Battlefield V: War Story Impressions

Love the voices are all native and backed up with subtitles. More games should do this

I mean, it can't really be worse than 3, 4 or 1's single player stuff.

"One example Holmes touts is the use of native-language voice-overs for each War Story. Except for Under No Flag, which tells a story of British forces in English, each account is delivered in different languages tied to where they take place. Norwegians foment resistance speaking their homeland tongue in Nordlys, colonial troops fight for recognition in their adopted French in Tirailleur, and the fall of Germany is reconciled in German during The Last Tiger."

Will watch everything tonight. I am one of those few people who loved BF1 campaign.

Certinfy said:

I mean, it can't really be worse than 3, 4 or 1's single player stuff.

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I've played every single Battlefield campaign this generation, and with the exception of a few levels in Battlefield Hardlines, they are instantly forgettable upon completion.

The whole series feels very 'on rails' at the best of times.

I will say that it's good to see DICE carry on with the tradition though, seeing as Call of Duty is narrowing its focus onto the multiplayer side of things, for better or worse.

As for these previews, the War Stories sounds good... but so did Battlefield 1.

Wow, looking and sounding better than I expected. Never touched the single player stuff in BF1 but I may give this a shot.

Love this screen.

I thought BF1's first War Story was really good and the rest were forgettable/meh. Looking forward to these, though.

Certinfy said:

I mean, it can't really be worse than 3, 4 or 1's single player stuff.

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I only played 4's SP, Gawd that was so awful, I swore after that day id never play a dice campaign again.

Sounds good, I could go for a good shooter campaign right now. I'm still most interested in hearing about their Battle Royale though.

Theorry said:

Love the voices are all native and backed up with subtitles. More games should do this

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My favourite game to do this was Tekken 7. Because all the characters are talking their native languages but also talking to each other so it implies that they all know every language but can't be fucked speaking in any but their own.

Stodeh(one of the best snipers in Battlefield) also had access to the SP and uploaded some stealth+sniper gameplay

OP, please add the following videos to your OP.

TacticalBrit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHTrzKeKELI

The Broken Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7QBF1k8X8w

Lossy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1CMG8UusA

Doom49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm89dTRou3c

Squid-G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDUIa9exg5k

The Ekwah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRaiHdm3H2w

GameSpot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbuqGLy5j0U

GameRiot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48W3BHtmLfo

Seems like another boring and pointless campaign

Is the SP being drip fed as well for campaigns? The jackfrags video says one part comes out in Dec timestamp 4:40 WTF??

KTroopA said:

Is the SP being drip fed as well for campaigns? The jackfrags video says one part comes out in Dec timestamp 4:40 WTF??

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Yes new stories are gonna be added with Tides of War. Wich follows WW2 and starts in 1940.

KTroopA said:

Is the SP being drip fed as well for campaigns? The jackfrags video says one part comes out in Dec timestamp 4:40 WTF??

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yeah, the tank missions from the german perspective is out after launch.

Going after the impressions of jackfrags, which is a guy I mostly agree with when it comes to battlefield, it seems that this will be the last time DICE tries to do a campaign. I loved the campaign from BF 3 and somewhat 1, but this seems like a wet fart and it is sad that they waste it on such a good setting and opportunity to do a good dramatic story around ww2.

Theorry said:

Yes new stories are gonna be added with Tides of War. Wich follows WW2 and starts in 1940.

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So there will be more after the last tiger releases?

As usual, I will play SP when I really be tired to play MP

Raide said:

yeah, the tank missions from the german perspective is out after launch.

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Meh SP content looking lite weight as fuck then :/

If it's like bf1 I'm expecting it to be bad

Peek-a-boo! said:

I've played every single Battlefield campaign this generation, and with the exception of a few levels in Battlefield Hardlines, they are instantly forgettable upon completion.

The whole series feels very 'on rails' at the best of times.

I will say that it's good to see DICE carry on with the tradition though, seeing as Call of Duty is narrowing its focus onto the multiplayer side of things, for better or worse.

As for these previews, the War Stories sounds good... but so did Battlefield 1.

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For one game that had development issues. I have no doubt that Infinity Ward will have a single player campaign next year.

KTroopA said:

Meh SP content looking lite weight as fuck then :/

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Seems like a regular sized campaign but added things later. Also the co-op COmbined Arms, is still MIA, presumed after launch also.

Wish there were more, but I'll take what I can get.

Are they going to add any more war stories post launch (besides the Tiger one)?

