is pretty much like any other BF except you are in a WW1 setting which is used well as a backdrop for this FPS, though I am a little disappointed at the lack of story telling from the central powers perspective. They do try a little by presenting the British Empire in a mostly antagonistic way and the Ottomans as a brave and proud peoples (make of that what you will) but they don’t put you in the shoes of a German, Turkish or Austrian soldier in any of the war stories. Also, there isn’t nearly enough single-player content here (I did all of it in about 3 hours on normal difficulty – I want like at least 7/8 hours out of a single-player experience minimum).
The multiplayer plays very well and the gameplay is great. The maps in the base game are all, in my opinion, very good and dynamic and shows the thought that went into their design. However, there isn’t enough of them. There are 10 maps that are free (if you include the late addition of Giant’s Shadow in December) I would’ve liked to have had 3/4 more maps than this at launch, but DICE and EA obviously want to incentivise getting the premium pass.
But yeah, a good game – 7 1/2 out of 10
What a game! From the first time I took an enemy down with a trench shovel I was hooked. Whilst I bought the game to take out my fellow gamers in multiplayer I have also been pretty thrilled with the single player campaigns. The wonderfully expansive maps and plethora of vehicles really makes the experience very special indeed. Bayonet charges go on in the trenches with acrobatic dogfights going on in the skies above. The bark of sniper rifles and the rattle of automatic fire are interrupted by the sporadic boom of artillery and the hiss of gas.
Rarely does a game, not just fulfil expectations but exceed them. I’m already looking forward to settling in for another session soon.
This is my 1st experience of a Battlefield game. I used to play COD (COD2, COD WAW, COD MW, COD AW) but grew tired of the repetitiveness, the grenade/grenade launcher spamming of the maps and the overall arcade feel the franchise seems to have moved towards.
I’ve been playing BF1 since its release date and I am obsessed with it. I bought this game primarily for the multiplayer but I have had the odd single player session and enjoyed it a lot.
The graphics are very impressive on PS4 and so far I have had next to no issue on the servers I’ve played (maybe only 1 episode where my game lagged a bit).
I play various modes on the multiplayer Conquest, Operations, and this later one is absolutely brilliant; a ton of fun. In essence, one team has a set number of attacks to conquer 2 or 3 objectives in a given location of the map. The other team needs to defend those sectors. When the sector is conquered, the defending team has to fall back and reach the new sectors and defend them again. This mode will show you areas of maps you wouldn’t normally have played, giving the game a completely different perspective and level of tactics.
I usually play with a friend of mine living in another country and we always manage to connect to the same session without problems.
Overall I would certainly recommend this game as I believe BF1 will become a classic.
See you in the trenches!
I rarely post reviews however after playing Battlefield for about two weeks now I have to put something in writing to say thank you to the designers for making this game. Their attempts at portraying the scenery, sounds and shear bloodiness and savagery has been encapsulated brilliantly in this game. I’ve played COD titles and become bored of the futuristic gameplay. To present a game with fantastic graphics and then adding changing weather conditions to enhance and vary the gamplay further is also worthy of a big mention.
Being in the forest or the town of Amien when the fog envelopes all around you is so atmospheric and earie is just brilliant brilliant work… as is the sandstorm in the desert maps.
I’ve played most of the multiplayer modes and enjoy the different choices available with enough variety to keep from the feeling I used to get from COD quite quickly.
Looking forward to the new maps in March. Hopefully there’ll be some Siberian or Alps maps with snow scenes / blizzards as well as maps based on Ypres and the Uboat station in Bruges
It’s battlefield set in world war one, quite a good story mode (all be it a little short) with some moments that made me think about the brutality and darkness that the soldiers probably had to endure in the war. Something I probably wouldn’t really think about very often otherwise. an engaging tale set across the world. only minor criticism is it’s mostly the allied powers the axis powers have no representation and their soldiers probably had equally harrowing experiences but maybe I’m just thinking in to it too much.
Multiplayer is good fun with the usual array of crazy good players that seem to snipe you within seconds of spawning but not to he point where i break a TV for throwing the controller through it. If you like FPS’s then you could do worse then buy this game. A lot worse.
1. The revive glitch – you can’t use your weapon when revived, you have to switch guns
2. Getting shot from behind cover – maybe just a lag issue for some people and servers but its bloody annoying
3. Bad spawning, especially into an exploding tank or crashing aeroplane or right in front of an enemy
4. The worst span is when a enemy spawns on the dead person you’ve just killed to shoot you in the back
5. Gas and explosive spam including using the rocket gun against infantry
6. Gas seeping through concrete walls and ceilings
7. Too many shotguns & too many snipers
8. Medics that don’t give health or revive – they should introduce a penalty, give more points or be able to just take it
9. Support that wont drop ammo – same as above
10. Not enough points for above
11. OP cavalry armour
12. Blind bayonet charges
13. OP rear aeroplane gunners or pilots that switch seats
14. Pilots that bail – needs an exit animation
15. Medal system – open it up so I can get them at any point in my own time
16. Server system is too limited and restrictive
17. In game purchases for class weapons – buying an advantage is not cool
18. Inability to use war bonds to buy battle packs & poor scrap value on battle packs especially premium ones
19. Repetitive battle packs items
20. Locked squads by default when in a party
21. Switching to a winning team to boost stats
22. Spot system is too narrow or often won’t work at all
There’s probably more but having said all that I still really LOVE this game!
