Battlefield V War Stories – Action, Emotion and Sacrifices

The DICE studio of Electronic Arts made a big bet by deciding to invest heavily in the single player vignettes, the anthology of War Stories borrowed from Battlefield 1, for its upcoming shooter at the first person from Battlefield V to appear on the consoles and PC on November 20th.

These missions show you the horrors of war, the sacrifices of your comrades and all that you did not know about the Second World War. There are four thumbnails for one player and I took a look at three. I played the whole Nordlys story during a practice session at Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood City, California. This story has my impressions on this preview session.

In stark contrast to Battlefield V, the developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have decided to remove the single player campaign after 15 years, choosing to triple the Zombies experience and add the Blackout Royal Battle . It's definitely worth it, but it's very expensive. And the quality of thumbnails in DICE's solo mode shows its price. From catchy music to characters, Battlefield V adds intimacy and immersion to the solo missions experience.

Eric Holmes, design director for War Stories at DICE studio of Electronic Arts, said in an interview that the goal of a single player was to entice players to be inspired and invested in characters, weapons and vehicles. a lot for them in multiplayer.

"Playing a Star Wars game would be pretty odd if you had not seen the movies, right?" You might think the drawings were cool, but if you saw the Black Star flying over a planet, you would not know what that means, "said Holmes in an interview. "But once you see the movie, you know what it is and what it represents. This could inspire fear or fear. This is the kind of universe construction we need to do in War Stories. We add texture and details. We add a feeling of being there. "

But DICE did not just want to remind you of your favorite World War II movies, or bring you back to Omaha Beach and the invasion of Normandy for the umpteenth time.

"You've seen movies and played games," he said. "You have a lot of luggage. We took a page from Battlefield 1 and took players to places where they had not been before. We had an anthological approach in Battlefield's War Stories. The characters could live or die. People loved, and we brought that to World War II. "

After playing the story with the Tiger tank, you will not think that the Tiger is just the machine with a lot of hit points, he said.

Holmes added, "What's going on in this world? Why am I worried? Who is fighting against whom and what do we feel? Rather than simply red team against blue team, tank against plane. It's the Axis and the Allies. It's not a plane, it's a Spitfire. It's not a tank; it's a tiger or a sherman. I know what these things represent and mean. This creates dependency after a while, once you start learning about it. You end up on giant Wikipedia frenzy, or suddenly you have a collection of books. You are sucked into this world. The Second World War is one of those topics that attracts you. "

Nordlys

The first full story I played was Nordlys, which means "northern lights" in Norwegian. It started with a cinematic showing a German officer talking to a captive Norwegian, who is clearly a scientist or resistance fighter who has great value for the Nazi weapons program. The industrial factory where she is being made makes heavy water, an essential part of Hitler's attempt to create an atomic bomb.

The young officer mentions a commando raid that really happened during the war. The commando operations – under the code names Grouse, Freshman and Gunnerside – took place in early 1943 and were successful in stopping production at the Vemork factory. The factory and its surroundings are very similar to real places, but this story is fictional.

The player plays a young woman, not a commando, who tries to save the captive, his mother. You play this young woman and start by living the exciting experience of skiing on forest slopes to reach the perimeter of the factory. No matter where I went, I did not crash.

The guards were annoying and harder to kill than expected because the weapons I had were pretty imprecise. I had to sneak through the guards and take them out with my throwing knife, which had a very long range and seemed much more accurate than my weapons.

Unfortunately, I did not start with a sniper rifle, so it was quite difficult to remove the guards in the tall watchtowers. I had to climb the ladders to get them. Artificial intelligence was not as hot as they did not expect me when I got to the top. Short-range weapons, distant targets: I thought it was a mediocre design. Fortunately, the enemies were neither brilliant nor too numerous. I finally had a sniper rifle just when I needed a machine gun.

It took several attempts, but I finally did it inside the facility. Fortunately, it was deserted. But as soon as I released the captive, who was the mother of my character, a group of enemies came closer. We had to make our way and blow up the place. Once outside, we were trapped on a bridge.

At this point, the story becomes interesting. You feel the meaning of your mission and your duty, as well as what you owe to your mother. When you make a mistake, you have to go out into the Norwegian nature on a freezing night. You can eliminate sporadic guards, but your most difficult task is to warm up. Otherwise, you will die of cold. It was not easy to survive and it reminded me of similar survival games where the environment was a big problem, just like the soldiers shooting at you. It is the wild nature, seen in detail, where his daughter is only an ant in freedom, which pushes you to the limit.

Overall, I found the story well done. It tests the girl's determination to pursue what her mother began during a moment of truth. This war story had an emotional arc, appropriate theme music and a story that allowed me to appreciate the courage of people who had never been recognized for the sacrifices they had made during or after the war.