This thread will not include glitches as this is a pre-alpha build and the few glitches I did experience were relayed in person to developers.
Overall: I am incredibly impressed at the scale of the project, the immersion (yes, the immersion is good when you are actually playing it even the times I realized I was playing a female character, which isn’t even noticeable at first or in the action), the game modes, the weapons and gunplay, smoothness of mobility, the end of rambo-revives, and especially the vehicles. One of my favorite things unique to Battlefield V that wasn’t really present in the previous Battlefields for a good while is that you truly can recognize the uniqueness between the teams, especially with vehicles. It doesn’t just feel like team 1 vs team 2.
Vehicles:
The Tiger I is this massive beast that is an absolute pain to move around in, you can almost feel like the transmission is trying to break itself. The sluggish mobility and huge size make it cumbersome and a little frustrating to drive, 100% accurate to what the Tiger was irl. The short 8,8cm stocked with 18 HE shells and 6 AP shells is incredibly deadly. Gone are the days of hitting the ground near an enemy and doing 40 damage. The machine gun on the Tiger also controllable by the driver is also extremely deadly, but overheats super fast. While this also had limited ammo, it was somewhere around 500 shots, so this should effectively be your main cannon against lone infantry in non-dire situations. But speaking of dire situations, I had a habit of forgetting to switch to AP shells and messing with churchills with HE. It feels as though angling your tank 60-30 is as effective as it should be (angling makes your armor more effective), which always seemed to give me an edge. HE shells to the front of the churchill seemed to do around 19 damage on average which still does the job, but you want to remember your AP shells.
The Churchill Gun Carrier is this massive bus of a “tank” that at least feels more responsive than the Tiger when you try to turn and move with it, but it too is slow as it should be. The difference here is the gun is hull-locked. An issue here is saying the Churchill GC uses a 3-pdr gun (equivalent to 47mm), which is completely inaccurate. Its original armament was the 3 inch 20 CWT (equivalent to 76mm, compare to Tiger I’s 8,8cm). It seems to be the exact same stat-wise to the Tiger I’s 8,8cm which is totally inaccurate as not only is the 3 inch gun smaller, but it’s also a WWI era weapon. Giving it the QF 3.7 inch AA gun (~94mm) would make more sense (before anyone jumps on me for it being an AA gun, the 3 inch 20 CWT is also an AA gun) for its current gun stats, if not bumping up the damage ever so slightly because of the lack of gun traverse.
An issue I find is the regular Churchill tank performs exactly like the Churchill GC with similar if not identical gun stats. I even switched to AP shells to take on a Tiger (who was admittedly not the best player in the world). 3 AP shells perpendicularly into the side of a Tiger I will kill it dead. My question here is why does the Churchill tank feel like the rival to the Tiger I within the game despite never having over a 6 pdr (57mm gun) when the Churchill GC with a 3 in (76mm) WWI gun is having seemingly the same stats? These 3 guns all feel the same, when they really should not be.
I didn’t have much experience with the Valentine as I simply stole it at low health while on the German side. I backed up to an ammo crate with it and used its 2-pdr gun to constantly shell incoming soldiers. Its alternate gun also seems to be a canister shell if I remember right, I switched to it and my reticule turned to a circle, though I never fired that. It also seems the max ammo is once again 18 HE, 6 canister shells, as well as a strong machine gun. I do not know if it has the same stats as the other main tank cannons despite being smaller than all of them, but having 18 main shells once again is concerning to me that they might all be the same. One thing I did notice with the Valentine is that it is a breath of fresh air to drive and maneuver compared to the 3 bigger tanks I just discussed.
I did not get a chance to play the other tanks or even the Strumtiger.
I did not get much of a chance with aircraft though I did notice there was no longer a bomber camera, you will definitely have to get used to dive bombing and feeling out where your bombs will hit. Yes, the siren is very satisfying to hear while piloting. The big issue is locating where to get ammo and repairs as the station circle thing to fly through is white on a snowy white background and is not on the minimap. I never found the one for the Germans, only the British. I played on both sides in aircraft at least and did spend a lot of time looking for that to get my bigger bombs back instead of fighting unfortunately. I did at least relay this directly to a dev.
One omission I would like to ask about is the StuG/Sturmgeschütz series of Tank Destroyers (the same type of hull-locked gun on tracks the Churchill GC is, but these are much more stealthy). Those played a very important role in the war and I would definitely like to see them in the game.
Weapons:
Forgive me as my memory of the names of weapons are nonexistant, but there was only one gun per gun type anyway iirc.
The SMG (Assault class) is looking to once again be overpowered, being incredibly effective at close range in both ADS and hipfire (thankfully not so good at hipfire that you can hipfire across the map like in BF1), but ADSing you can still easily kill most anyone at medium and sometimes even long range by tapfiring. It also has this really big and easy sight to use that sacrifices practically no view. A very easy and effective weapon. At least this time it didn’t come with 80+ rounds. I will admit I still used this weapon the most, and it is very satisfying to use.