Online is awesome and coming from a cod guy that’s hard to say ! The only thing is I still prefer the weapons in previous cods , even if there are different types of the same in this game I personally just prefer a bigger variety
Campaign was epic but very short lived , a very short campaign so if you don’t have multiplayer you’d be very disappointed as they could have put another half a dozen missions !
The game is so so good! Captures the atmosphere of war superbly, cracking attention to detail from the environments to the vehicles and to the guns (although some automatic weapons from late WW1 and WW2 are included, because who wants to play a FPS where guns take a minute to reload?). The multiplayer is far superior to the competition on console. Call of Duty is quaking in its boots with the constant price crashes and free week trials desperately trying to claw players to their horrible copy paste lack of innovation micro transaction DLC on disc filled multiplayer. It’s gone to the point where Activision forced micro transactions and supply drops into Modern Warfare remastered the superior game, but now that has become “Modern Warfare remake”. Battlefield 1 is leaps and bounds superior to CoD that if you truly want the best of both FPS worlds get both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2.
Edit – 2018 = DICE, what have you done? On top of the pedestal and now literally tossed that advantage into the pit of despair, shredding away at the fanbase instead of taking heed of the complaints for Battlefield V, desperation and resignations galore to try to save face, and now that dedicated fanbase has moved onto games like CoD Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2 instead. Barebones in content, not even a delay sorted that out for November 20th, and the Battle Royale is delayed even further to March 2019. As Angry Joe (despite being an astute defender of your game until a week later during the September beta) would say… DICE, you done f*****d it up!
Superb game – I’m a long term Battlefield fan, and this one is the best of the lot. It’s enough of a departure from Battlefield 4 (the series highpoint so far) to make it worth your while. The only real downside is EA’s usual policy of having to purchase Premium Season Passes to get the full experience with the DLC coming in staged releases; but at least this keeps the game’s longevity going. Graphics and sound are second to none, with real time weather effects making every game different (in multiplayer). There was a moment in one of the bigger maps where I was caught in a mortar barrage / fog / smoke / firestorm / 64 player mayhem which was simply breathtaking; destructible environments adding to the sense of all out war.
The usual game modes are all present and correct – Conquest, Rush, Team Death Match etc. but the most interesting addition is ‘Operations’ – massive games over the largest, staged map sequences featuring four or five waves of attackers, 64 players, and Behemoth vehicles – these take upwards of an hour to play and are just intense, awesome gameplay.
Highly recommended.
Great game! Great graphics and the Single Player game was actually better than I expected.
It involves a good mix of “war-stories”/scenarios that has you as a tank commander, pilot, walking-tank and as a covert operative. Mixed with a decent spread of boots-on-the-ground FPS action also as a soldier.
Its not revolutionary, and really its a fancy trainer for the MP, but if you dont take it too seriously its actually pretty good. The weapons are also very authentic to the era also. I had no idea that planes back then could fire rockets!
The Multi-Player is really why you get this game though, and it doesn’t disappoint. Its a little easier to die in this game than previous Battlefields (or maybe my skills are just crap! 😛 ) but on a good team the craic is mighty with this one!
Recommended throughout, but not if your time is precious as this will pull you in! 🙂
As a Battlefield fan, I was rather exited for this release and was quick to swipe it up during the black friday sales. However I have several personal issues with this game that might not concern casual players.
The campaign is rather short and unless your completing it on Hard difficulty, you could clear it up in less than 6 hours or so. However graphically it is pretty great and makes some interesting scenes.
Generally, there isn’t anything that is too overpowered in the multiplayer. If you work cooperatively as a squad you can essentially achieve anything and help win the game. I feel there is some balancing issues here and there, but I reckon these will ease out over time as EA gradually patch it up. There are some glitch spots on a few maps, but they don’t achieve anything but some cheap kills and don’t really alter the outcome of the game. Again I predict these will be removed over time. There is a bit of lack of content as each weapon has very little customisation (I know it’s WW1 but you know what I mean) it’s a bit of shame you’ll need to pay an additional 40 for the premium, but you do get all the map packs early and some additional stuff. But considering other developers give out some DLC free, it just seems like classic EA going for the money grab.
