Back at the dawn of modern warfare, a fog spilled across the ground, country by country, the world was drawn into its first all-out war. It's that unsettling uncertainty that developer Dice is looking to create with the next installment of the core Battlefield series.
While rival shooter series Call of Duty is stepping way out on a limb in exploring war's distant future, the Battlefield series is going to the roots of modern warfare.
On Friday, Dice offer gamers their first good look at the studio's upcoming World War I shooter: Battlefield 1, the fifth game in the core Battlefield series. The game is set to arrive on Oct. 21.
Battlefield 1's undoubtedly visceral look at the past is being received well by gamers so far, as many shooter fans have been calling for a departure from future warfare.
In its first few hours on YouTube, the Battlefield 1 trailer has accrued more thumbs up than footage from its foe.
It has over 300,000 thumbs up and under a million total views, while the Infinite Warfare trailer, under attack by Call of Duty fans themselves, has just over 200,000 thumbs up and more than half a million thumbs down. And the Infinite Warfare trailer has nearly 10 million view total.
War Stories
With the exception of Bad Company 2, Battlefield games aren't designed for campaigns. But things may appear more promising this time around, in terms of campaign and story, as the First World War offers the writers at Dice a wealth of real events and twists and turns to adapt and lean on.
Battlefield 1 won't have to try as hard to make the story convincing as it did in the previous Battlefield titles, which had to come up with fresh and compelling stories to put the U.S. army on war grounds against the likes of China and Russia. The game also won't dabble with alternative history according to Dice's Daniel Berlin, lead game designer
"It's definitely rooted in history," says Berlin. "There's no alternate mix of anything else. All the stuff you see is equipment that was available. All the vehicles you see were available at this time."
Dice isn't saying much about the single player campaign just yet, but the studio has revealed that their story will follow several characters located at various theaters of war around the world. The Bedouin woman warrior on the horse in the trailer has been confirmed as a playable character, but little else is known so far.
Small Arms
To some fans, especially series latecomers, it might seem like the era isn't capable of filling those weapons and gadgets slots that, in modern settings, offer several various of wide palettes of automatic this, laser guided that, remotely controlled this, and air-burst that.
"There's a common misconception that this was an era of muskets, but they were inventing weapons all the time," Berlin says. "There is a huge amount of variety of weapons with a powerful and authentic feel. It's a fast and really cool experience, and any play-style you have, we'll cater for it."
From defibrillators and tank mines to mobile machine guns and rifle-driven grenades, the Great War saw a vast assortment of murder weapons moved from the experimental stage to production all in the name of winning at any cost.
Battlefield 1's weapons may require a bit more skill and practice, but such requirements are accepted and embraced by many Battlefield fans as requisites of the series.
Large Vehicles
A value and limited resources for teams in Battlefield, vehicles are almost always intimidated to series newcomers. Most people don't want to be that guy or gal who wrecks the team's helicopter before leaving the spawn.
In Battlefield 1, Dice wants vehicles to be more intimidating than ever. But the studio wants to invoke that intimidation in those who encounter enemy vehicles, especially tanks.
Many of these soldiers were having their first encounters with tanks, "the pinnacle of innovation" as the time, stated Berlin.
"They didn't believe the stories at first, these metal monsters coming at you on wheels," Berlin says. "That's what we're trying to express, the power and weight of these vehicles as they roll in. That's been the goal as we design the vehicles.
Marching Orders
Battlefield 1 is set to arrive on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Oct. 21. It'll be offered a few days earlier, Oct. 18, for Origin Access members and Battlefield Insiders.
Dice is expected to show off much more of the game next month at E3.
