The Battlefield 1 open beta is upon us, intermittently for the time being, and we’ve already spent several hours with the latest iteration of DICE’s beloved military shooter. Our time with the game hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows but we’re starting to come around on Battlefield 1 . And if you’ve been taking some time off from the franchise, particularly those put off by the truly terrible Battlefield Hardline , now seems like a pretty good time to check back in.
Without question, my favorite change in Battlefield 1 deals with player detection and tracking. Spotting has been part of the Battlefield franchise since the beginning, giving players an audio and visual indicator of the location of an enemy soldier or vehicle, but it hasn’t been this vital to your team’s success since Battlefield 2 . The key difference this time around is firing your weapon no longer gives away your position to nearby enemies. Sure, they’ll hear your gun. They might even decide to relocate, or investigate the area, as a result. But they won’t have a little dot on their radar showing them exactly where to return fire. Because it turns out people aren’t robots who can locate their aggressors with pinpoint accuracy after a single gunshot. It may not sound like much, but it’s a major change for a series that used to pride itself on realism.
Destructible environments are back in Battlefield 1 . More importantly, DICE continues to improve on the series’ destruction mechanics. As a result, buildings feel like they break and crumble more realistically than ever. Bullets chip away plaster and shred wooden railings. Grenades save you the trouble of opening a door, or even having to run through the frame, and tanks knock down walls with brutal efficiency. And there still aren’t many better feelings in a Battlefield game than peeling a building open and watching your squad make quick work of the enemy combatants who scurry out of whatever door or window seemed safest at the time.
Speaking of teamwork, Battlefield 1 puts the focus squarely back on squad play. That might come as a bit of a surprise to those who were expecting me to say “trench warfare”, since it’s practically synonymous with WWI, but we haven’t seen much of it in the Sinai desert. Instead, Battlefield 1 rewards players who stick together and attack their objectives from multiple angles, offering extra experience for any act that directly benefits your squad to encourage teamwork. You’ll also get extra experience when spotting for your squad, when an ally spawns on you and anytime a squad member gets a kill while riding in a vehicle you’re driving.
We’re also kind of ashamed to admit how unfamiliar we were with the tanks and other mobile armor being utilized during the first World War. The vehicles seen in Battlefield 1 might seem kind of silly in the modern era; particularly the armored personnel carrier that looks strangely similar to that weird boat/tank hybrid from Wild Wild West . But the strange looking contraptions prove surprisingly deadly, particularly when you realize just how many weapons are attached to any one vehicle. Seriously, these things are like the Doof Warrior’s ride , in Mad Max: Fury Road , with turrets and 57mm naval guns instead of speakers. But they’re big targets, and most tanks are pretty slow, leaving them open to anti-tank grenades and other anti-armor gear.
None of that is to say the Battlefield 1 beta is without its shortcomings. Like many players, we’re not fond of the Sinai desert map being used throughout the testing period. It’s large enough to offer a little of everything, including long stretches of open space for snipers to dominate, but only a few areas tend to generate the kind of action the Battlefield franchise is known for. If you’ve spent much time playing Conquest, you probably have a cool story or two about pushing for Flag C or holding the line while defending Flag B or D. But the action at the other four points tends to be much more one-dimensional.
We’re also not fans of the changes to Conquest mode. Long the centerpiece of the Battlefield franchise, Conquest mode used to brilliantly combine map control and attrition matches using a combination of ticket decay and capture points. Each side began the match with a set number of tickets, which depleted at a rate that increased or decreased based on how many capture points that team currently held. Player spawns also cost a ticket, leading to scenarios where the last surviving members of a team would hole up and try to outgun a larger force. But all that has been stripped away in Battlefield 1 .
Instead of a decreasing ticket count, players are trying to push their team’s score up to whatever the goal is for that match (300 in the beta). Points are awarded at regular intervals, based on the number of flags each team currently controls, and ticket decay is no more. As a result, it’s easier to reach the top of the scoreboard by running from one flag to the next, collecting hundreds of experience points for undefended captures, while doing everything you can to avoid combat. And I think it’s safe to say that’s not what the majority of the Battlefield community is here for.
Additional countermeasures for vehicles would also be nice. It’s possible all the good anti-armor gear is locked behind Battlefield 1 ’s progression systems, which is pretty common these days, but the tanks, planes and horses scattered throughout the desert currently feel a bit OP. That goes double for the cavalry armor you receive anytime you spawn on horseback. Thankfully, each vehicle spawns often enough that both sides tend to be well represented in combat and there are some weapons (like the anti-tank grenade) that can be used effectively against tanks. But Battlefield 1 can be frustrating for those prefer fighting on foot, in its current state.
Obviously, there’s still plenty of Battlefield 1 we haven’t seen yet. There will be other maps, weapons, strategies and probably some more headaches. Hopefully, equipment balance will feel a bit better by the time the game hits PC and consoles in October. But it seems like DICE is finally getting things the series back on track after a couple of missteps. Do we love every minute of the action in Battlefield 1 ? Of course not. Sometimes it’s downright boring, especially when your team can’t get its head on straight. But high points in the action are as high as ever, with planes dogfighting above explosive ground combat, and that’s about as much as you can hope for from the Battlefield franchise.
Battlefield 1 is in development for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game debuts Oct. 21.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Battlefield 1 coverage throughout 2016 and for however long DICE supports Battlefield 1 in the months following launch.