Overall, this game is alright. But you could easily buy BF4 for much cheaper and have the same thing. Short campaign, salty multiplayer. To an extent this game is more or less the same considering it’s on the same game engine except it has nicer graphics and a different time period.If this is your first Battlefield game, I’d prefer you went and played BF4 beforehand so you can understand the fundamentals of the game, but BF1 does an alright job showing new players what to do. I’m giving it 4 stars to spite Call of Duty and the fact that I genuinely enjoy this game despite all the ups and downs of multiplayer. I was also reviewing the game itself and not the Amazon delivery, which was satisfactory as always.
Another excellent title to add to the Battlefield series. Although it does take some time to get used to the guns as they are like nothing you will be used to from previous gaming experiences! They do improve as you level up but stick with it as this can take a bit of time.
The cinematic experience is excellent both on Campaign and Multiplayer and looks so realistic. Its great fun online and isn’t soley about K/D Ratio like other titles seem to be. I would definitely recommend to anyone!
I personally think this is the best Battlefield that has come out, though I understand people’s reservations when seeing EA are involved. They definitely reigned it in a little since Star Wars Battlefront but they haven’t changed too much. Fortunately for us Dice have done so well on this one that we can overlook that a little. The campaign isn’t extensive but it is varied and I think it affords respect to the memory of those who fought in WW1 yet allows for a small injection of fiction to make it a game. The multiplayer is epic, in all aspects. The guns are quite historically accurate and struggle a little compared to those of the 21st Century which is apt. The vehicle system is, in my opinion, perfect as it ensures that no team (usually) has more than 2-3 tanks and the same amount of planes and cavalry. The hero-token system has been somewhat carried over in the form of the sentry, flamethrower and tank-buster kits, but they add a little spice into the game and as in SW Battlefront the heroes are in no way immortal/OP. I’d definitely recommend this to any next gen FPS lovers.
Pleasantly surprised would be an understatement and more along the lines of jaw droppingly shocked from the very first second. Firstly by how pretty it is, even on ps4 it looks fantastic and really adds to the WW1 setting. It does make you question, was it really this brutal back then? The answer obviously would be yes, plus a million times more! But as far as a game can go, it does the job by throwing just enough dirt, blood and death in your face to make you realise this was once real and that this is a fantastically atmospheric game.
Single player is a nice surprise, actually having believable characters and war stories that follows multiple adventures across the globe. Though multiplayer will probably distract you from single player before you finish it. It offers a bunch of maps with multiple modes on each, (one including pigeons!) and they range from big to massive! Tanks will trundle on in front of you while an attack plane above you lays down a blanket of bullets on the enemy, your squad mate drops by your side from a sniper and you see the enemy running at you over the hill screaming bloody murder. Your very first kill rings a satisfying ‘ding’ and up pops the red text of who the victim was. All of this in a couple of minutes and you feel like it’s all scripted. The beauty being that it’s all in real time with real people all seeing the same battle you are.
Fantastic graphics, brilliant atmosphere, awesome sound, huge destructible maps (even the ground craters from explosions) and excellent class weapons all add up to my personal favourite game of year. Just buy it, you won’t be disappointed, but you will die, a lot.
Brilliant game in all regards nearly in my opinion with the small issue being the length of the emotional story.
Multiplayer is intense, fun and engaging with up to 64 players per game, and operations is a ton of fun, especially with friends.
The behemoths are new and a good change to the game from when I started on battlefield 3.
The weapons are mostly variants for fully automatic and some other things but this is fine as it was a WW1 game so can’t be expecting many more guns.
campaign is thrilling.
It’s engaging, emotional, and you get hooked in from the prologue mission. Apart from the length of all mini stories combined, I had a great time.
Also got my call of duty friends switching over this year!!
Would tell others to buy it, or atleast wait for a sale but it’s a definite pick up at one poi
Since I stopped playing the COD games a few years ago I have been trying to find another FPS that I enjoyed as much. Battlefield 1 is that game!
The multiplayer is fantastic, a game where tactics and acheiving the objective defines your contribution rather than just whoever gets the best K/D ratio. It is a true team game rather than the mercinery style of COD and if anyone was to try and play it like COD, you’re going to get torn up. Those who want to run around shooting every few seconds should avoid, those who wish for a team based game with a thought for your next move will love this. Graphically it looks wonderful and the audio is just incredible. I wear headphones when playing and when there is mortar strikes and gunfire pinging around you, it really adds to the edge. The vehicles are a great feature as always and the support vehicles that arrive if a team is getting a heavy beating is a great way to ensure things dont end up too one side……most of the time 🙂
The campaign is a little short but enjoyable to experience the soldiers time during the war, although my purchase was for the multiplayer aspect so not really qualified to rate the campaign.
There is something said for going back to basic weaponry of WW1 that other franchises should take note of. Lasers and spaceships can be fun but that is reserved for games like Star Wars.
Update: since purchasing the game there has been a major patch, which greatly improves the initial guns in multiplayer, and a free map will land in December, so you can add on another half a star to the review score.
