What I intend this post to convey is the enthusiasm one can have from their journey through the campaigns of WWII through the eyes of a child, a 55 yr old child, discovering something for the first time. I started playing any FPS only in the last 11 months, after buying our kids their first Xbox for Xmas 2018. I had absolutely ZERO experience with playing with a hand-controller on a console, though I was an Atari and Centipede king in my day. (Over 500K on Centipede a few times). Being a last minute purchase in 2018, our box came with 1942 and BFV already on it.
I have always had an interest in WWII from a historical and family standpoint. I had 4 uncles fight in the WWII and my dad was going to be in the invasion of Japan were that to happen. Uncle ‘L’ related his experiences as a scout in the Pacific, setting off from a sub on a dingy under the cover of darkness to scout islands to be soon invaded. He would go in at night, move close enough to bases to take counts/locations of soldiers, munitions, etc. He would lie motionless during the day, sometimes within a few yards of non-friendlies, only to return to the sub then next night with his valuable info. Uncle ‘M’ told us stories of manning an AA gun on a ship in the Pacific, just being completely incapable of hitting any of the Zeroes. The gun was too cumbersome with fairly limited training, trying to shoot what appeared to be a swarm of mosquitoes. Uncle ‘V’ was an engineer who helped build the Alaskan Highway but also spent time rebuilding island facilities after recapture. He told me of taking a break in the hot South Pacific relaxing under a tree well after the island had been retaken. He and his friend were suddenly surprised by a bedraggled Japanese soldier emerging from a previously unknown hole in the ground to surrender to my unarmed uncle and friend.
To me, the Battlefield series has been an relatively innocent immersion into the respective conflicts. I do not expect the horrors of war to be exactly recreated and fodder for fun the way it was experienced by those on the lines. Thank goodness we don’t have to experience that in person. One of my uncles was assumed to be dead after a jeep accident (though a moving finger while in the morgue allowed him to be moved to a hospital facility for better treatment) and a cousin partially paralyzed in Vietnam. Another uncle leering through binocs at nurses sunning themselves on a neighboring ship was a direct witness to the damage a torpedo can do.
What I do a appreciate is a game that has strategy and action both. I come to the Battlefield series with no predisposition for playing any FPS, and in fact was turned off to them with my brief trials at COD, Fortnite, and another title I do not recall. COD was too chaotic and seemed to focus too much on what weaponry to use when, throwing a little bit of everything at the wall and see what will stick. Fortnite was like an room full of shotgun-armed, Ritalin-deficient ADHD kangaroos jumping around with walls and floors magically constructed mid-flight. Even in BFV, while bleeding to death, I chuckle at the Medic who just upped their K/D ration at my expense as they do a quick run in a circle as they regain their health. I can just see Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, or John Wayne doing this in a mud-filled trench somewhere in northern France.
For a variety of reasons including hits emphasis on relative adherence to some basis in reality, history and physics, I must admit that I have come to really appreciate BV5 and what it uniquely (I think uniquely) has to offer. I enjoyed being a target in BF1942 as I discovered that game first, but my 100% lack of experience with a hand-held controller limited me to a very shallow learning curve. In BFV, I celebrated my first kill (a snipe), my first double digit kill game (artillery-aided on Hamada), etc, yet appreciated the gameplay.
I was so green to gaming in the modern era that I did not even realize I can access the server list to find which one had the best ping. I did not realize games during the day were dumping me in servers (likely European) with a ping well above 200, so I really had to be picky when to be aggressive. I guarantee all of you who have played since the release of BFV have MY BLOOD on your hands, and lots of it. I just learned a couple of weeks ago where I could look at my K/D ratio, which was 0.67 at the time. I also guarantee that my K/D ratio was well UNDER 0.1 for several weeks!!
Contributing to a win as a team has always been more appealing to me than being John Rambo. My initial lack of experience in the fine-motor mechanics taught me to compensate by using more forethought and planning, flanking, judicious use of shots, playing the objective, supplying teammates, spotting, selectively capturing a flag, healing, repairing tanks, etc. I have NEVER once been upset when someone used an advantageous position to ‘off’ me. What some view as a ‘Camper’ I view as someone who got me from a good, dug-in defensive position. I find I anticipate where some of the best hiding spots are, having used some of the same strategies at times. I have not once been mad when surprised by a so-called camper, not once.
Some bemoan the skills of pilots who turn the tide of a game just by dominating the skies, while I have taught myself skills in using the AA guns. I will sacrifice my K/D ratio teaching myself to lead the planes, learning to anticipate turns, firing at them with my hand-held weapon to slow any healing, knowing where their rearming/repairing station is so I can guess what angle they will attack me from (when in the AA). I play AA guns usually only when our team is being decimated by planes, and recently took down 4 in one round. It can be done.
The new TTK ruined one of my favorites, the MG42. But this opened new doors for me, branching out to the Assault Class and the Ribby. I am still not the best on sneaking up with sticky dynamite, but for some reason can with the mines. The dynamite is so much lighter that I have more than once thrown the dynamite right over a tank!! :s I will learn sticky dynamite come Hades or High Water.
This game requires a thoughtful approach with varying degrees of aggressiveness, which can change based on the strengths/weakness of each team. Anytime I jump into a game midway, I end up paying the price. Each battle is different, even on the same map. I understand the complaints about how much some of the changes affect folks, but not every change is bad. I guess I have lived long enough to know that something changes everyday, even if it is just to reinforce the sameness of the previous several days.
Every person brings a different style to the game. I played a game with one other dude in my squad, someone who seemed more green than me! He was using a sniper rifle in CQC, not even spotting and never putting down a beacon. He helped me up, I covered for him, spawned on each other whenever possible. Our team was outgunned and outmatched but we both managed to get almost 30 kills (with about 38 deaths), but it was an absolute blast. I enter every game anticipating something new out of this box of chocolates.
With up to 32 members on each team, each bringing their own unique skill-set and experience to the table, the variations of gameplay is infinite. This is not a weakness of BFV, it is a strength.
On top of it all, we get to play in a game which is fairly true to the era which it portrays. Sure it took the Americans 4 days to get to the top of Mt Suribachi, not 48 minutes. But look at the maps of the real battle and the pictures of the island and the weaponry used on Iwo Jima. Sure America never actually invaded Wake Island, but look at the layout of the 1940’s island. Take the time to check out the wall tiles in the subways in Germany as you lie bleeding to death. Look how each leaf of the plants in the South Pacific seem different. Check out the Zeroes on the ground and in the hangar on Wake Island, and the damage they suffer as the battle rages around them. I think I can smell the oil on the ground as we clear out the rest of the defenders of that hangar. Look at the grain growing in the fields of France, the maps on the walls of the tunnels on Iwo Jima. I think I have slipped on that ice in Norway, I truly have. Look at the Butterflyfish on the reefs as you stay underwater to avoid gunfire on the ocean surface. Listen to the creaking of the planes on Fjell. Feel free to add to this list of what you have noticed.
Have a good day and ENJOY!!! And remember, it is just a game. . . . And a very good one at that.
OBTW, my BFV name is SpinyJeff, picked out by my son (No one we know personally is named Jeff so I don’t know). He plays a lot too. See you on the battlefield!!