There are also a lot of people out there who are getting tired of playing a modern FPS constantly. I mean, we had five modern BF games in a row … it was starting to get silly seeing the same guns, the same tanks, the same jets, the same helicopters, the same factions, the same ‘AMERICA IS PERFECT, RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE EEEEEEEEVIIIIIIL’ mantra that almost every modern FPS has nowadays. How many times am I going to be shooting at some Middle Eastern/Russian/Chinese antagonist again, as a US Marine/US Army/US Special Forces soldier? It gets boring. Give me some jerries once in a while, will you? BF1 was a breath of fresh air, but if Battlefield went back to modern times or a similar era so soon, it would not only be in absolutely direct competition with WW3/Insurgency Sandstorm, it would also mean that many of us BF players would just stick to BF3/4 for modern combat.
Vietnam wouldn’t be too bad, but it’s got a lot of those things that a lot hate about modern combat … especially those helicopters and post-WW2 aircraft … there is nothing more terrifying than hearing the blades of a helicopter, or the engines of a Spooky, in Rising Storm 2. Vietnam would also require asymmetrical gameplay … I’d scoff at seeing a VC in a heli, or a Marine setting up a punji spike trap, or any Vietnamese soldier using the latest Western weaponry. This wouldn’t work in a post-2142-style BF game … it would just be a very graphically stunning mod of Rising Storm 2 at that point if they make it asymmetrical.
Hell, one thing a lot of RO2/RS fans said about Rising Storm 2 was that WW2 was a much more compelling setting than Vietnam … people regularly remember the heroic sacrifices of those who died during WW2, but they look at Vietnam with either pity or revulsion. It didn’t benefit America, it didn’t benefit Vietnam all that much (millions dead and countless infrastructure damage) and it certainly didn’t benefit the Soviets and the Chinese.
Still, I’ll concede that Vietnam would have been much better than a modern BF. However, those that wanted ‘authentic, gritty’ experiences might have to deal with cosmetics like these:
Remember, these are from a hardcore shooter, so you can expect even sillier, yet technically historically authentic, gear in a BF game that is designed around selling cosmetic items. I mean, it doesn’t get much sillier than those pink glasses, doesn’t it?