Battlefield 1 cover

Description

Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield 1 is the fifteenth installment in the Battlefield series, and the first main entry in the series since Battlefield 4. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 21, 2016.
Battlefield 1 received positive reviews by critics and was seen as an improvement over previous installments, Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline. Most of the praise was directed towards its World War I theme, single player campaign, multiplayer modes, visuals, and sound design.
A sequel, Battlefield V, was announced on May 23, 2018 and will be released on November 20, 2018.


Gameplay
Similar to its predecessors, Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter game that emphasizes teamwork. It is set in the period of World War I, and is inspired by historical events. Players can make use of World War I weapons, including bolt-action rifles, automatic and semi-automatic rifles, artillery, flamethrowers, and mustard gas to combat opponents. Melee combat was reworked, with DICE introducing new melee weapons such as sabres, trench clubs, and shovels into the game. These melee weapons were divided into three groups: heavy, medium and light. Players can also take control of various armored vehicles, including light and heavy tanks, armored trucks, cars, torpedo boats, bi- and tri-plane aircraft, an armored train, Reconnaissance vehicles, a Dreadnought and an LZ 30 Airship, as well as ride horses into battle. Destructible environments and weapon customization, features present in the previous games, returned in Battlefield 1 and are more dynamic.The game's world designer, Daniel Berlin, said the campaign mode has larger and more open environments than those in previous installments in the franchise, with more options and choices in terms of paths to completing levels and how to approach combat. Players can control several characters in the campaign. If the player dies in the prologue, they will then take control of another soldier and role instead of reloading from a checkpoint. These roles can range from tank gunner to rifleman. When the player dies, a name appears on the screen of a real soldier, along with their birth year. Unlike its predecessors, the game features a collection of war stories, similar to an anthology.The game's multiplayer mode supports up to 64 players. The new squad system allows a group of players to enter and leave game servers together. According to Berlin, playing without joining a squad would make gameplay significantly more difficult. Multiplayer maps are based on locations around the world, including Arabia, the Western Front, and the Alps. The game launched with nine maps and six modes, which include Conquest, Domination, Operations, Rush, Team Deathmatch, and War Pigeons, a mode in which players must secure war pigeons and use them to call for an artillery strike.


Multiplayer modes
Battlefield 1's multiplayer modes feature a number of game types seen in previous entries in the franchise, as well as new modes;

Conquest: one of the standard game modes in the Battlefield series. Teams capture objectives across the map, earning points based on the number of objectives they hold. If a team is suffering from a major point deficit, a Behemoth-class vehicle becomes available for their use.
Domination: a version of Conquest with a smaller map and fewer control points.
Rush: another standard game mode in the series, played between a defending and attacking team. An attacking team with a limited number of respawns must attempt to plant bombs in two telegraph stations located within a sector of the map, while the defending team must protect the stations and defuse planted bombs before they explode. If the attackers are successful, their respawns are replenished and the defending team falls back to the next sector. The game ends if the defending team exhausts the attackers' respawn tickets, or the attacking team captures the final telegraph stations. Unlike Rush modes in previous Battlefield games, the telegraph stations can also be used to call for artillery fire against the attackers.
Operations: A new mode which takes place across multiple maps to simulate a campaign from the war. An attacking team controls a battalion with limited respawn tickets; similarly to Rush, they must progress across sectors of a map by capturing their control points. If the attacking team exhausts their tickets, they lose one of their three battalions, and must try again. If the attackers are successful, the teams move onto a different map. The attacking team wins if they successfully clear all maps without running out of battalions, while the defenders win if they eliminate all three of their opponents' battalions. The attacking team can be granted a Behemoth vehicle if they lose a battalion.
Team Deathmatch: a standard game in which teams compete to reach a target number of kills, or the highest number of kills before time expires.
War Pigeons: a new, Capture the flag-like mode in which two teams must attempt to capture a messenger pigeon used to signal artillery fire. After the pigeon is captured, the player must be defended while they prepare the message to be sent, and the pigeon must be released outside. However, the opposing team can still shoot down the pigeon. The first team to successfully release 3 pigeons wins the game.
Frontlines: A new mode added in the They Shall Not Pass DLC, described as a "tug of war" combining aspects of Operations and Rush. A map contains five control points along a linear path connecting the bases of the two teams. Beginning at the centre of the map, a team must progress towards their opponents' base by capturing each successive control point. If the point is captured by the opposing team instead, they are pushed back towards their own territory. If a team reaches their opponent's base, they must then destroy the two telegraph stations within to win the game. As in Rush, the defending team can use the telegraph stations to call for artillery fire. If the attacking team does not destroy both stations before they run out of tickets, they are pushed out and must capture the final objective again before they can make another attempt.
Supply Drop: A new mode added in the In the Name of the Tsar DLC. This game mode is inspired by the huge areas the Eastern Front of World War 1 took place on. Teams fight over these supply drops, which give the capturing team all sorts of goodies – ammo, health, vehicles, and pickups for Elite classes. The team that then captures more points, wins – a pretty simple deal, all things considered. Ammo and health is more commonly found in supply drops, but vehicles and Elite class pickups are made to turn the tide of battle in the attacking team’s favour.
Air Assault: The newest multiplayer game mode, added as part of the Apocalypse DLC. This game mode, only available on two maps, features "frantic dogfights" and centers on aerial combat. Each opposing vehicle destroyed gains your team points. On the map "Razor's Edge," only single-seat planes are available, while in "London Calling" a wide variety of planes - and a zeppelin - are at each team's disposal.
Shock Operations: A new mode added in the 2018 June Patch. Shock Operations are like Operations but instead there are shorter, faster and are only play on one map. There are only five available maps in this game mode. These maps are called Giant's Shadow, Prise de Tahure, Lupkow Pass, Zeebrugge and River Somme.