It’s the very first Battlefield I bought. This version is great in terms of gameplay. It’s difficult at the beginning for someone coming from the COD franchise but adapting to it is totally worth it.
I was looking for a FPS without the Quake-like mess we get nowadays in Call of Duty which is full of people double-jumping and wall-running in tiny maps.
BF1 looks great and feels great.
The big downside is the UI menus which is not intuitive and well thought. Most of all: the loading times are incredibly long, or at least feel way too long. And while you wait there’s nothing really you can do, not even change your weapons or stuff.
Fantastic game, let down by a couple of minor niggles. The age old gripe about Battlefield games is the massive number of snipers… thankfully a lot better in this game than previous ones.
As much as I like the game i do wish they would get rid of the supid control system that revolves aroud the “melee” – as soon as someone gets anywhere near you your gun vanishes to be replaced with a knife – quickly followed by a death. Why cant we get rid of melee…. arrrggghhhh
This is immense. Some of the landscaping graphics are close to photo realistic. The multiplayer is terrific but this is where I have a tiny niggle; the graphics are so good that sometimes it is hard to see opposing players because they too small. Once you’ve learned to “spot” it becomes a lot easier. The different game styles are quite thin at the moment but there is a terrific mode where you progress through many different battles before it ends.
The single player campaign is reasonable if a little short.
The weapon level up is quite slow but these are really only small points.
A great game all around.
Fantastic graphics, a solid frame rate, and an untapped resource of potential considering its subject matter and time period.
Campaign is short and sweet, choosing to bounce you around characters and settings in an attempt to teach you each element of the game (shooting, sneaking, flying etc). It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
MP is as deep as ever, rewarding teamwork and tactical play over anything else. You can still be top of the leaderboard even if you didn’t manage to shoot a single person, and that makes it more of a game for everyone.
A few downsides, the weapons all feel quite samey- more due to the time period- and operations mode seems a bit overlong to complete.
Highly recommended.
A single player worth playing. A fresh multiplayer mode. An exciting new setting for Battlefield.
Turns out WW1 works as a good gaming setting. After WW2 was done to death (no pun intended), various Cold War backgrounds flogged for all they’re worth and now crazy space future battles being pitched for other titles, what a relief to have a decent historical world to play in.
The best new feature is ‘operations’ mode in the multiplayer. An impressive new way to play capture the flag, that uses the wider map in an clever way.
The single player is a combination of mini-stories. Each worth playing and investing some time in.
A good return to form for Battlefield.
I saw a trailer for this 6 or so months ago and have been crying out for a historic war game in years (ever since World at War). I have been getting bored of the same old COD, the introduction of jet packs and wall climbing just isn’t my thing.
At the same time I preordered the new COD just for the remastered Modern Warfare – this was cancelled last week thanks to Battlefield 1.
I honestly couldnt see myself having any time for Modern Warfare thanks to this incredible game. The graphics and gameplay are like no other game I have played before, it really is a work of art.
I have yet to play the campaign modes but absolutely love multiplayer – from the basic team death match with smaller maps to the all out carnage of domination and conquest.
If like me you have been crying out for a historic war game get this game now, you will not be disappointed.
Well done Battlefield for listening to what the people want!
I was initially skeptical of the War War I setting, but DICE have delivered something special with it here, taking the chaos of Battlefield to entirely new levels and introducing gameplay wrinkles that were lost (or had never been discovered) in the modern era shooters. The animations and feedback from bolt action rifles and single shell field guns brings another level of immersion to the game, supplemented by the best sound design in franchise history, without exception. The Zepplins are as imposing as advertised and we really haven’t seen their like since Battlefield 2142’s Titans back in 2006.
Finally, Battlefield has never been known for it’s single player campaigns but the “War Stories” of Battlefield 1 are the equal of any FPS campaign in recent years and easily the best in Battlefield history. If you want a game that has a bit of everything, and has more depth than something like Call of Duty, or Battlefront, this is the one to get.
Game play as ever with battlefield looks amazing, and plays really well and smoothly without any bugs on early game glitches often experienced with new games.
As with every first person shooter nowadays the emphasis is on the online game play rather than offline campaign modes, however the campaign is still worth playing through to learn how the game plays differently to previous battlefields.
The online game play as ever with battlefield is on a massive scale with 64 player servers providing a different experience to other fps in the market. This coupled with the ability to use vehicles provides a more complete immersive game for the casual to serious gamer.
With bringing out less games than call of duty the game feels more complete and ‘special’ compared to the call of duty titles pumped out year on year which have in my opinion gone downhill since modern warfare 3.
I wasn’t compelled by this title before, either because of the theme (WW1) or the past Battlefield titles which I didn’t enjoy that much. However, the rave 5* reviews spiced up some curiosity, and I wasn’t too attracted to wait for COD Infinity either. I am VERY glad I bought it. I warn I’m playing online MP mode, not campaign!
