For fun this weekend, I hopped on Battlefield V just to play with the last content they dropped. To my surprise, I had fun and made one of the longest streams I’d had in a while. I’m mostly a Battlefield 3/4 guy but I bought Battlefield V in those few weeks after it was released when it was on half price. I’d heard about the marketing and other controversies surrounding the launch but I thought “hey, it’s Battlefield, how bad can it get?” You know the rest of the story.
I tried playing Battlefield V when it first came out and the thing that frustrated me most about it was getting killed out of the blue. There are always those tank and plane savants that go 97 and 2 but you can find those in every Battlefield game. Surprise death in this game seemed really excessive.
The scenario I hated most was getting killed by people just lying in a patch of debris or plant cover on the ground. Slightly less annoying was getting killed by someone way off in the distance that I couldn’t see. Once or twice it was OK but I felt like it happened ALL THE TIME. Eventually, I just stopped playing it and went back to older Battlefields.
What’s happened in the meantime is that they’ve reverted back to the gunplay before they started playing with TTK
and it was a very enjoyable game. I played with automatic, semi-automatic, and sniper rifles (no crossbows though). I used the same tactics I would use in any other Battlefield game and they seemed to serve me well. My ranking was similar to other games in the franchise. The guns felt responsive but maybe a little easier to use than other Battlefield games. I didn’t feel like I was fighting recoil that much. I mostly played the Provence map which also might have made a difference but the other maps in the rotation didn’t have the annoyances I remembered either.
Also, it’s a beautiful game. I was running it on low settings and I still had to top stop myself a few times from trying to take a closer look at flowers or wall art.
The main thing that made it feel like Battlefield was the teamwork. That’s the main reason I love this series. I happened to get on comms with a couple of guys in my squad and the game came alive. At the end of the session, I had added two new friends to my profile which was great!
Sure there are things that seem to stick out compared to other Battlefields (Everyone can revive? Only snipers can spot?). We can also talk all about guns, recoil, game balance, etc. but to me, the core is about the team and the social interaction required to PTFO. Although it’s been mostly a disappointment, that heart is still there and I hope they keep it in the next Battlefield.