Battlefield 1 Open Beta Thoughts.

By Sam Coles:

DICE had an open beta for Battlefield 1 yesterday and I managed to get a chance to play it and overall I was pleasantly surprised with what I’ve played it is Battlefield at its finest with historical warfare. Like most people I was blown away by DICE’s bold move to take the shooting franchise back to the past rather than having another modern warfare shooter or futuristic although I would have been open to another futuristic Battlefield. So how was beta? Great! Let’s dive in and talk about it.

The beta allowed players to access two modes which are staples to the Battlefield franchise, Conquest and Rush. Conquest has been streamlined to appeal to a wider audience so you no longer have tickets in this game which deplete when you kill enemies, but instead they go for a more traditional Call of Duty style of play where you accumulate points over time depending on how many flags you’re holding.

Rush is where you slowly push through each enemy outpost where you have to destroy two telegraph poles and after they have been destroyed the enemy has to retreat further back and you have to do the same again. I like Rush the most because it keeps the momentum of the battle flowing rather than the stop and start nature of conquest where you’re in this bottle neck where you’re fighting over the same flag.

Gameplay wise the game has a more up close and person approach where you’ll use your trench gun to tear through flesh, bludgeon your enemies with clubs or run at them with a heroic scream with you bayonet ready. This game is extremely brutal with the intensity of the violence. The vehicles are a tad primitive because obviously it’s during the First World War so tanks are slow and are prone to breaking down which means your best bet of traversing a battle is a horse which you can use weapons while riding.

Again DICE have out done themselves with the presentation the desert map we had access to is absolutely stunning with the oranges and whites with sand makes you feel like you’re there. The sound design is what you would expect from a Battlefield game with distant cracks of gun fire to the thunderous explosions from grenades and tanks. However I did notice a few sound hiccups where the sounds for guns were not playing however the game is not finished and it didn’t happen too often.

The only problem I had which is the same problem I have with every DICE game and that is the net code it’s awful, the game had lag issues when I was playing and it’s not my connection my internet is fine, I have the same problem with Battlefield 4. This was on the PS4 version I can’t confirm with other platforms.

Battlefield 1 is probably my most anticipated game for autumn and this beta has made me more excited for the full release in October.