While the actual reveal may not have surprised anyone (you can only leak a single game so many times), the response to Battlefield 1's reveal trailer has been unprecedented. For a short, 1-minute-long teaser to reach the top of YouTube's most-liked videos is unheard of, and the fact that the trailer is for one of the two major military shooter franchises makes Battlefield 1's debut even more impressive.
There are a number of reasons for this: firstly, World War I has been relatively unexplored in gaming. To be fair, Battlefield 1 will probably end up being a bit more over-the-top than the actual conflict, but even so, gamers are clearly interested in the first Great War as a backdrop.
It also helps that the trailer is excellent. Famous songs from pop culture being reworked to fit in with new subject matter is nothing new, but DICE managed to toe the line between revealing new mechanics (mustard gas, horseback riding) and spoiling everything the game had to offer. Long story short, it's a great trailer - one that should get most gamers excited.
So, what happens when you remove all the explosions and CG effects and replace them with actual World War I footage? Well, it's not so much exhilirating as it is eerie and unsettling:
For comparison's sake, here's the original trailer:
Obviously, there's a huge difference between the two trailers - one uses filmmaking equipment from a century ago, and the other was built from the ground up with hugely powerful computer systems - but the most important change is the overall tone. In the original trailer, players are sent on a roller-coaster ride through a vertical slice of the game: it's supposed to be exciting, jumping from one place to another before viewers have a chance to catch their breath.
However, with the World War I footage, there's something grim about the trailer. Maybe it's the fact that we're now watching actual people fight, or the black-and-white palette, or the idea that such a huge conflict actually happened - either way, the remixed Battlefield 1 trailer is noticeably creepier than its original incarnation.
If you're interested in seeing more of Battlefield 1, you won't have to wait much longer: the game is set to appear at E3 2016 this June.
