Who says “war never changes”? Battlefield 5 is almost upon us, and war is definitely changing- well, a little bit. DICE’s next big first person shooter is almost here, and things are looking a bit different from 2016’s Battlefield 1, thanks to changes both big and small, in the form of either new additions, or improvements and tweaks to older mechanics. Here are GamingBolt, we’ve already covered Battlefield 5 extensively, but in this feature, we’re going to be talking about things from the game that we haven’t spent quite as much time on. Without further ado, then, let’s jump right in.
FIRESTORM
The battle royale craze has hit fever pitch in the last year or so, and the big boys are now joining the party as well. Battlefield 5 will have its own take on battle royale as well, in a mode called Firestorm. Players will be caught inside of a map while a literal stormwall of pure fire closes in- and you know the rest. It’s battle royale. Do note, however, that Firestorm won’t be included in Battlefield 5 at launch.
MORE FIRESTORM INFO
Firestorm won’t be trying to ape the success of other popular battle royale titles- well, not exactly. It’ll put a Battlefield on the formula. EA have promised that the mode will centre around the same pillars of destruction, vehicles, and co-operation between team members that defines the typical Battlefield multiplayer experience.
FIRESTORM DEVELOPER
While DICE are obviously the lead developers of Battlefield 5, Firestorm is being outsourced to a different studio- namely, Criterion, also owned by EA (and who were once in charge of developing Burnout and Need for Speed titles). This wouldn’t be the first time that a major mode in a DICE developed game has been handled by a separate developer- for instance, the single player campaign in Star Wars: Battlefront 2 was developed by EA Motive, while DICE handled the multiplayer side of things.
FIRESTORM MAP
Battlefield maps have a reputation of being absolutely huge, and battle royale modes can’t really function without larger maps (unless they’re tailor-made for a smaller count of players, that is). Put those two together, and you have what is, according to the developers, the largest map in the history of the Battlefield series yet. It’s a salivating prospect, but it remains to be seen how well the game will utilize that space, and how varied the environments will be in it.
FIRESTORM PLAYER COUNT
While Firestorm is kicking things up a notch in terms of map size, when it comes to total player count, the number in Battlefield 5 is going to be smaller than what you’d usually expect. While the likes of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite choose to go with 100 total player, Battlefield 5’s total player count will be 64. Interestingly enough, these 64 players will be divided into 16 groups of four players each, hence encouraging co-operation and team-play.
CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
Customization is, of course, a big deal in any shooter that chooses to focus on its multiplayer aspect, and we’ve read and seen a lot of the customization options in Battlefield 5 already. DICE, however, have stated that they’ll be toning these down a little bit, and focusing less on the whackier and more “out there” customization options that they originally intended to include in the game, in order to focus more on authenticity instead.
VEHICLE CUSTOMIZATION
Vehicles form a core part of any Battlefield experience, and that will be no different in Battlefield 5. Vehicle specializations will allow players to tweak and upgrade their vehicles to give them the edge in certain situations, which is an aspect that DICE is promising won’t ruin the game’s balance either. It should be noted, though, that while vehicle specializations are obviously going to be a part of the game, cosmetic customizations won’t be included at launch.
WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION
It’s not just your vehicles that you can personalize and customize, of course. You can tune and tweak your weapons in Battlefield 5 as well. Customization options for weapons are going to be deeper and more extensive this time around, as per DICE, while they’ve also made changes to a few things based on the feedback they received from the beta. For instance, the lack of trade-offs with weapon specializations was one of the things that people had issues with in the game’s beta, but according to DICE, these will now come with negative aspects and trade-offs as well. Additionally, players will also be able to mix and match specializations and experiment with whatever build suits them the best.
NEW CLASSES POST-LAUNCH (POSSIBLY)
DICE have also hinted that the Combat Roles and classes that Battlefield 5 launches with won’t exactly be the end of the story. They plan to support the game post its launch in a games-as-a-service fashion, and to that end, the studio has said that they might end up adding more combat roles and specialized classes to the mix after the game has come out.
INCREASED FOCUS ON REALISM
Realism and authenticity in terms of mechanics and gunplay have always been two things that Battlefield tries very hard to achieve, and DICE are kicking that up a notch with Battlefield 5. They plan to do this by removing abstractions from gameplay and making things like healing or reviving downed teammates less automated. Additionally, scarcity of ammunition and resources will also contribute to achieving that sense of realism.
COMBINED ARMS
Combined Arms, the co-op mode with dynamic missions and objectives from Battlefield 3, is making a return in Battlefield 5- don’t get too excited though. Unfortunately, Combined Arms is one of the surprisingly large number of things that are planned for the game, but won’t be included at launch. When will it be added, then? Well, we don’t know yet- but we do know it’s coming.
MORE BIG MAPS COMING
As we’ve already mentioned, big maps is something that people pretty much expect in any Battlefield game. And sure, Firestorm will have the series’ biggest map yet- but what about its regular competitive multiplayer modes? During the game’s beta phase, several people felt that the maps showcased weren’t quite large enough, especially when compared to the likes of Battlefield 3 or 4. DICE, however, have promised that there are going to be plenty of large maps in the game, while even more will be added on post its release.
SERVER WIDE WEATHER STATES
The fact that Battlefield 5 will have weather effects is exciting to anyone who’s played Battlefield in the past, and the prospect of being caught in the middle of a blizzard or a sandstorm that affects things such as visibility in the middle of a match is an exciting one. DICE have also confirmed that all weather effects and changes in maps will be server-wide, which means that all players will experience them at the same time.
NO SEASON PASS
Season passes are no one’s favourite thing. They fracture the community, and you end up having to pay extra for crucial content in some very restrictive ways. Thankfully, Battlefield 5 won’t have a season pass. Instead, all post-launch additions in terms of maps packs and other things that go along with them will be made available to all Battlefield 5 players for free.
XBOX ONE X AND PS4 PRO ENHANCEMENTS
We’ve come to expect that all major releases in today’s day and age will have at least some sort of enhancements for the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro, and that’s going to be no different with Battlefield 5. While neither DICE nor EA have given specific details on what those enhancements might be, we can expect 4K resolutions (either dynamic or native), while HDR support is also promised.
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