PROS
Beautiful better graphics, less of the BF4 blue hue, though still using a vintage hue to match the epoch.
Fantastic sound effects.
Immersive feel.
Easy interface, less cluttered than usual.
Flowing gameplay, no jitters, easy to grasp control and weapons.
Old weaponary not a challenge, you get used to it quickly, even the slower reloading (even the enemy is bound to it, so this is equal ground, fair).
NOT SO SURE
The first few games got me bored… BUT that’s part of getting used to the WW1 theme, and then you’ll love it.
Maps seem a lot smaller than past titles, but still big.
Each MP match takes ages to complete, like 25-30 mins. So if you haven’t got much time like me, you’ll be turning on the PS4, play one match, and turn off.
Can’t be much of a lone wolf, I find squad play almost a must due to close objectives and so many 1-1 fights.
Overall, excellent game, definitely worth it if you’re a MP first shooter fan and BF fan, and heartbroken by latest CODs. Wouldn’t go as far as 5* though.
This is a classic example of the kind of quality game that EA is capable of making, when the time and effort gets put in. The multiplayer keeps everything fun and interesting with all the new content, while the campaign gives you all out war from different roles, along with the changing weather, plus destructible environments and 64 player battles keep the multiplayer really fun! The only thing I will note is that the campaign could be longer, it is by no means short but could still use another couple of levels.
I prefer the modern BF games and some of the game mechanics they changed for this one really annoy me (such as no longer can you get someone from afar with a pistol etc) but it still remains a great multiplayer shooter. Ive always enjoyed the rush game mode and thankfully that hasnt changed. Its still quite buggy as of yet and there are loads of noobs running around, but in a month or two online should hopefully be a nicer experience. The campain is one of the best BF has had in ages.
I’ve only played the game for a few hours.
But what an amazing experience it has been it’s absolutely mind blowing you really feel about of the action there’s never a dull moment it’s a master piece of a game. We all got experience alot of world war 2 games main one being Call Of duty but never world war 1 and EA and Dice have truly gone all out to truly make you understand how awful it must of been as a young soldier back in world war 1 going through trenches everything all muddy and dark and horrible as well as explosions going off everywhere.
What makes this game even more fantastic is you don’t just play as one single Character like nearly every other game you play multiple roles with different characters so for example you experience life as a part of a tank crew there’s a story for that then able to experience how life would of been for a pilot back in world war 1 with a different character and then Navy etc it’s not all one big story it’s multiple story’s with different characters all showing how life was for them back on world war 1 if it was Tank Plane Navy etc so your able to understand more about world war 1 and ithe goes into alot of detail about everything truly is a fantastic game to play.
It’s multiple is so epic and awesome fun never get bored of it. Anyway please stop reading this review and other reviews and just buy this game it’s impossible for this game to disappoint you.
First of all thank you Amazon, as a recent expat who has moved from the UK to abroad, I was fully ok with receiving this title a few days later from its release, but you managed to get it to me for on the day of release!! Unbelievable, greatly appreciated!!!
The game is sublime. The graphics are astonishing and the multiplayer action intense. Due to the recent DDOS hack which affected PSN, Amazon and a host of social media sites, like many I couldn’t access the online mode of the game on day of release.
With any of the usual Battlefield games in the series this would have been a tragedy, and it was still annoying. However, a welcome departure from the bog-standard first-person, online focussed shooters sees Battlefield 1 deliver a decent single player game experience, across the stories of 5 protagonists based all over Europe and in The Middle East.
The solo game also doubles as a really useful tutorial, showcasing the different styles of play, class of soldier, vehicles and weapons. When you make it over to the online mode all of this helps get you started, bringing you up to speed. I could go on about the soldier classes, the tons of guns and the amazing design of hardware in the game thanks to its WW1 setting and the level of experimental tools that made it onto the battlefield which you may not have been aware of, certainly the developer Dice has taken some creative design liberties to make the action more appetising, so don’t take everything shown in the game as literal, strict WW1 historians beware! Verdict, you should definitely buy this and if you still crave a futuristic shooter then maybe check out Titanfall 2 which the beta was incredibly promising and which the creators are also saying they have invested in a decent single player story mode too.
