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May 22

Battlefield 1: The Reboot Of Battlefield 1942?

Battlefield 1: The Reboot Of Battlefield 1942?

Have you seen the Battlefield 1 trailer? Most likely, it has loads of views and likes. I love the White Stripes music, it not only fits so well, it was best rock song of 2004 (came out in 2003). You know, when Battlefield 1942 was born?

It has been said that the 1918 Armistice was just a 20 year truce before the war resumed. In many ways, the start of World War II was just the Great War, Part II. No, the nature of the governments, nationalism, and alliances was different, but the weapons and tactics used at the start were very much like those used in 1918. Both world wars have far more in common, especially from the standpoint of the soldiers on the ground, than the Cold War and Modern Warfare eras.

Basic rifles with iron sights, no electronics, no smart weapons, relatively slow vehicles and limited heavy weapons for individual soldiers (crew served weapons were more powerful, and those were what largely made Trench Warfare happen). For the typical ground-pounder role that players take in Battlefield, BF1 will look and feel a lot like BF 1942, with nicer graphics.

When I was speculating about the future of Battlefield, I considered a World War II game with the new Frostbite engine as a strong candidate. I honestly thought we’d be more likely to get either a modern warfare sequel to BF4, or an updated, cold-war-ish take for Bad Company 3. The thought that DICE would actually go back to their roots and do a Great War game didn’t occur to me, and I took rumors that it was going to happen with a grain of salt. But hey, they did it.

Did you know that BF 1942 is actually derived from a World War I game? Codename: Eagle, a 1999 FPS game from Refraction Games (who created the Refractor Engine, and were purchased by DICE to become the heart of the team which created Battlefield). I never played it, as I started the series with BF1942, but it was an alternative history take on WW II, where a Russian hero has to save the world from a coup which would lead to a tyrant taking over the world, and restore the lost Tsarina to the throne. A pretty daring story line, I would say.

Battlefield 1? It makes sense as a reboot of the whole series, and there never was a BF 1 before. It does mean that the sequel can’t be BF2 without being confusing. Then again, EA Star Wars Battlefront doesn’t even have a number, and it is a reboot of the game of the same name. Oh well, they do it with movies, I guess it is too late to stop this trend.

The classes also go back to BF 1942 — Assault, Medic, Support, Scout — with a bit of a cross from Battlefield 2 in the roles.  There is no Anti-Tank class as such.  However, vehicle crews get their own classes, so if you spawn in a plane you’re a Pilot, and if you are in a Tank you’re an Engineer.  A whole squad of five can fit in the ground vehicles and work together.  A cool new feature is the ability to form a squad before entering a game, so you can automatically be placed together when you start.

One amazing part of using a historical war is the ability to use historical locations, battles, events, and people, to actually tell a story which educates as well as entertains. The stuff we’ve seen so far is pretty awesome in that regard.

The Harlem Hellfighters. The USA entered WW 1 relatively late (1917), and the long trench-warfare stalemate was coming to a close. Many African-Americans enlisted in the hope of earning greater respect and equality. The US Army leadership didn’t want to mix black soldiers with its white units, so instead, they were sent to help out the French. They were overjoyed to have these aggressive “Yanks” join them, and shared none of the prejudices of their fellow white Americans. They participated in some of the most important, and hellishly intense, fighting along the Western Front.

Lawrence Of Arabia. One of several British diplomatic agents who encouraged the Arabs to rise up against the Ottoman Empire (one of Britain’s enemies in the war), his efforts led to a wave of successful attacks against the Empire from the Arab peninsula all the way up to Damascus. Lightly equipped for the most part, with air support from Britain (and Germany, for the Empire), this is desert warfare at its finest, from 1916-1918.

The Red Baron. The Air War along the Western Front started as small skirmishes, but by 1917 had developed into a new form of warfare. The iconic Fokker Dr.I triplane had a relatively short service life, from September of 1917 to the spring of 1918, but for this short period the power of the dazzlingly maneuverable (but sadly slow and fragile in the long run) triplanes on both sides created legends whose short lives survive as stories to this day. The last few months of the war saw the dawn of the modern air force and air power, though most at the time didn’t recognize just how important this would be.

The aircraft, armored vehicles, and weapons of World War I weren’t quite as powerful as those of its successor. But they weren’t that far off, either. Many weapons and vehicles used in WW II were developed and even used during the Great War. Biplanes remained in service at the start of WW II. Most of the tanks and planes that people think of from WW II were introduced after the war started.

One big difference was the change from bolt-action to semiautomatic for the standard issue rifles used by all sides. They were introduced in WW I, at the very end (only the French used many of them). But that didn’t make bolt action rifles obsolete, and they continue to be used to this day. How this will play out for the soldiers in BF 1 we will need to wait and see. But I would guess that as elite, special soldiers, our characters will have free access to weapons which wouldn’t be standard issue.

Submachine guns and lighter machineguns which a single soldier could carry were developed and deployed in WW 1. The classic Browning Automatic Rifle (an attempt to make a full auto assault rifle, too heavy and awkward to use as such, but a perfectly fine ancestor of the modern Squad Automatic Weapon (like the M249), was immensely successful with more than 50 years of service. The Italian Beretta M1918 was the first SMG which might be classed as standard issue, but a good number saw service during the war. Semi-auto shotguns were introduced, as well as pump action shotguns, for the very intense, short range combat common in the trenches. Hand grenades went from limited, ineffective weapons to the lethal frag grenades of today, and the first anti-vehicle grenades also appeared.

