Bringing the Battlefield to World War One
User Rating: 8 | Battlefield 1 XONE
It was a long time coming: a game set in the volatile environment of the first World War, and they actually did it some decent justice. A fast paced Battlefield installment that does excellent in some instances to stay true to the historical accuracy and then bombs on its own face in other instances. The campaign throws you into 6 different WW1 inspired war environments, achieving something that I feel was always a long reach for Battlefield games: having a GOOD campaign. From starting off as the Harlem Hellfighters in the gruesome French trenches to the sands of the Middle East under the command of Lawrence of Arabia, the campaign actually has weight and despite some shortcomings, EA actually hit it on the head with this one. The multiplayer is incredibly expansive with the new addition 'War' putting you into the actual battles of WW1 to the basic, run of the mill Team Deathmatch that even seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to other FPS games at the time. The level up system is grinding and takes some time but you eventually get to a point where you have boatloads of credits that you have nothing to really spend on but the few levels you trudge through to get there can be arduous and daunting, but the exhilaration and strong squad elements of the game keep you into it enough to not mind trudging through the first few levels for credits. The graphics are stout. You can't take that away. There's proper glare, blooming, occasional clipping and lighting issues but nothing gargantuan. My only REAL negative is the insistence of not applying actual gore to the kills. Nothing would make lobbing a rifle grenade into a shack with a few enemies better than watching them blow to pieces and toss into separate directions, post-explosion. It takes a bit of the realism out, for me. I recognize it's a small complaint and it's only really something I point out in Battlefield games so I guess it's an EA thing. I would understand the principle of not applying that level of gore to a game such as Battlefront II but not exactly Battlefield One, which tries it's best to be historically accurate. In the end, this game is damn good. A lot of people thought that WW1 wouldn't create a strong video game, multiplayer system but it did wonderfully and tops, in my opinion, the Call of Duty games relative to its release (Black Ops 3, Infinite Warfare and even CoD: WW2 which I put double the amount of time on than Battlefield One). You should get this one if you're a fan of FPS games, especially (semi) realistic ones.
