I pre-ordered Battlefield 5, or V if you want to run along with the stupid roman numeral idea, right after the alpha testing. It was very strange to do that so early because the last game I pre-ordered was BF4 and that was a total disaster after release day and I never pre-ordered a Battlefield game before or since. Though the alpha had it’s flaws I saw so much more in this Battlefield game that I haven’t seen in a long, long time.
So first the obvious; Yes, graphics are amazing, sounds are great*, the maps are really nice, and even overall stability and lag/netcode is very good. You’ve heard all this a thousand times by now and that’s it for this and me, it’s the same thing. No problems there.
What I saw more in this Battlefield game is that it was hard. The gun mechanics take some practice and it takes time to learn how to use the guns. The time-to-kill (TTK) is short. If you get the drop on someone, or they get the drop on you, chances are you won’t have time to fight back. Visibility of players is very very limited and that really is a good thing. With all this in mind I plan to cover the pros and cons to BF:V and let you know my end thoughts.
PRO: TTK
The TTK is great. It is hard and run-n-gunning is reserved for the best players of Battlefield. I know that because I’m not one of them and you get punished for run-n-gunning. You don’t have time to react if you are caught out in the open. You might get lucky and get a split second and pull yourself out of the fire, but chances are you won’t and this forces players to actually think before moving. Some argue that it’s not very skilled because you don’t have a chance to fight back. The question I have though is why should I get the chance to fight back when I put myself in a position to get caught like that? How is that skilled? The very skilled can still do it and those that work with squads can get a revive as well and their bacon saved for their errors.
CON: TTD
So with TTK being great there is an issue with time-to-death (TTD). We don’t hear about TTD often, but it’s just as much a part of an FPS as TTK and that is the person getting shot feeling the time it takes for them to die. In BF:V I’m shooting someone and I see several hit markers and it takes a second for them to die and it looks fine. They, however, see themselves get hit one, maybe two times, and then die. To the person that died it looks like they were one shot killed or maybe just two hits and they died, which makes a false impression that TTK is too low when in fact the client-server response is somehow out of sync and the person getting shot isn’t aware of it. With a game with a low TTK to begin with, this is a problem. DICE was going to increase TTK to “hide” the issue of TTD, but they resisted that as the player base had an outcry. DICE does need to fix the TTD issue, but not at the expense of TTK.
PRO: Gun Play/Mechanics
Gun mechanics feel really good. They actually remind me of 1942 mechanics. Learning how a gun fires and when to burst it, or move the mouse down, or even put it in single fire makes each gun a lot of fun. It takes some effort and a bit of a challenge to learn and that’s also fun.
CON: Weapons in Classes
Though the gun mechanics as a whole is great, some weapons are just not good and most of those fall under the SMGs under the medic class. They are very close range weapons and though they are high rate-of-fire, they tend to lose in close quarter fights with assault players every time. They just don’t have the damage ability to really win in a quick fight. That’s not always the case and I do well with the class, but if I don’t do some fancy moves while in a hip fire fight, I’m going to lose. Since I’m an average player it’s safe to say that will be the average response with many.
The Support class have weapons called MMGs, I guess that means Medium Machine Guns, and you HAVE to use a bi-pod to aim down sights. You cannot move and aim down sights with them at all. There is a bug with bi-pods and them not deploying when they should. This makes using them very hard. There is also clipping issues where you look like you have a clear shot to a person and you are actually shooting into snow, or a rock, or the side of a building and you never hit the target.
CON: Clipping Problems
Speaking of clipping issues, I just now left a game in disgust because I kept getting thrashed by a guy while he was prone in a boulder shooting away and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. To me he was part of the boulder, but I’m sure to them they were over it or next to it and had a clear view. This problem happens on multiple maps and can work both ways. You have this clear view of someone and you snipe their head only to see dirt fly and no damage hit. Same with you are behind cover and you shoot and dirt fly’s though you have a clear view of your target. It’s on every map and is a very bad frustration.