The assault rifle (also on Assault) sacrifices hipfire for a bit more effectiveness at medium range, so it’s a bit more cumbersome to use. There’s not much to say about it and I didn’t use it much.
The LMG (on Support) also feels pretty close to an assault rifle, just harder to control. Tapfiring at medium range still gets the job done and it does good damage. Hipfiring, you might hit the broad side of a barn once or twice.
The MMG (on Support) is the only specialized archetype we’ve gotten our hands on, and I can say it is VERY special. You cannot ADS with this, if you try your camera will just zoom in a bit. You won’t hit the broad side of 20 barns with this thing so you better be a good shot with your pistol if you use this. Once bipoded, this thing is quite a good shot but you’re just asking to be sniped. It’s not an effective weapon to go into battle with unless you know exactly what you’re doing and that the situation will call for you being holed up. I couldn’t really gauge just how much damage this does each shot unfortunately, it’s just begging to get sniped.
The sniper (on Scout) is accurate and effective. What’s to expect, it’s a sniper. However, thank DICE for removing all OHKs to the body, introducing that in the first place was one of the worst, most upsetting decisions I’ve seen in this franchise and removing that is a great sign. In addition, it appears body shots only do a maximum of 60 damage. I’m not sure if that is enough of a tradeoff considering the war of attrition issue for getting health back and the lack of 3D spotting to be able to spot the sniper, but it is a step in the right direction. Headshots still OHK as they should. Scope glare still exists, thankfully as well. Collaterals are still a thing, I did get one of those while using the sniper. Note the headshot multiplier is 1.9x so a 53.5 damage shot will still kill to the head.
The semi-auto rifle (on medic) seems to be the most similar to what we have on Battlefield 1. Effective 3-hit kills around 38 damage a shot, but thankfully this time they are pinpoint accurate. No more ADSing at someone’s head at long range and the shot going wide for no reason. Also satisfying to use. Don’t bother hipfiring.
The pistol is meh. Not much to say about it.
The grenade is okay, you can’t throw it as far. It’s too hard to gauge the effectiveness of it.
The incendiary grenade is satisfying to use, especially when you didn’t realize you were using an incendiary grenade and thought it was a regular one.
Melee is ridiculously ineffective and in need of a major buff. Only doing 27 damage per swing, slow to swing, and with half the range of knives in BF1 it makes it nearly impossible to even get an animation from the rear let alone to be able to finish off someone from the front. Melee was done right in BF1 with the variety and effectiveness of the weapons and I’d hope to see it brought back in that state to BFV.
Gadgets:Scout: Binoculars and Flare Gun or Spawn Beacon. Binoculars are the only way to 3D spot, and even then it seems hit or miss to be able to. In addition, the spot goes away instantly once you lose sight of the player you have spotted. The flare gun is as expected in Battlefield 1, except you start with only 1 flare (with a max of 2 carried) and only can have 2 effective at the same time. What’s different is these have been hit by a nerf bat quite nicely. It seems to last a much shorter time AND it is not immediately active. It takes around 2 seconds to start showing enemies on the minimap in its radius. Yes, it still sets people on fire.
Medic: Revive Syringe and Med pouch (spelled “puch” on the intro video at EA Play) or Med box. The Syringe took a giant, very necessary hit by the nerf bat. It’s been over a decade coming, revives are no longer instant. Similar to the buddy revive, you will still have to stand over their body and go into an animation where you can easily be killed. Fair warning, in the 10 times I’ve played BF1 at EA Play, I’ve been revived a grand total of 1 times and have revived people maybe 8 times (between buddy and medic). The animation for a medic revive still takes a couple seconds, while the buddy revive takes eternity and a day. Reviving has finally been made into a major thing rather than just expecting to instantly be in the fight again after dying at a corridor on Locker/Metro. I couldn’t figure out how to drag someone out of the line of fire, however. Gaining health has also become a bigger thing, as the larger medical box has to be interacted with by your thick-headed teammates. Good luck with that if you’re going solo without friends, as no longer can you passively heal a massive group of people in the magical radius of your box. But this box seems to have unlimited medical pouches inside for people to take. Meanwhile if you carry only the medical pouch, you get 3. Sure, if you throw it at a teammate it forces them to get more health, but with only 3 you are limited. Better have a support or a built up ammo supply near you. I’m not sure if you get those 3 pouches back overtime, I think you might as the box does automatically resupply too, but it takes a noticeably long time. Attrition is definitely at play, and I love it. Spamming has definitely ended unless you have a dedicated support.