Jackfrags seems to be pretty down on it. Shame. DICE clearly stopped caring about SP and their way of doing that is this war stories BS.

Looks awful expected. They should've taken a page out of Treyarch's book and dropped the single player completely. The sales and scores for BO4 prove that you don't really need one anymore.

Saw some IGN videos, I don't know if it was the player or the game itself, but Jesus are these people doing their best to NOT sell the game?

I watched the gameplays, and frankly, I don't know if I will give a try to the singler player. It looks boring at some moments. I know those are untold stories and that these stories are probably interesting, but it's just not what I am expecting from a WW2 game with Frosbite graphics.

I would have greatly prefered something like COD 2, Medal of Honor and World at War single players : fighting in huge battles from Normandy to Berlin, Okinawa, Stalingrad and the Pacific with the same characters. World at War single player was a masterpiece when it's comes to a WW2 campaign in my opinion.

And there is something with DICE single players that continues to bother me. In my opinion, Battlefront 2 single player was a utterly boring giant tutorial with cool graphics, and I wonder if these War stories would be different.

Honestly looks boring, looks like more of the BF1 campaign which is extremely dull.

Give me BF3 style singleplayer please. The JackFrags video is spot on.

Kolx said:

Jackfrags seems to be pretty down on it. Shame. DICE clearly stopped caring about SP and their way of doing that is this war stories BS.

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DICE: *makes singleplayer campaign that's short, boring and unengaging. no replayability whatsoever.*

Gamers: ''Yeah that was boring, fuck this I'm just gonna play the multiplayer''

EA: ''You see? People are just not interested in singleplayer games anymore....''

Yeah.... probably going to wait a little bit and get this on sale since the content seems light at launch.

Looks alright.

I mainly a bf multiplayer guy, in the future I wish DICE would cut down on the amount of single player and just do the prologue that they can showcase.
I don't dislike the single player in battlefield however I want them to focus all of their resources on multiplayer, because that's what matters for battlefield in the end.

A number of the impressions are pleasantly positive, which gives me hope that they've learned from BF1's design mistakes. One thing I notice about Battlefield MP fans who are down on these kind of campaigns is that they tend to complain about the AI. I think there's a failure to understand the role AI plays in a story-driven FPS experience, and I think it's a result of MP-fanbases have a challenge-oriented mindset as a matter of course.

Games like these have carefully crafted AI designed to create a cinematic spectacle without every really challenging the player. Most singleplayer FPS fans are not looking for a tough time. They don't want Crysis-style AI that hunts them down and anticipates their movements and all that stuff.

I guess this is what happens when you sell two completely different styles of game in the same package. One of the notable problems with videogame fanbases is that they tend to assume games are aimed at them. If you love Battlefield multiplayer, the campaigns are not directed at your demographic. The Battlefield V campaign is directed at people who want to play a singleplayer WWII FPS game. There may be some overlap between those demographics, but ultimately they're chalk and cheese.

Just as Infinite Warfare's campaign was aimed at people who wanted Wing Commander-lite, not people who care about K/D ratios and the like.

All this said, I think that the Call of Duty direction is a wrong one. I miss games like Vietcong.

I've given up expecting decent single player campaigns from DICE, and I'm sure this is just the same. Every time we get impressions they're not terrible, and yet every launch day...

DICE havent made a good single player campaign since Bad Conpany 2. I don't expect any different here.

I really hate DICE's direction in so many of Battlefield 1 and now Battlefield V's campaign missions to double down on the highly personalised, one-man-army style storytelling. It doesn't at all fit the themes of global conflict and the time period, in my opinion. I've no problem with them focusing on perspective characters, but there's this odd insistence to have so many missions that are covert operations or one/two allies up against hoards of nazis, usually involving infiltration, shitty stealth, and a tipping point where alarms are triggered and the conflict scales up.

It's just so tonally sour with the wars themselves and, oddly, with what Frostbite and Battlefield as a series is proficient at. A sense of scale and grand involvement is what we imagine with the World Wars, and it's one of the major draws to the multiplayer. The most fun I've had with WW2 games, including Battlefield 1, were the missions where even if I were a perspective character I felt like I was one person amidst hundreds, up against just as many in a hugely chaotic, nasty conflict. The solo stealth missions are just fucking shit boring and recycle the same dull gameplay loop over and over.

I love the single player campaign in BF1. Great and memorable stories with great cinematice setpieces. Hope they double down on that in V.