CON: Classes
You have Recon, Assault, Support, and Medic, but other than smoke and a quick revive, I don’t see the purpose of Medic class at all. Everyone can revive and everyone carries one med pouch for self-heal and there are healing stations on every map in every game mode.
Also the gadgets for the classes are a bit boring. Running Ammo/Medic crates is not good. People have to interact with them, they don’t auto supply, and most don’t notice that. They run right by and ignore it. The flare gun for Recon is worthless. I think Assault is the only one that really has some good options.
One last gripe about classes, you pick up a downed persons “kit” and all you get is the weapon. You don’t get anything else. What’s up with that? EVERY Battlefield game picked up the entire kit, but this is just picking up weapons.
PRO: Teamwork
Yes, teamwork is still a myth in Battlefield, but BF:V does it very well. You REALLY need to rely on teamwork and your squad. It makes it tough when your squad sucks or is just a bunch of snipers. Working with your squad matters on a number of different levels for various reasons. Even the medic class can be helpful with those smokes and quick revive, if done right.
CON: Vehicles
No, I don’t mean that vehicles should be removed from Battlefield….because DICE already did that. There is a fine balance in good vehicles in a game. They can be easily over powering and ruin a game or a game mode or they can make no difference whatsoever in a game. In BF:V they just about make no difference. They are easy to take down and are just not a threat. What happens is people keep the vehicles at a distance and annoy you the entire game. They will go out of bounds and attack from their base where you can’t touch them. They will just stay back and not move forward to help you capture. Mostly because they can’t afford to.
They don’t handle well and the controls are spotty and they just move strange. After all these years of Battlefield games I think this may be even worse than the BF3 vehicles when APCs bounced high off the ground when hitting rocks. They’re just bad.
And I still don’t understand why DICE makes maps where vehicles can sit in safe zones and fire into caps and spawn areas. Over and over and over it’s the same thing.
CON: The Same Bugs
Another Battlefield, another of the same ole bugs: I already mentioned clipping and bi-pod problems. We have spawning issues where there is no place to spawn, but you can. Kits are being forgotten and defaulting back. Sound problems where you can’t hear footsteps correctly. Trade kills, dying around corners, animated shooting when you are not shooting, etc…
PRO: Overall Stability
I know, I just mentioned the same ole bugs, but the overall performance and servers are doing very well. Though there are trade kills and dying around corners, it’s not a lot and EVERY Frostbite title has that still, to this day. It’s not going away and it cannot be fixed. If it could, I think it would have by now.
PRO: NO DLC
As of right now this is a huge pro. I don’t know how much content we’re going to get in the end, but having all the maps and weapons and game modes for everyone is a big, big plus. All the different maps and modes being separated by a pay wall has ALWAYS hurt an FPS game. Many refuse to buy the DLC and it sucks buying it to never really get to use it beyond the first two weeks. I really hope this stays a huge plus.
CONCLUSION:
I decided to stop here. I could go on about the UI interface and how it’s clunky or how the character customization has been scaled way back, but those things change and adjust and even the bugs I mention today will be mostly gone tomorrow. DICE has gone silent about renting servers, so who knows whats going on there.
The bottom line is this Battlefield game feels more like 1942/2/2142 than I have ever felt in any Battlefield game. It’s hard and trying at times, but it’s a game I already love to play and have fun playing it. It was rushed out the door incomplete, but it really is fun and very good. No, it’s not perfect, but neither was any other Battlefield game.
Just like all other Battlefield games in six months to a year BF:V is going to be excellent….hopefully!
UPDATE 12/29/2018: After playing other game modes and the debacle with the time to kill and all the bugs that are being seen in BFV that were in BF3, BF4, Hardline, and BF1, I decided to lower my score two more points. The game isn’t finished and it is very frustrating to play with bugs in every aspect of the game. In 3 months or a few patches this game will be ready for purchase and I will post again when that time comes.
Crunch Time 