Assault: Panzerfaust and Sticky Dynamite. Sticky. Dynamite. Sticky. We’re back to being able to have suicide-jeeps and whatever else, as well as sticking the dynamite to the rear of a Churchill Crocodile and watching it explode (oh that was VERY satisfying). I’m not sure if I’m excited or dreading the return of that, I guess it is a staple in the battlefield series. Plus seeing some car with dynamite shoved onto it driving into a building on this insane level of destruction will have to be satisfying. On the other hand, you get 3 dynamite to start with and a maximum of 4, and it appears that 4 dyanmite is NOT enough to kill a full health tank, but is enough to disable it. I’ve tested that on the side of a Churchill and Churchill GC, not sure about the lighter tanks or if I managed to stick all 4 directly on the rear. I have to say my best experience with dynamite was on the first objective day 2, enemy Churchill GC was getting cheeky and came onto the bridge to try to take the objective. I was in a position where if I got up, it’d see me over the sandbags, so I was screwed either way. 4 dynamite down (btw it’s always smart to pick up extra ammo if you spawn near a big ammo supply) considering it was going to drive over where I was. I back up a bit so I won’t get run over immediately when it will driver through the sandbags. It does so, over the 4 dynamite, I blow it, and of course I died. It did take down the Churchill GC and some infantry with it, super satisfying! The best part is this is that one time I actually got revived. Only In Battlefield Moments still do happen! Especially now with the level of detail in the game, seeing the churchill GC’s tracks coming through knocking down the sandbags. As for the Panzerfaust, you get an acceptable amount of ammo. It does okay damage to tanks but the travel time takes forever and the drop is heavy, you’re not hitting tanks at range with this if they see it coming. In addition, if you hit a tank at a bad angle it will ricochette. Hit a Churchill or Tiger in the front and you’re doing like 14 damage. You have to aim well and pick your moments, you can’t just shoot randomly and pray. I am VERY thankful for this, more skill elements being added. Remember, tanks cannot self-repair to full health and self-repair takes forever anyway. Eventually you will kill it through sheer determination anyway.
Support: AT Mine and ammo pouch or ammo pack. You get two AT mines, they work as AT mines. Wow, shocker. They’re pretty obvious to see in snow but people drove over them anyway, they do good damage. I do wish AT mines were not in the game though, as they only slow down gameplay. Ammo packs are as expected but similar to medpacks, people have to go up to them and interact with them. But for ammo, people have to repeatedly interact with them to continue to gain more and more ammo until they hit their cap. On the flip side, you can get 3 ammo pouches to instantly give people ammo, but you then have to wait an astronomical amount of time to get more pouches. It won’t be as easy to farm points by magically giving everyone in a big radius ammo constantly, but I do like how this is going.
Support, specialized gunner archetype: Flare gun and ammo pouch or ammo pack. Yep, that’s the spotting flare gun same as on Scout. Except this is support. And you have an ammo pack to sit on and repeatedly gain more flares. And spam spots. Forever. Not the smartest game design, I got a lot of points sitting under the bridge in the first objective on day 2 and spamming flares for nonstop spots above ground. I’m not sure if it was intentional to be able to spam spot flares like this, I guess maybe because this archetype doesn’t have an effective gun while moving similar to Scout, but being able to spam minimap spots like this is an odd one. I would hope the gamechangers that got to enjoy the AC and not being sunburned inside the Palladium got to use this a ton to see if it’s too effective or if it’s acceptable.
Other things:Buddy Revive: Great implementation currently apart from needing to know how to drag bodies. Takes forever so the fight definitely has to be ended. The only thing I’d add to this is being able to press B/circle to cancel the revive (still with an animation to cause a slight delay and to show enemies that are coming that the guy has cancelled out of the animation).
Foritifications: I am a little disappointed in how restricted foritifications are, but that was mostly because I let my mind run wild with it. I can certainly understand why you wouldn’t want people to put infinite sandbags and tank blockers on every single part of the map. However, I do wish we would have a bit more freedom with where to place guns and other emplacements. Speaking of which, I couldn’t figure out how to do anything extra with Support in terms of fortifications, it all seemed equal, maybe a bit faster with support, but nothing special.
Immersion: The immersion is definitely there with the guns, map, graphics, and ESPECIALLY sounds. Once you are in the chaos of combat, things get quite nice to see and hear. For those concerned about customizations getting in the way, all I have to say is simply don’t pick a female. Yeah you’ll see one every now and then, but it doesn’t matter as much. As for the shirts and whatnot, it lets everyone have a good bit of personality to their player. If you don’t like it just kill them harder.
Lack of 3D Spotting: It’s terribly annoying to deal with snipers now, but at least scope glare is still there. It’s also odd to deal with aircraft, up until everyone will learn how to identify each aircraft to their faction. There have been a lot of teammates shooting at each other, even I chased a friendly plane for a while until I figured out why I wasn’t doing damage. But for the most part, perhaps it is a good thing this is almost gone.
Grenades damaging tanks: NO. Absolutely not. Do not do this. Please, it’s absolutely ridiculous.
There are probably other things I have forgotten, but this post is already absolutely massive and I have gotten tired and want to play some Battlefield 1 right now. So in closing, EA please for the love of god give out sunscreen in addition to the water next time, I have a hell of a sunburn.
Any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll answer if I can. I hope to be a part of the Closed Alpha again!
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