Having a fair bit of past FPS experience, the introduction to the Battlefield 1 campaign seemed simple enough. You are a Harlem Hellfighter holding off the German offensive in France who pushing onto your position. But as my character continued to survive, all of my allies were already dead, and I was about to run out of ammo.

It was at this point I realised that the creators were making a point – my job at this point wasn’t to win, it was to hold for as long as possible. Of course while I was thinking this through I failed to notice a grenade sitting at my feet, a quick reminder that there were people still attacking us.

When my character died, it shows a birds eye view as it zooms out, then comes up with his name and lifetime in bright white text. After this point if you died early, you were given the information that this soldier died in 1918, and then moved on to another soldier to carry on the battle.

So by now many of you would have heard some form of news about the next battlefield game, Battlefield 1. Unlike it’s comparative cousin Call of Duty, Battlefield still retains its existence as a large team strategy game, with set goals arranged across a large map and huge amounts of team members on either side vying over the terrain.

Of course, there are plenty of unexpected surprises, and hilarious moments while playing as well:

Battlefield 1 has always been the more tactical of the two franchises, which comes in the form of objectives, squads, and huge all out fights with many people in a team. It also comes from the different classes, the guns available for them. And, of course, bullet trajectory – a real life phenomenon where bullets, like us, are also affected by gravity and take time to reach their destination, so the shooter must adjust their aim to above and in front of their intended target’s motion when sniping (up in close quarter combat this is inconsequential as the bullet has no time to drop, rather accuracy is important here). This element, when brought into a multiplayer game, allows for those who can understand it to become amazingly skillful at shooting things down in the distance, and to truly master the scout class.

Which brings me to my favourite class- the scout. The scout is the only class to use sniper rifles, which I love using. There is nothing quite like lining up a shot at an insane distance and landing the headshot. It’s also fun to watch people you hit at a long distance begin to panic as they don’t know where you are.

Here you see someone shooting out the people piloting the zeppelin and manning the guns, despite not being able to see them:

There are a range of classes, all with there own unique setup of

weapons and equipment. The medic class for instance can revive team mates who have fallen, and also have access to semi-automatic rifles (the guns that you have to keep pulling the trigger, as opposed to holding down the trigger). This class is meant to chill a bit away from the front of the groups, and only duck in to pick up some team mates.

The developers, EA DICE, have out done themselves with the maps. They are absolutely beautiful, and provide a great range of fighting styles. In the Sinai desert (the only map available in the beta), about half of the map has some cover or buildings to fight in and around. Most of the control points lie within the cover, with some lying on the edge. The other half is open desert, so running through it makes you an easy target for scouts, however laying prone on the ground allows for some sneaky movements. A different approach is done with Fao Fortress, where all of the points have a covered area from which to hold back attackers, but makes pushing for those objectives far more difficult.

The train tracks in the centre of the Sinai Desert signify a balancing mechanic brought into battlefield. if one team falls behind enough, they will be given an armoured train, which they can man and use to drive through 3 of the points of the map, essentially granting control of those points. On other maps, you can get a blimp, or a battleship, with which to bombard anywhere on the map.

This game is incredibly fun, and will continue to draw some of my playtime for a long time to come. One day, I may actually be good at it.