Players have gotten a fair taste of DICE’s latest multiplayer, but the developer has only now pulled back the curtain on the Battlefield 1 single player campaign. Instead of focusing on a single protagonist, the entire game will actually be structured as an anthology of War Stories.
“While our characters are at war, the stories in Battlefield 1 are personal. They’re about people rather than history or battles. The Great War is diverse. We knew we wanted to embrace that variety. There were so many different perspectives and characters in World War 1 and we wanted to cover as much ground as possible,” DICE writes on the Battlefield website.
The single player trailer below does a surprisingly good job of conveying the personal nature of the game and the variety locations and characters players can look forward to.
“We felt that to have one character hopping through those different settings wouldn’t be as immersive or totally respectful to the setting. So we decided on an anthology format; a set of characters with their own more focused stories. That way we can have immersion and variety – a double win.”
DICE speaks to one story in particular, called ‘Through Mud and Blood.’ The player steps into the shoes of Danny Edwards, a former chauffeur who volunteers for the British army and finds himself assigned as the new driver for a tightknit tank crew. He “is not an ace sniper. He’s not a crack pilot. He’s not a demo expert,” DICE says. He’s just a young driver, doing the best he can to earn the respect of his new crewmembers while learning how to survive.
Looking to embrace this new focus on character, Battlefield 1 will also feature more third-person cinematics, letting you actually see the characters instead of just viewing the world through their eyes. “That has really payed off for us not just in storytelling ability, but in emotional engagement.”
Firmly rooting the game in the first World War, Battlefield 1 will even include certain historical figures. Another War Story follows an Arab rebel who serves as the right hand of Lawrence of Arabia. Together, you fight to take down a giant armored artillery train.
And finally, when it comes to gameplay, DICE is aiming to give the player more choice about how to tackle different situations than ever before. “We’re embracing systemic gameplay and the freedom that makes Battlefield the high-agency game that it is.”
What this actually means for the player is that it will be up to you how encounters play out. You can use explosives to clear out an enemy camp and destroy their equipment, or you can go in more surgically, killing the enemy and stealing their vehicles for yourself. “Play it loud, quiet, long-range, close-up, on your horse, or in an appropriate vehicle – it’s up to you.”
Battlefield 1 launches October 21 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.