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Battlefield 1 is the latest the long line of first-person shooters from Electronic Arts and DICE, and the first I’ve actually been really looking forward to in a long time, taking me back not only in time to the 1999 original Medal of Honor, when I last really enjoyed a war game, but also in how it made me feel, as I was so pumped when playing it.
I remember running away from tanks, trying to hide in battle-torn shells of houses, feeling in fear, then suddenly hearing from behind me a “BOOM!”… only to turn around and find the wall now gone, and a tank just beyond it, readying its long gun for a second strike, this time to defeat me… and that’s what I got here. Oh, yes!
In the prologue section, I died many times, each time it taking me back, with some cool CGI, to another starting point. This happened quite quickly each time, making for a very confusing opener until I realised you’re actually taking the roles of a number of different soldiers.
Early on, I clambered about on rooftops, then tried to brain a guy with a flamethrower, then snuck into a deserted house, then a tank showed up and dropped off more baddies, and then I rode a horse! – it’s like a living city! My favourite segments included flying a plane and later, meeting Lawrence of Arabia, and… oh, when it comes to choosing a horse, make sure it’s of good breeding stock, and not a brain-damaged one like Peter Griffin’s in Family Guy.
I think the only one that did get on my wick a bit was Through Mud and Blood, when I had to keep clearing a path for the tank, thinking I’d done everything I had to, and then going back to the big vehicle and seeing it looking back ignoring me. Also, why is it that a heavily-armoured man with a chaingun (looking like the guy from the opening of Lethal Weapon 4) can withstand two anti-tank grenades, when a tank crumbles under one. I think I need some anti-heavily-armoured man grenades…
Battlefield 1 – Prologue: Storm of Steel – PS4 (1080p HD, 60fps, DTS 5.1) – DVDfeverGames
Battlefield 1 has only six sections including the prologue but, like the levels in Beyond Two Souls, they last for seemingly random lengths of time, and I wish it was more structured in telling you how many sections each one takes, so you know how far you’re through, as you can’t always complete one in one go, and I didn’t want to quit out to the campaign menu part-way through and risk having to restart it.
On a PS4 in 1080p, the graphics are mostly incredible, with the the mud glistens brilliantly in the moonlight, as well as the daylight, and there’s one point in Through Mud and Blood where I stop to stare at it, as I marvelled as the high quality of DICE’s workmanship. Occasionally, however, the graphics do find themselves being drawn-in and built-up as you move along, as if the ground is putting itself together from time to time, but while it only happens once in a while, it *is* distracting, and does make you wonder WHY it’s happening on a AAA release.
Audio is unsurpassable – plenty of crash/bang/wallop in DTS 5.1, all going on without a hitch, the best example of the sound being when you’re flying, but there’s also some great directional effects in general, which is very handy for when you’re trying to track a vehicle down to blow it up with your tank.
Battlefield 1 – WTF? Dancing better than Michael Jackson! – PS4 (1080p HD, 60fps, DTS 5.1) – DVDfeverGames
Gameplay is mostly great, aside from Hitman: Absolution-type moments I don’t like when it takes over from you towards the end of a section of a level, replacing you with CGI. There’s a lot of CGI, but I wish it would at least let me finish the job!
The AI is a bit iffy sometimes, for example, when I was in the penultimate level on the Gallipoli campaign, surrounded by enemies, and hauled up against a wall, occasionally peeking out to take pot-shots… they just continued to stand there in the open ground, none of them coming to try and smack me down. They could’ve easily stormed me!
Overall, I really my brief time spent within World War I, and there are some great stories here with decent voice acting, but it was just too short a campaign.
Anyone who has read my reviews, knows I’m not one for multiplayer. If you are, then I understand it supports up to 64 players and includes the usual modes such as Team Deathmatch, Conquest (capture the flag, I presume), Domination (retaining a castle-type of game, again, my presumption) and more, including one to do with the pigeons, so unlike Grand Theft Auto 4, pigeons are a GOOD thing.
Battlefield 1 is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Important info:
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Players: 1, multiplayer: time trials, geocaching
- HDTV options: 720p/1080i/1080p
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
Battlefield 1 Playlist – PS4 (1080p, 60fps, DTS 5.1) – DVDfeverGames
|
GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
8 10 8 9 |
| OVERALL | 9 |
Directors: Lars Gustavsson, Marcus Kryler, Fredrik Åkerström and Tom Keegan
Producers: Steven Bigras, Ajae Clearway and Aleksander Grøndal
Writers: Mikael Säker, Adrian Vershinin and Steven Hall
Music: Patrik Andrén and Johan Söderqvist
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.