Battlefield 1 is now out for public consumption after one of the most adept marketing campaigns in gaming history, helping it go on to sell more than Battlefield 4 and Hardline over the same period of time. Critical reception has also been mostly ravenous for the WWI FPS, except for a cutting verdict from TotalBiscuit.
We gave it a 9 out of 10 in our review, saying that it might be one of the best FPS games not just of 2016, but of all-time. It has an almost perfect blend of respect for the tragedy and the senseless deaths of the war that it’s based on and that it’s just outright fun to play. They may have had to forgo total accuracy to the time period, but it’s a sacrifice that’s paid off for DICE and EA.
That isn’t to say that Battlefield 1 is perfect. Far from it. It has all the problems and bugbears that you would come to expect from a AAA title in 2016 and is definitely a couple of patches away from being an optimum build.
We talked about what we liked, now let’s discuss what we don’t like with Battlefield 1.
1. The glitches. Oh the glitches.
Let’s put the obvious one in straight away: Battlefield 1 is a bugfest. You might have seen the blimps Beyblading around in the sky after being shot down, guns appearing instead of swords and a cavalcade of other glitches that are worthy of a YouTube highlight reel.
Most of them are funny, but there’s plenty of glitches that do the opposite of making you laugh. Some of them can end up with you staring at a respawn screen for the upteenth and can really imbalance the experience. It wouldn’t really be a Battlefield game if it wasn’t overloaded with bugs, but still: it’s a little rough around the edges. Hopefully some patches will help that.
2. Operations backup
After defeating a wave of enemies in Operations and successfully holding sectors, you might think that the momentum is yours. Wrong. The attack then gets a blimp or murder train as backup, seriously imbalancing a match that could be on a knife edge. It’s odd that failure is rewarded.
Things turns into a meat grinder on the more condense maps when they arrive, turning it even more of a slog than before. Operations is hell for those on defense as the odds are always stacked against them, so why make the deck even harder to beat? The backup vehicles can stay, but perhaps their effectiveness should be reduced or the range at which they can unleash hell from should be reduced.
Or maybe people could learn to do some actual teamwork to take care of them. That’s a crazy thought.
3. Battlepacks
In previous Battlefield games, earning and opening Battlepacks felt hard earned and rewarding. You could find a scope you’ve been searching for for the longest time, unlock new weapons altogether or just have XP boosts. They were worth fighting for.
The Battlepacks in Battlefield 1 are not. Possibly influenced by the system found in Overwatch, the only thing to be found in these this time round are cosmetics and considering the fairly limited weapon selection in the game, dreaded duplicates are too common a sight. These can then be scrapped for more currency to use to buy more Battlepacks and the painful cycle just goes on and on.
It’s understandable that there isn’t a great deal of room to maneuver with the tech and weaponry of the early 20th century, but there must be other things that would be more worthwhile than a cosmetic skin that nobody apart from yourself will ever realistically see. A wasted opportunity.
4. Loadout customisation
Battlefield has been one of the game series’ that has really made customisable loadouts the standard for most first-person shooters. It’s always been a bit finicky, but was done fairly well in Battlefield 4. In DICE’s newest effort, however, it’s a liability.
There’s no ability to customise things outside of an actual match, which means that any changes made are usually rushed. This is most probably going to be patched in at a later date and would be a good way to acquaint people with different classes.
5. Campaign length
This is hardly a new criticism or one that’s going to go away. As captivating and devastating as Battlefield 1’s Campaign can be, it scrimps on actual content just a bit too much. You can complete all of the War Stories in an afternoon, sandwich and toilet breaks included.
It’s refreshing to see a Campaign that serves a purpose: teaching you the basics of the game in an organic way as well as telling fascinating tales about the war. But some of the stories could have done with just slightly more time invested into them to help the player to get invested into them, too. The conclusions of most of them are emotional and effective, but imagine how much more impactful they would be at twice the length, allowing plenty of time for proper character exposition and relationships to be built.
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