No Bazooka/RPG style rockets, not yet. There were rockets, but they were vehicle mounted weapons, too heavy for a soldier to use.

Optical scopes were rarely used, and not that great in quality yet. Nothing like the modern warfare range of optics. Almost everyone used iron sights. This held true in WW II as well — the best sniper in history avoided using optics, because the scope glint could give him away (and he was just that good of a shot, he didn’t need them).

In BF 1942, we didn’t need all the fancy electronics and gadgets to have a fun game. Star Wars Battlefront shows just how good 15 years of technical improvement can look. Note that Battlefront is a 1st/3rd person shooter, with many weapons not having optics, or not using them in 3rd person anyway, and it still looks and plays great. The spectacular evolution of the graphics (and physics) of the Frostbite engine will make this vision of warfare in the past far more intense and realistic than ever before.

Were you blown away by the BF 1 trailer, and the quality of its graphics? Angry Joe was, to my surprise (he usually looks for negatives in games, but makes exceptions from time to time). How much of what we saw was actual game engine footage? And of that, how much will we get in the multiplayer experience?

I can’t confirm anything, but I would say that none of it was pre-rendered cut scenes, as such. Some might play out as cut scenes, but I believe even those were rendered with the game engine. Most, though, I think were scenes which will play out in 3D action, either in the single or multiplayer game. If DICE has taken the realism levels of Star War Battlefront (mapping from real pictures and objects), and incorporated the awesome destruction technology shown in past Battlefield games (especially Bad Company 2 and BF 3 Close Quarters), and much of the cool effects in BF4, into this upgrade to the Frostbite engine, I believe this is entirely possible. We are also leaving behind the old-gen consoles with this new generation of the game, along with the limitations they imposed on game design.

Don’t think that’s possible? How many of you thought that the Star Wars Battlefront trailers had to be cut scene videos, rather than the game action they turned out to be?

What sort of multiplayer battles can be expect?

Well, Trench Warfare is what many people think of when they talk about WW I. It was by far not the only war fought with static, well fortified lines — sieges are probably as old as warfare itself — but the improvements in automatic weapons and artillery made it extremely costly, if not suicidal, to assault a dug-in enemy. The improvements in weapons, and the use of effective air power and mechanized, armored vehicles, allowed this stalemate to be broken at the end of the war. Though the heavy losses taken earlier also contributed to the situation, and helped mask the power of the new technology, the period where “The Yanks Are Coming, Over There” provide a lot of action which is not just a bloody grindfest.

Still, I expect we will have some of those. Both for historical reasons, and because some players like the intense, non-stop, brutal constant action. The Hellfighters saw enough of that for sure.

They also fought in the forests and fields, away from the trenches. That opens up room for battle maps where the terrain starts out looking almost normal, and ends up in total devastation as the battle progresses.

The Red Baron, and the Air War, offer loads of fun for players who want to enjoy air combat. In the Great War, the primary mission of air units was actually reconnaissance, not offense. An assault of the trenches required good information on the enemy position, but just as important, you had to deny the enemy knowledge of where your troops were advancing. Both sides used balloons and airships, as well as scout planes, to monitor the battleground and direct artillery strikes. The later war, though, added more heavy weapons and powerful aircraft, making it possible to use planes as aerial artillery, not just scouts. This makes for a lot of possible air-based game modes.

First, basic Air Superiority. Fighters duel against each other, with perhaps some objectives to fight over, but mostly to score air kills.

Second, Balloon Busting. The observation balloons weren’t that easy to take out, not with guns both on the ground and on the balloons themselves. As well, fighter aircraft would defend them. With roles for both ground and air forces (perhaps the ground guns could be AI automation), the challenge would be to destroy the enemy balloons, while keeping your own alive. As many balloons (looking more like blimps) used hydrogen, making one explode could be hazardous to planes close to it. Parachutes were developed to save flyers lives in this period.

Third, the Bombing Raid. The bomber team (or both could have them) would try to protect the bombers as they attempt to destroy key targets, perhaps a short of “Rush In The Sky” game. This allows the bigger, multi-crew aircraft a special place to shine.

Of course, general Conquest battles will have lots of aircraft, but these modes would be exclusively geared to flying combat.

The trailer shows a battleship in combat, and an armed train, both of which saw plenty of use in this war. How they will be used in the game, outside of the general conquest role, we will have to wait and see. But there are possibilities.

The Arab Revolt has a lot of action, much of it following the route of the Hejaz railroad through the desert. Horses, camels, but the battles of the Suez and Aqaba also saw ships and planes in good use. Expect a lot of fast moving action here.

We have the Italian front and the Alps campaigns, for mountain fighting, and the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaign give us actual beachfront assaults. Plus it is called World War I because it was actually fought in many locations all around the world, involving many nations. Africa and Asia offer some interesting choices for battle locations. Plus there is the whole Eastern Front (which collapsed in 1917, and led to the revolution in Russia, but still offered a lot of battles). I think there is room for a lot of variety in combat, from this war which many have almost forgotten, just a century or so past.

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