Not every great war is a revolution.
The film was greenlit for $18 million that same day.
Its easy to imagine a similar pitch occurring at EA Studios prior to the development of the latestBattlefieldgame.
Both are examples of a fairly obvious concept thats primary purpose seems to be making money.
Both, however, prove that concept ultimately bows down to execution.
One, for instance, sees you join a tank crew barreling across Europe.
Another has you join up with Lawrence of Arabia.
All feature a far more focused narrative than the most recentBattlefieldtitles offered.
Sadly, the mode is ultimately a negative example of concept bowing to execution.
Occasionally, the approach works and you experience some compelling new look at the first World War.
As it turns out, thats exactly what this franchise needed.
Battlefield 1effectively chops away years worth of unnecessary additions and streamlines the coreBattlefieldexperience.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the weapon selection.
Out are perfectly tuned instruments of warfare and in are weapons that actually suffer from tangible flaws.
Some guns have tremendous range, but fire roughly a bullet a minute.
Thats what were talking about when we talk aboutBattlefield 1s multiplayer at its best.
Every class and every piece of equipment draws you in to their particular playstyle.
Even better, each class looks like it’s fairly well-balanced at the moment.
The problem is that several of the games maps dont cater to tank, cavalry, and plane warfare.
The vehicles themselves, meanwhile, arent quite the world beaters featured in previous installments.
Planes, in particular, suffer from an inability to fire missiles and are often relegated to dogfights.
Speaking of levels, the maps inBattlefield 1are all fairly well-done if a bit lacking in instant classics.
Its amusing, if a bit lacking in depth.
The other mode, Operations, is basically a game of Rush played across multiple locations.
The same cannot be said of the games interface which is frustratingly unintuitive.
These are all valid concerns.
What none of them convey, though, is that the thrill ofBattlefieldis most certainly back.
Apologies to the editor.
That last word is supposed to read Battlefield$.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5