EatChildren said:

I really hate DICE's direction in so many of Battlefield 1 and now Battlefield V's campaign missions to double down on the highly personalised, one-man-army style storytelling. It doesn't at all fit the themes of global conflict and the time period, in my opinion. I've no problem with them focusing on perspective characters, but there's this odd insistence to have so many missions that are covert operations or one/two allies up against hoards of nazis, usually involving infiltration, shitty stealth, and a tipping point where alarms are triggered and the conflict scales up.

It's just so tonally sour with the wars themselves and, oddly, with what Frostbite and Battlefield as a series is proficient at. A sense of scale and grand involvement is what we imagine with the World Wars, and it's one of the major draws to the multiplayer. The most fun I've had with WW2 games, including Battlefield 1, were the missions where even if I were a perspective character I felt like I was one person amidst hundreds, up against just as many in a hugely chaotic, nasty conflict. The solo stealth missions are just fucking shit boring and recycle the same dull gameplay loop over and over.

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I suppose the power fantasy is just an easier thing to do.

Battlefield didn't even have a single player that wasn't just maps with AI bots until Bad Company so I'm not sure why so many people care about it.

Every story just drops you into a shooting range, for the most part.

Sounds about as expected. Man, they really should have made Bad Company 3. Wish they didn't end 2 on a cliff hanger.

It gives me a feeling of "Been there, done that"

Bit I saw showed that for at least one of the missions its a new map and not found in MP...

Are any of the missions repeats of MP maps - or are they all "new"?

VectorPrime said:

Battlefield didn't even have a single player that wasn't just maps with AI bots until Bad Company so I'm not sure why so many people care about it.

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Ditto. With Bad Company 1 and 2 it made sense, but I was pretty surprised when they decided to add SP to BF3. I guess their thinking at the time was that COD did it, and COD was king of the hill.

If they had unlimited resources, sure, why not, but the launch content for BF5 is pretty minimal as it is, so clearly they could've used more resources on the MP side and ditched SP.

It looks like the British campaign takes place on a Greek island and not North Africa?

Zappy said:

Bit I saw showed that for at least one of the missions its a new map and not found in MP...

Are any of the missions repeats of MP maps - or are they all "new"?

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Narvick is reused in the footage, there's a British campaign mission at an airfield that's presumably based on Aerodrome.

So no quotes at all OP?

GoodCoffeeJoey said:

It looks like the British campaign takes place on a Greek island and not North Africa?



Narvick is reused in the footage, there's a British campaign mission at an airfield that's presumably based on Aerodrome.

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The French (Senegalese) mission I saw wasn't based on any known MP map. In fact Westie wished it was an MP map as he liked it. Just wondered if that was the only one...

Heromanz said:

Seems like another boring and pointless campaign

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Yup! Waste of resources in a series known for nothing but multiplayer

So what's the deal here? I never got the chance to play BF1's singleplayer content. Last DICE SP I played was BF4 which was... okay I guess. Nothing to really write home about outside the graphics and maybe the willingness to have a few sections that were more open than COD levels. BF3 and Medal of Honor 2010 tried too hard to be Modern Warfare without really understanding what made MW's levels work (MW2010 was okay but not on MW's level).

Also, I still can't figure out why I liked the Bad Comapny 2 campaign so much. On the surface it looks generic as hell outside maybe the characters, but for some reason most of the levels are still fun enough that I played through that campaign multiple times.

EatChildren said:

I really hate DICE's direction in so many of Battlefield 1 and now Battlefield V's campaign missions to double down on the highly personalised, one-man-army style storytelling. It doesn't at all fit the themes of global conflict and the time period, in my opinion. I've no problem with them focusing on perspective characters, but there's this odd insistence to have so many missions that are covert operations or one/two allies up against hoards of nazis, usually involving infiltration, shitty stealth, and a tipping point where alarms are triggered and the conflict scales up.

It's just so tonally sour with the wars themselves and, oddly, with what Frostbite and Battlefield as a series is proficient at. A sense of scale and grand involvement is what we imagine with the World Wars, and it's one of the major draws to the multiplayer. The most fun I've had with WW2 games, including Battlefield 1, were the missions where even if I were a perspective character I felt like I was one person amidst hundreds, up against just as many in a hugely chaotic, nasty conflict. The solo stealth missions are just fucking shit boring and recycle the same dull gameplay loop over and over.

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This just reminds me that my favorite WW2 FPS campaign was COD2, where you really did feel like just one dude in the middle of a war bigger than yourself. The last COD game that did this was probably the USMC campaign in Modern Warfare 2.

I didn't quite finish the BF1 campaign lol. It's just been sitting there.