10 Things We Learned From The Battlefield V Reveal

The Battlefield V reveal was something that had been building for some time. Battlefield’s Twitter account was dropping details of when the reveal would be and ultimately giving us that 13 second video of someone being shushed by an angry bald man. But the reveal itself was a calm and collected affair with each of the Battlefield team giving their opinions on Trevor Noah’s talking points and discussing what we can expect in the up and coming Battlefield game.

Here’s what we learnt about Battlefield V.

1. You can play as Germans
Playing as the Germans was pretty much the first thing they talked about. We have a really wide variety of locations: Scandinavia, Rotterdam, Greece were just some of the locations that I picked up on. They are really taking this ‘World War’ thing to the next level.

But what they kept going on about was the immersive experience, something that I have always enjoyed about Battlefield: explosions knocking you flat, the terrain being torn up in front of you and masonry hanging by a thread.

2. Grand Operations
They talked about Grand Operations, something that involves multiple game modes in historical battles over a series of days with you being parachuted into enemy territory to take out objectives, but then going into Rush/Frontlines but over different maps. It sounds interesting even with resource deprecation, meaning that the battle can be won or lost without playing through to the end.

3. Co-op Mode
DICE spoke about talking about using resources wisely to get to the objective. What I took from this was that you took on the guise of pathfinders, leading the way before the main force arrive. Another game mode that sounds pretty promising.

4. War Stories
What I got from all this was that, again, the Battlefield team are ‘putting war into perspective’. One of the stories they showed was playing as a young woman who was part of Norwegian resistance fighting the German occupation. Not only will we have another playable female character, but it shows us a slightly different aspect of the war. They said it’s ‘believable’ and indeed emotional, bringing us very different stories from people who fought the war, sometimes, in their own back yard. I am interested to see more and find out what other War Stories we will be able to experience.

5. Weapons and Vehicles
They talked about iconic airplanes; Spitfires spring to mind, as well as Lancaster Bombers and the B17 Flying Fortress. They also spoke about secret weapons, which immediately made me think of the Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons of WW2 DLC, which was one of the most entertaining DLCs ever made. Certainly, it made flying a lot harder.

They also mentioned Fortification systems something that peaked my interest and was further explained as a way in which the support class can reinforce locations. By using your ‘toolbox’, it means that you can provide extra cover to your teammates, Enhance your defensive capabilities by reinforcing buildings, building foxholes and machine gun pits. They also mentioned adding AA guns to defendable positions, so no longer will you be strafed to death whilst sitting on a capture point. One thing that was pleasing to hear was the fact that this was in direct response to gamers: experience. As the Battlefield guys put it: ‘counter the levelling of the level’.

6. The Company
They went on to talk about a personal collection of soldiers, vehicles fully customisable. These will affect the way you look, how you play. It is looking like this will be way more customisable than BF1; the ability to create your own personal experience.

They used one example, again from a support class: you can unlock new perks, new abilities, new weapons through playing the game. Similarly to Battlefield 1, you are rewarded for playing the game. It also seems like looking good is half the battle, what I took away from was that you can customise the shit out of your character, your vehicles, your guns and practically everything.

7. Premium Pass
You know what else is really good? No more Premium Pass. No more extra money spent on getting some map two weeks earlier. It is incredibly refreshing to hear that they have finally scrapped that money-making scheme. So, thank god for that.

8. Tides of War
A live service which may include cross-platforming players (they did say it was open to all players), they called it an epic journey playing through key points in the conflict in which you will be given special assignments and rewarded accordingly while also giving us a whole host of new locations to play through. It sounds amazing, to be able to play through Operation Market Garden or the battle for El Alamein (not that they spoke about those two key moments but it would be nice to see them) would give this game an even greater replay ability. Plus, the more you play the more you get in rewards. More weapon skins, face paint etc. But what they also mentioned is that a month after the game is released, players will get our first instalment of Tides of War, which they spoke about the fall of Europe and how the mechanised German army swept through what many thoughts were impregnable defences.

9. Reveal trailer

Then we finally got to the reveal trailer and, Jesus, was it intense. There was so much going on that it was almost hard to concentrate on one thing. But there were a few things that I picked up on that I just found so cool, such as being able to throw back grenades and firing with one hand while moving in the prone position. Did you notice how the machine gun the character picked up was camouflaged, covered in leaves and stuff? How cool was that? The battlefield that we gazed across was just utter chaos: the world was literally falling apart around the characters as they fired their weapons while lying on their backs; the terrain was being mashed up around them. There were even V1 rockets, which did just enough to convince me that these could be the secret weapons they were talking about earlier.

10. Release date
Battlefield V launches October 19 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.