EA Dice surprised a lot of people when they revealed that their upcoming shooter game, Battlefield 1, would be set in WWI. Dice quickly steamrolled over people’s fears that a WWI game would be nothing but trenches and bolt-action rifles with an awesome reveal trailer. The trailer showed horses charging in Arabia, tanks plowing through towns, mountain-top assaults and more, in addition to gripping and brutal trench warfare.
The free Beta featured one map set in the Sinai Desert, again showing the diverse landscapes of the war. Cavalry combined with tanks and massive biplane bombers, while bayonet charges mixed with historically accurate submachine guns, rifles, rockets and more. The beta was proof of concept that WWI could be an amazingly fun game and it was ridiculously easy to get caught up in the setting of the game in multiplayer.
Now, Dice has recently revealed the trailer for the single-player campaign of the game, or rather campaigns as there are several. Again focusing on the broad nature of the war, Dice put together at least five separate smaller campaigns revolving around vastly different people and professions during the war.
On the western front, there are two campaigns. One has the player as a tank operator, working with a dysfunctional Mark V tank that seems to break down behind enemy lines, with personal connections made with the crew along the way. The second is an aerial-based campaign featuring fighting on zeppelins, and several clips of the player character taking photographs from the seat of a recon plane.
One of the most intriguing campaigns has to be the Arabian one. The player, in this case, is a female Bedouin warrior who works very closely with the famous Lawrence of Arabia. The fight here is the Bedouins struggle against the massive and technologically advanced Ottoman Empire. A huge railway artillery gun that the player must destroy is a centerpiece of the action.
Lastly, we get a few snippets from two other campaigns. One is titled Avanti Savoia and takes place in the Italian Alps. This campaign features a mountaineer, who decides to take some unorthodox action against the Austro-Hungarians entrenched in the mountains. This also features some of the really cool-looking heavy body armor that looks like it came out of the medieval era. It was actually a region where the troops were known to use such armor, so it’s to see Dice fitting in such accurate details among the gameplay.
The last campaign features the resolute Anzac troops during the Gallipoli landings. Here you take on yet another role as a battlefield runner. Taking messages from hotspot to hotspot and back to the command was vital through many battles of the war. Certainly, this campaign will still find ways to inject some fighting and extra drama, and it could end up as one of the more cinematically spectacular missions, as your character sprints through a hail of bullets and explosions.
Battlefield comes out October 21st and promises to be a thrilling trip back to one of the most devastating conflicts of all time. Historical purists should know that almost every weapon, vehicle, and uniform is historically accurate, though things were altered from there for gameplay reasons. Examples are having the tanks move faster, later technology available earlier and being more widespread and things to make the game fun, still a fantastic effort by the historical team.
Also, the diversity of the trailer should be noted as we get a female playable character in a world war game, and we saw a Harlem Hellfighter in there as well, a high-performing black regiment. Americans, Italians, and British are heavily featured, though we still have yet to see the French take any big roles in the game for some reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-vAxVh8ins