Classes
Battlefield 1's multiplayer features four main classes, three spawn-based vehicle classes, and five pick-up based Elite classes:Infantry-based:

Assault: The primary anti-vehicle class. Assault players have submachine guns, machine pistols, and shotguns at their disposal. They contribute using explosives such as dynamite or anti-tank grenades to destroy vehicles such as tanks.
Medic: The Medic class is primarily focused on reviving teammates and healing them. The primary weapons in this class area are semi-automatic rifles.
Support: Supports have light-machine guns and semi-automatic carbines at their disposal. They also contribute to the team by replenishing their teammates' ammo and repairing stationary weapons and vehicles.
Scout: Scouts use a variety of lever-action and bolt-action service rifles. The class contributes to the team by spotting enemies either with firing a flare gun, which places nearby enemies in the vicinity on the mini-map, or use a periscope.Vehicle-based:

Tanker: Players choosing to spawn into a tank automatically spawn as the tanker class. The class is new to the series, and features a hammerwrench that can repair vehicles.
Pilot: Players who spawn into a plane automatically spawn as the pilot class. Outside of tanks and planes, tankers and pilots have access to pistol carbines and a sawed-off shotgun.
Cavalry: Players who choose to spawn on a horse spawn as the cavalry class. The cavalry class is equipped with a cuirass granting them extra defense, a Russian 1895 cavalry rifle, a cavalry saber or a cavalry Lance as well as the ability to replenish health and ammo to both themselves and their teammates.Elite Classes:

Flame Trooper Kit: Players who pick up the Flame Trooper Kit will automatically equip a Gas mask, a Wex flamethrower, and 3 Incendiary grenades. They will also be equipped with a trench club.
Sentry Kit: Players who pick up the Sentry Kit will gain plate armour and a MG 08/15 or Villar Perosa , as well 1 Frag grenade and a trench club. The plate armour includes a helmet which prevent headshots to the player, but leaving them unable to don a gas mask.
Tank Hunter Kit: Players who pick up the Tank Hunter Kit will equip both a Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr, capable of doing massive amounts of damage to vehicles and infantry, a Sawed-off shotgun, and a Periscope. The player also dons a respirator and goggles, granting them a permanent Gas Mask, while being able to aim down their sights without obscured vision. Their armour does remain the same as that of a normal soldier.
Trench Raider Kit: Players who pick up the Trench Raider Kit will wield a Trench Club that kills enemies in 1 hit, Smoke Grenades, a Medical crate, and a No. Revolver, and 3 Frag grenades. This kit is exclusive to the They Shall Not Pass expansion.
Infiltrator Kit: Players who pick up this kit will receive a Martini-Henry Grenade Launcher, a sawed-off shotgun, a spawn beacon in the form of a heliograph, and a signal flare gun that calls in artillery strikes. The players helmet is exchanged for a scuba mask **, allowing them to swim further underwater than the average soldier, but unable to don a gas mask. This elite class is exclusive to the Turning Tides expansion.