Now we have a breath of fresh air with a return to WW1, the last good war game set in the past was probably COD world at war, but WW1 games on older gen with old technology weren’t really fun to play nor realistic (voice acting, characters etc) and had since been forgotten, but while COD trails further haphazardly into the future with its games, Battlefield does a u-turn and here’s the result:
Visuals: 9.5/10
Very nice visuals, sumptuous environment (puddles, mud, overgrowth and flora in Argonne forest etc) even mud and rain on the weapons or dirt on the screen after an explosion, the dynamic weather more likely seen on large conquest maps is also enjoyable. Really not much to complain about here, the game would’ve been more realistic with more blood or visuals cues on players where they were shot etc to really capture the horror and realism of war, but other than that really nice visuals. And when things explode, do they explode! (Dreadnaught battleships, Zepplin air ship which comes down with a big crash creating a dust cloud) attention to detail has been paid in these aspects. The destructible environment is very present in this game and works wonderfully as a building can be torn to shreds. The models of the weapons are all done nicely and the tanks/vehicles look like they were pulled right from that era. Not sure some automatic weapons existed then (other than the Lewis machine gun with a black round drum on top you see on the bi-planes) but the game wouldn’t be as fun with only bolt actions.
Sound FX: 9.5/10
Can’t fault anything with the dialog other than the out of place commentator in multiplayer, a woman who sounds a mixture between British and eastern European..just a bad choice, like Doom’s commentator. A different commentator for each army like a commander egging you on to win the fight would’ve been much better, and so sound FX loses half a point. But everything else? The epic music, the explosions, the gunfire which sounds very tangible and life like, the whistle of mortar fire or bombs, the shouting of characters and dialog reacting to different scenarios like shouting “sh** gas! Gas!” When mustard gas is thrown, or thanking you for healing them as a medic. In the campaign most the characters and their dialog is also done well.
Gameplay: 10/10
Single player is divided into several episodes set in different countries with different story’s and characters, it’s about as long as your standard FPS campaign (more COD length than Doom) and the storyline and characters are done mostly well, the missions are fun to play through and give you a good feel for all the elements of the game (tank, infantry, stealth, plane etc) with some notable highlights, like the battle atop a Zepplin over London as the American pilot with a typical devil may care pilot attitude. Or as the young tank driver and crew trying to survive though France in Black Bess the tank. Voice acting/dialog is better than past WW1 games in that it’s like a movie rather than a p*** take with exaggerated accents. Think Robert Carlyle might actually be the tank commander, not sure.
Multiplayer, the reason many will be buying this: firstly the game modes, you have a few you’d expect, team death match, pigeon find, domination (small scale CTF) conquest (large scale CTF) and operations, like conquest but 2 huge maps divided into several sectors where attackers push forward by capturing checkpoints from the defenders and try capturing all several sectors, attackers have a set amount of soldiers and 3 chances in the form of 3 battalions). This is a slightly story driven game mode (think max Payne 3) and is done quite well, altering victory or defeat speeches based on the overall outcome. These matches can last for over half an hour and with the dynamic weather feel quite realistic. The losing side in these bigger game modes get a helping hand near the end in the form of a mighty vehicle (dreadnaught battleship in the desert, zepplin airship over Europe, or armored train in the city, not sure if argonne forest has anything. There also horses you can ride, a motorbike with side car, truck, armored truck, military car, tank, light tank, attack boat, awkward planes and bombers. Sentry guns and artillery emplacements can also be manned. The lobby during the loading screen isn’t great, a lot more could’ve been done with it, showing the players, letting you see their stats, editing your classes, anything, but you just get a window with a battle pack you can open if you gained any, and a window to select a medal to aim for via challenges.
There are additional game modes, fog of war (apparently low visibility, no hud and just pistols/melee) also hardcore which I look forward to playing as there’s currently only core modes and bullet sponges.
There are several classes to choose from, each with specified weapon sets to unlock and equipment, the medic for instance has a surprisingly good selection of medium range rifles (which probably should’ve been put in the attacker class who has only close range) but also a revive syringe, bandages, healing crate, making them a very important class for your team. There’s the attacker class with short range sub machine guns and shotguns, plus heavy explosives like anti tank and dynamite, great for causing chaos and wrecking buildings. There’s the scout class, favoured by campers with a selection of long range sniper rifles, and trip wire/defensive gadgets like a prone shield with a small firing hole. There’s support class with heavy machine guns, vehicle repair spanner and mortar etc. Overall though the classes do stand out well and mean you will be selecting different ones for different situations (running though the trenches with a sniper rife won’t end well for you, with a machine gun however?).
Classes can also select a variety of grenades, all the ones you’d expect (incendiary, smoke, high explosive, and the evil mustard gas) classes are all equipped with a gas mask that they physically put on and will save you from gas attacks. Most weapons can also be equipped with a bayonet where you can do an iconic bayonet charge, maybe a last ditch effort in the trenches or when you run out of bullets, but also useful if you’re having trouble getting through a bunker room’s doorway if the rooms occupied.
There are also special classes that spawn in the map in a box for whoever grabs it first (sentry which gives you a legal high rate of fire double clip machine gun, and armour, and flamer which gives you a gas mask and medium range flame thrower)
Finally you acquire new weapons via war bonds (game currency) gained by leveling up, but leveling up and war bonds especially don’t come often, so use them wisely.
