The latest video to be dropped on Battlefield's YouTube page is the largest batch of information we've gotten so far on the upcoming Battlefield V.
Starting off, the game will have eight multiplayer modes including: Final Stand, Airborne, Breakthrough, Domination, Frontlines, Team Deathmatch, Conquest Assault, and Conquest.
Grand Operations, the bigger, bolder version of Battlefield 1's Operations game mode, will span "multiple maps and modes". An example the narrator puts forth are players parachuting into a battle with Airborne, then establishing a base of sorts in Breakthrough, and finishing each other off in Final Stand.
And for the newest mode to hit the series, Firestorm is described as DICE's vision of the Battle Royale genre: "Sixteen teams of four fight it out to become the last squad standing in the largest Battlefield map ever". The visual presentation of Firestorm looks to replace the rings of Fortnite and PUBG with a little ring of fire. Very intense.
Squad play is a focus, with the addition of "reinforcements" such as the ability to call in a rocket strike on enemy players, or a supply drop to help out your squad and team.
The trailer also showcases adjustments made to player mobility. Players can now backpeddle while prone, either "upright or on your back"; you can jump and automatically smash through a window; grenades can be thrown back, or even be shot out of midair; you can also sprint while crouching; this update rounds out with the ability to slide into a room sideways, I guess to make it even more annoying for defenders holed up in chaotic situations.
Weapons also have predictable recoil and spray patterns, but not much else is explained in the video.
Fortifications and destruction are also more dynamic. I was somewhat skeptical when DICE originally unveiled this, but the image of a destroyed house being reconstructed with sandbags and barbed wire has me sold.
Snippets of two anthologized single-player missions, titled Nordlys and Under No Flag, are also shown. Nordlys follows a young Norwegian partisan as she fights to defend her country under the German occupation, while Under No Flag follows a young British criminal using his skills in the North African campaign. A quick snapshot reveals the names of all the missions in total: Prologue, Nordlys, Tirailleur, Under No Flag, and The Last Tiger, which is subtitled as Post-Launch.
I'm glad that DICE is diverging from the traditional Western European campaign of WWII. Although that's important, it ultimately trivializes what truly was a global conflict. Here's hoping that DICE has what it takes to live up to their word. I personally would love to see the perspective of a Soviet Servicewoman explored. I recently read a nonfiction account called The Unwomanly Face of War by Belorussian journalist Svetlana Alexievich that was absolutely harrowing and astounding in its portrayal of humanity in wartime.
Importantly, the trailer announces that the post-game content will be accessible to all players, "no more premium pass". The first post-launch chapter is "The Fall of Europe", with new events happening daily. In "early 2019", we'll see the second chapter, which will follow resistance forces rising up to "resist the Axis threat", as well as a new location in Greece.