Campaign


Characters
During the single-player campaign, the player controls six different characters from a first-person perspective over six different chapters. Unlike previous campaigns in the series, Battlefield 1's single-player story mode is composed of six separate "War Stories", each shown through the eyes of separate allied soldiers from different nationalities, "Storm of Steel" – the prologue of the game which is set in France through the eyes of several Harlem Hellfighters, "Through Mud and Blood" – set in France though the eyes of a British tank driver, "Friends in High Places" – France and the UK as a Royal Flying Corps fighter pilot, "Avanti Savoia" – Italy as a mournful survivor and member of the Arditi, "The Runner" – the Gallipoli Peninsula through an ANZAC runner, and "Nothing is Written" – set in Kingdom of Hejaz through the eyes of a Bedouin warrior under the command of Lawrence of Arabia.


Plot


Storm of Steel
The prologue, set in 1918, sees players take control of different members of the Harlem Hellfighters as they defend their positions against a German offensive in France. The player initially starts out near the front line and must survive as long as possible against waves of German soldiers. If the player survives the attack then an artillery barrage will rain down on them and then the game's perspective will shift to another soldier. During the course of the gameplay, an unnamed narrator gives commentary on the nature of the war as the battle continues and player controlled soldiers are killed.
At the start of the battle, the Harlem Hellfighters initially lose ground to the Germans, but British tanks force the German troops into a retreat until the tanks are stalled by artillery. The Harlem Hellfighters mount a counteroffensive and push forward, sustaining casualties as the Germans hold their ground. When the player switches perspective to the final soldier in the gameplay, a German soldier attempts to kill the player character with a shovel but is stopped short by an artillery barrage that wipes out all of the combatants on the battlefield and renders the player unconscious. When the player regains consciousness, he initially appears to be the lone survivor, but quickly encounters a German survivor. Although the two point their weapons at one another, exhaustion and fatigue set in as both realize the futility of their situation, forcing both combatants to lower their weapons. The game then proceeds to an introduction cinematic that opens up to the other War Stories.


Through Mud and Blood
Set in the Fall of 1918 during the Battle of Cambrai in the Hundred Days Offensive, players assume the role of Daniel Edwards, a former chauffeur who enlists in the war as a British tank driver. Edwards is assigned to a Mark V tank dubbed "Black Bess," and meets the rest of his crew: Townsend, the tank crew's commander; McManus, a cynical gunner who doubts Edwards' abilities and the likelihood of the crew's success; Pritchard, another gunner; and Finch, the friendly mechanic.
The crew must penetrate German lines to reach the French town of Cambrai, and helps capture strategic positions and destroy artillery batteries. Finch is killed early on while trying to repair the tank, and later on, the tank becomes trapped in mud and surrounded by German infantry. Townsend decides to summon an artillery strike on their own position with the tank's messenger pigeon to save the tank, which McManus objects to vehemently. Pritchard is killed trying to release the pigeon, forcing Edwards to do so, which enables British artillery to save the tank. Encountering thick fog in a nearby forest, Edwards acts as a forward scout to guide the tank. Clearing the forest, the tank becomes beset with mechanical problems, and Townsend sends Edwards and McManus to salvage spark plugs from British tanks captured by the Germans. McManus expresses his disdain for their orders and abandons the mission, deserting. However, McManus has a change of heart later on and returns just in time to save Edwards from a German soldier.
With the tank repaired, the crew proceeds to a railway station defended by German forces. Although Bess is the only British tank in the area, the crew attacks the railway station to deceive the Germans into thinking that a large British offensive is underway. Eliminating the German forces at the railway station, the tank proceeds to Cambrai but is immobilized by artillery and attacked by German soldiers. Edwards and McManus are wounded defending the tank, and an injured Townsend sacrifices himself by igniting a gas leak inside the tank, killing himself and the Germans. With Bess destroyed and Edwards and McManus the only survivors, the two proceed alone on foot to Cambrai. Closing subtitles indicate that with the participation of more than 300 tanks at the Battle of Cambrai, the war ended a month later.