Multiplayer maps? Mostly all done well, some might need warming too, to understand the layout and such, the Italian mountainside on operations is a bit awkward as its a mountain side, having long range fights constantly at different elevations, but otherwise the maps all present different opportunities in terms of tactics and gameplay.
A free tip to make the game easier as I didn’t actually notice until owning it for a few days, down on D-pad changes weapons fire mode from single to automatic if it has it (down by a single white bullet or row of white bullets)
Verdict: 9.5/10
Definitely a worthy purchase with a lot of fun to be had.
Some highlights to share from multiplayer, jumping off a zepplin and parachuting down onto a large rectangular balcony/walkway surrounding a courtyard and shooting a sniper who was puzzled, then turned the other way and laid down as I landed, and got them.
Fighting for a final checkpoint in a trench sector in operations, crawling through a trench filled with gas with a gas mask on reviving team mates and shooting anyone who appeared through the mist, and hoping the bombardment around me wouldn’t blow me up.
Fighting for a last checking in Amiens the city map, in an up stairs room with my team whilst the building was being blown to hell.
Or the battle for a last checkpoint in the game in some old ruins, in the fog as dynamic weather kicked in, with bullets and people coming from all directions.
Multiplayer creates lots of intense moments not many games this gen will be able to replicate.
Pros:
– Great visuals
– Tangible weapons and gameplay
– Nice Sound FX
– Good level of destruction
– Just a fun realistic game
– Servers actually work fine
Cons:
– Out of place commentator
– Dull loading/lobby screen
– No hardcore mode just yet
– Plane controls are bit weird
– Few bugs here or there, but personally haven’t come across much
I’ve been waiting for the full game to come out since I played the beta a month ago. It’s so much fun going back to basics instead of all the futuristic shooters that are around the days.
It looks great on the ps4 and the sounds are very atmospheric and immersive particularly through headphones.
I’ve only played the intro to the campaign part of the game but if that is anything to go by I’m looking forward to playing the remainder but for the moment it’s all about the multiplayer.
Not being the best at fps I tend to play conquest as you get points for playing the objective rather than your KD ratio. The vehicles, destructability, sound effects all add up to a chaotic but fun experience so if you like fps games I highly recommend this one.
Wow I’ve never been so moved by a game like the beginning of this. Probably cos most of these campaigns happened really brings home the horrors of what these men went through. Such a waste.
The visuals and the sound surround are amazing I tried it with headphones also and found it truly emotional, shaking my head in wonder and disbelief of what horrific conditions they have represented in a video game. Well done dice EA.
I’m playing it on hard to be honest the short individual stories will taker you longer on this setting as people who’ve done it on normal say it takes 5-6 hours.
To for me it’s the best battlefield game ever.
Buy it you won’t regret it.
I was apprehensive on buying this game due to the last shooter I purchased, yes the other game was BO3 and different label but none the less apprehensive. I have just started playing this game and it blows BO3 out of the water, it looks realistic and the weapons are realistic compared to the characters and far fetched weapons in BO3. You get the feeling I don’t like BO3, I don’t its the worst game I have ever played and I went to the expense to buy the deluxe on release day as well which further annoyed me. The maps are excellent, visually as good as star wars battlefront. The controls are taking a bit of getting used to but this is probably just down to being a new game and not playing any previous battlefield before. There is a companion app to accompany this game also which you can download to your mobile device. The load times from joining a game to starting the game is again about the same length of time as star wars battlefront.
If this game doesn’t kill the Call Of Duty franchise then I don’t know what will. EA and DICE have finally done what myself and many others have been asking for!
Unfortunately I can’t go into detail on the campaign as I’ve only played the prologue (sorry people) but multiplayer is really enjoyable! If you’ve played the past BF games you’ll know what to expect. Graphically it’s really impressive, including the sound quality of the explosions and the gun fire! What I do like about this game is how destructible the maps are, come to the end of the match, buildings that where there at the beginning were just rubble on the ground.
One down side to this game though is when too much is happening at once (e.g. Mortar fire, grenades, tank fire etc) every now and then the dynamic resolution drops completely to 160x90p for a few seconds which I’ve never experienced before in a game, hopefully DICE patch this as it can be a pain at times. Apart from that! You should really buy this game!
Battlefield 1 has quite a big learning curve, but once you get familiar with the system it is really a great game, which I can see myself playing for the foreseeable future. Definitely recommend it! Battlefield will kill COD this year (coming from a guy that has played nothing but COD for almost 8 years…)
Thats great for new comers but for people who have been doing the Battlefield thing as long as people like myself it got boring with the release of Battlefield 4. Unfortunately Battlefield 1 is no different. I in a sense feel like its a slap in the face the way Dice and EA have at numerous times in the game and in promotional made reference to the senseless slaughter and death as a result of WW1 yet cashed in on the war and said slaughter, paid lip service to African-American troops at a time when modern racial division is rife in North America, blatantly add and subtract real historical value such as arms and weapons just to deliberately make the game more accessible and playable. All “prototype” weaponry and ideas that Dice felt was required. Out are the real bolt action rifles changed now in favor of weapons that sport C.O.D World at War holographic sights and plate armored men sporting flamethrowers and Gatling guns ala Rambo.
