Alex Birlo on June 11, 2021
First of all, let us acknowledge and celebrate the fact that a new Battlefield was announced, and the trailer did not instantly get on the top disliked videos on the YouTube monthly charts.
Seems like people got tired of the 20th century settings already and are hungry for some “Modern Combat” …
Last week we got a very long, almost 5 minutes long, cinematic trailer for the game. As usually claiming that it is game engine footage. But I will gush about the visuals when I see the gameplay.
If anything can be extrapolated from the trailer itself – it is the setting.
The game will be set in the near future. With a mix of regular uniforms and weaponry, with some grounded drones and tech that is based off of what real world robotics has already achieved and how it would look with a gun strapped onto it.
We also now know that the wars of the game will be set amidst some sort of a worldwide ecological disaster. Which will tie-in various natural disasters into the destruction of the battle during matches.
The world in 2042 is apparently going nuts, and natural catastrophes cause major food and energy shortages. Which in turn ruin most countries, causing waves of refugees to run for the several superpowers that still stand.
The United States and Russia are obviously engaged in all-out war; in which they hire these stateless soldiers called “No-pats” to fight for them. This will tie into the classes I will talk about in a minute.
The developers have already unraveled quite a lot of information that will be to the liking or the disappointment of every person to themselves.
First of all, we know that the game will be releasing on all major platforms. And you will be able to get your hands on it sooner than you think – October 22nd this year!
Next up, we also know that the game matches will support up to 128 players on the new generation of consoles and PC. While the number of players on PS4 and Xbox One will remain capped at 64.
Talking about modes, we are confirmed to get the favorite “Conquest” and “Breakthrough” game modes, but also a couple of new modes that will be revealed at the EA Play Live in July.
Although we do have a name and a vague description to one of them – Hard Zone.
Described as “a squad-based mode that is very different” from the existing ones, it is speculated to be a mode that most probably going to lean more into the tactical nature of the new named operators/specialists that are replacing the classic classes in this game.
Since we reached this point, let us elaborate more on the way they treat “classes” this time around.
Now these will be “Specialists”, the No-pats I mentioned earlier, which are named characters based on the classes of the previous games. There will be 10 of them at launch. Which neatly ties into our next point – the campaign.
So there is none… there is no traditional campaign this time around. As the developers stated, this allowed them to focus even more on “what [they] are good at” and let’s be honest – we all play it for the multiplayer!
The specialists are just another way to call a class system like in Rainbow Six Siege. Which plays into the live-service future of the game, with unlockable new operators/specialists.
And where through the introduction trailers of each specialist we will see the lore of the world unfold, instead of a traditional campaign.
And I must say, I personally think this template suits Battlefield and the kind of experience it became over the past installments.
This model is not without its flaws.
Be prepared for the potential inclusion of “Specialist-specific” skins and customization. Maybe some sort of “Coin packs” microtransactions, to more quickly buy the operators. And perhaps even some “Special Editions” and bundles, that will include the new operators and visual extras for them.
The list goes on and a live-service manager’s imagination can go wild! Remember – it is an EA game after all.
There is not enough substance to draw conclusions yet. It has been only a few days since the announcement and the gameplay reveal will already be happening on the 13th of June.
So I would recommend to everyone to wait for the gameplay at least, and only then engage in furious online debates over the game’s quality and potential.
