Campaign thoughts.

Battlefield 1 General Discussion
1

First off, I really enjoyed the campaign, but I do feel like there are a few things that might have made it better.

Storm of Steel: Really good as an intro. Does a good job of showing the pointlessness of WW1, and just how bad it was, without going overboard.

Through Mud and Blood: Similar to Storm of Steel for me in showing the brutality of frontline combat, but is maybe a little less dark in attitude. The MK. V tank looks totally as well. I’d almost have preferred that the part where you fly the pigeon was the end though, cos that hit me pretty hard, but that will never do that again.

Friends in High Places: This one was a wee bit disappointing, as much fun as it was. First, the flight controls are completely different to the flight controls in multiplayer, which makes it kinda confusing. Second, I think it would have been really cool to play as the Red Baron, instead of some fictional character. Could have had a bit more history in there, and a view from the other side.

Avanti Savoia: Really liked this one. Having the armour was really cool, but the best bit for me was after you use the AA gun, when you are looking for Matteo. Going down into those trenches, and the tunnels below and seeing the soldiers either dead or curled up crying hits me pretty hard. It tries to show how the war affected people, and the first time I played through this story, I had to move on, else I would have started crying myself.

The Runner: Probably my favourite of the 5. Shows the brutality of the war, while having a few laughs in there as well. Fredrick Bishop is probably my favourite character out of all the characters in the game to be honest. I also just liked the fact that Gallipoli was in there, cos being a Kiwi, I was really hoping to see that, whether I got to play as a Kiwi or not.

Nothing is Written: Comes close to being my favourite alongside The Runner. The open layout and Far Cry-esque missions may not have been groundbreaking, but they were hugely fun for me, and I’ll probably play through it a few more times to try different play styles.

TL;DR: I enjoyed the campaign hugely, but, I do think it could have been better with some more historically based stuff, such as playing as the Red Baron, but, it is a BF game, and doing that might have stopped them from giving us a campaign with “Battlefield moments”.

2

I agree. It was also a bit too short. 4 hours is kind of short (not counting exploration). I massively enjoyed the campaign too and hope DICE releases more War Stories for DLC in future. Nothing is Written was my favourite chapter.

3

I will agree that 4 hours is a bit short, but I don’t mind it being short, as long as it is enjoyable. Hell, my two favourite single player games right now, being Ace Combat Zero and Ace Combat 5, are 2 and 4 hours respectively. Both are short, but offer stories that are good enough, and gameplay that is fun enough that the length isn’t too big of a deal.

4

I guess a short and fun campaign is better than a long and boring one. But still, the beginning mission of Nothing Is Written literally has ONE engagement that you can finish in a minute. The cutscenes are longer than the mission itself. I loved the chapter but they could have done so much more with it. For example, the trailer showed horses chasing the train. I thought we were going to play as Zara chasing down the train, boarding it and destroying it that way. Seeing as it was my favourite chapter I was left wanting more.

Overall I loved the campaign, just a bit annoyed at its length. Hoping for more DLC from DICE building upon the current war stories we already have, or maybe giving us french, russian themed DLC etc.

5

Would’ve been cool if the epilogue was another prologue style mission e.g. Die you play as another person etc.

Through Mud and Blood was brilliant but you eventually turned into a one man army and Edwards was the exact opposite of that.

Friends in High places I reckon was the strongest as you did so much and BlackburnEA1917. Yeah the different flight controls had me in the settings for a while trying to get it right. Deliberately held off taking out the objectives (airships for example) so I could have longer dogfights.

Avanti Savoia was pretty good to.

The Runner felt really shoehorned in the way Bishop and Foster (really Dice? Come on :D) are at Cape Helles. Why wasn’t the River Clyde and the subsequent landings show as a cutscene? What Really bothered me was the mp18s, stel 1916s, c96 carbines and to top it off m1903 springfields with the pederson device. Like what? 0.o

Bishop was great though and his comments were spot on especially about the British. The swearing was good too. Just sucks that only on Bishop and Foster they got the slouch hats right, plenty of ‘Aussie’ npcs with incorrect slouch hats though (and in Over The Top too). Also way too short :confused:

Nothing is Written was good but a little disappointing. Two solo ‘stealth’ missions then a half solo stealth half full on assault mission. Could’ve done Lawrence and the Arabs more justice then just slapped them in cutscenes.

We need more war stories.

6

Agreed there that would have been pretty sweet. Yeah, I got that Blackburn reference, although I haven’t played much of the BF3 campaign. I’d love if they added more in DLC, but that’ll mainly be for the multiplayer I guess.

7

It was a pretty good campaign in that it showed the human side of the war and as a way to get used to the gun play. But would love a ww1 or 2 balls deep fps rpg

8

a day in age where players want single players that last 24 hours. come on man. do you want multiplayer? ohh you do? then 4 hours is fine. also i agree op single player is great.

9

It’s perfectly fine to want more singleplayer seeing as there are multiple teams at DICE, one for singleplayer and one that works on multiplayer. Nothing is being ‘diverted’ away from the other. 4 hours IMO is unacceptable. But its better to have a good 4 hours at least.

10

I agree, while Through Mud and Blood was fun, it felt a bit unrealistic for Edwards to be sneaking around with a sniper rifle taking out Germans like he was spec ops. He seemed like the kind of person who was the complete opposite of that. And I agree with Bishop..Im Australian myself so the swearing, and comments about the British and Kiwis (New Zealanders) were hilarious and accurate.

And Nothing is Written, I agree with you there. It was fun but ridiculously short, the first mission you can literally finish in like 60 seconds if you one-shot everyone with a bolt action. Lol.

We definitely need more War Stories as DLC.

11

Idea for an Epilogue; you play as the Germans, in the same battle as in the Prologue.

You experience several deaths (as in the prologue) and end the level as the German soldier who stands opposite the American soldier in the prologue’s ending.

I just think this would be a cool way to wrap up the campaign, and show the war through the opposite - but noticeably equal - perspective.

12

That’s a great idea. Wonder how DICE didnt think of it themselves. The game already gives us the idea that the Germans arent the bad guys from the prologue…just maybe the SJWs would complain about us being able to play as a German during World War 1.

13

C…ca… campaign? What’s that?

14

Totally agree on the flight controls. What possible reason could they have for making them different from SP to MP?

Baffling.

15

Loved the campaign. Was shocked at how short it was. Each release I cross my fingers for a bigger campaign so when I get the “looks like you’re offline soldier, how about some campaign” it’s not as big of middle finger to me. Instead the campaigns get shorter and shorter. Lower the price then.

16

I think it’s probably in the top 2 singleplayer campaigns since they started being featured in the franchise.

It’s definitely one of DICE’s most ambitious attempts at a BF campaign.

17

It definitely feels like they shied away from doing a Central Powers campaign, which is odd given how well the Prologue ending sets up for it.

18

I thought it was brilliant from start to finish. The best campaign ever from Dice.

19

I enjoyed playing the campaign, the missions within each story blended incredibly well and I wound up (somewhat accidentally) almost completing the entire campaign in a single session.

A more technical complaint I have is that the AI during the stealth or “sneaky” missions is just not intelligent. Specifically, during “The Runner” I was trapped in a two-story building when I was trying to sneak past the guards to get into the large castle. I was trapped on the second floor and forced to melee kill each guard one at a time as they entered the second floor in order to avoid being caught. There was nothing forcing me to move and the whole process was long, boring, and felt ridiculous with the enemies walking over a pile of their dead allies and not suspecting any danger. Aside from making them aware of dead bodies, I think it would have been beneficial to the immersion if it was possible to alert more than one enemy after a melee kill.