In short BF1 made for a fun game for a few hours but feels less like the old great Battlefields and more like a C.O.D. Battlefield hybrid.
Personally I reckon it will do well, not because its a great game, its not by any stretch. I think so many people will, and have jumped over from C.O.D. because said players got tired of C.O.D.s same tried and tested formula. Its fast becoming the very same thing with Battlefield. Same game and modes every year except a different time, location, weapon and accessory reskin plus an optional fee for premium for some maps and modes that fall out of rotation after 6 months because nobody plays them because the novelty wore of and realised the premium content actually sucks.
Point to note, online connectivity is still ropey, and can cause alot of “shoot first, die first” as is typical of Battlefields upon new release. Granted all Battlefields improve over time and updates.
Whatever people try and say or tell me this is just Battlefield 3, 4, Hardline and last years Star Wars Battlefront just repacked and reskinned.
Its still fun albeit frustrating as hell at time due to technical issues, but fun nonetheless.
In a nutshell the risk has paid off big time and EA should be pleased with what they have produced.
I will start with the campaign which is told from multiple different perspectives and characters about their experience in WW1. The prologue throws you right into a trench battle which is gritty, grim and deadly. As you would expect with Battlefield the sound design is top notch, simply brilliant and I would recommend a soundbar or surround system to get the full experience.
The campaign does keep things simple which more than enough is moving forward in a linear fashion and taking objectives and such. However it is done very well and the vehicles are integrated very well especially the British Tank which I enjoyed the most. Graphically the campaign is beautiful highlighting EA and DICE’s engine, the mud has puddles and a dirty sparkle to it and the character models and excellent. Facial movements during speech are intricate and realistic and the war time feel is here. I will say that although the campaign is good it certainly isn’t the most memorable storyline wise but accomplishes what it needs to which is conveying that WW1 was brutal. All in all you are looking at around 5 hours maximum to complete the entire campaign and probably 6 hours on hard mode which doesn’t pose the biggest challenge.
Multiplayer is back and supports up to 64 players on the larger game modes such as conquest. There is a fine selection of game modes on offer and I have had no connection issues that I experienced in Battlefield 4. A breath of fresh air along with a steady launch! There is the usual weapon customisation and the battlepacks are back. The maps are wide open and varied showing diverse worlds as such, also nearly everything in the maps are destructible so using a canon on a tank or Dynamite will have a really big effect on the map layout. Weapons wise there is a good mix of WW1 era guns which would be a difficult aspect of the game as most shooters nowadays are all fully automatic, Battlefield 1 doesn’t punish you for selecting the bolt action rifle over a machine gun and each weapon is noticeably different and has their benefits and drawbacks.
Progression in multiplayer seems somewhat limited when you take into account the limited unlocks available.
Also added to the multiplayer is a mode called Operations which is a sort of recreation of a certain battle between Germany/USA/Britain/Italy etc. It reminds me of Rush and Domination with the way it plays and is a welcome edition to the franchise. An operation could take well over 45 minutes to complete a whole match so it will keep you busy.
There is currently a 2GB update will only take around ten minutes to install when you first use the disc but bear in mind there will be more to come and I’m sure within a few weeks that update maybe around 45GB.
All in all this will shower all over Call of Duty and their space age stuff and it shows that going backwards in war games can be more satisfying than going forward.
I’ll now talk about the Single Player, although I haven’t played much of the single player just yet however from what I have played I really enjoyed it the game doesn’t just have 1 big campaign it is broken up into 6 mini campaign these are called ‘War Stories’ after completing the 2 prologue missions you are able to choose from any of the 6 war story’s that you want to play first each war story has around 6 missions. I choose the war story called Through Mud and Blood which shows the life of a young soldier named Edwards who operates in a tank along side other soldiers. I have only played 2 of the 6 missions from the war story so far and i’m genuinely really enjoying it and I have to say they’re lengthy and really interesting missions. One of my favourite moments was the pigeon scene which was absolutely incredible! I look forward to playing more of the single player and learning more about WW1 history and I think this game does and excellent job of teaching you that. 5/5 from me!
This is by far the best Battlefield game i have ever seen and played, great graphics , realistic play, feels so right. A huge shame and disappointment that the silly servers are down, was hoping to play some multiplayer as i have not tried it yet but i’ve heard great reviews for it.
Update
Servers came back on and i tried a 64 player multiplayer, absolutely amazing. I’m not a multiplayer person but this was so fun and i really enjoyed it. Won’t be putting this down for quite some time. A must for FPS types or for someone who wants a change.