EA has come out with a new installment to the Battlefield series. This time the game takes place during World War 2, and is the first World War 2 Battlefield game since Battlefield 1943, released nine years ago. This Battlefield game has been one of the most controversial ones to date, but that’s just the marketing, and we’re talking about the game-play here. Let’s start with the graphics with Battlefield V. This isn’t an understatement, Battlefield V just looks amazing, and a nice step up from Battlefield 1.

DICE’s attention to detail on Rotterdam and Narvik is as great as the game looks realistic, along with the lighting and shading we are confident on giving the games visual rating a 9/10 on graphics, especially with the attention to detail on the weapons. The only problems with the graphics are some lighting bugs here and there in some of the buildings (by that we mean that if you look outside a building, the inside of the building is overly dark when it shouldn’t be) and the color correction on both Rotterdam and Narvik; the maps being too bright.

The sound design of the game is stellar, and unique. It just feels so realistic to shoot weapons in-game, because of the punch it feels when the guns fire. Plus, the sound of your weapons and movement depend on the environment you are in (ie. you are inside a building, the gunfire from your weapon rings out around the room), giving a feel of immersion. The environmental sound and distance of noise goes well together in this game. 

The only problem with the design, is that it’s sometimes hard to tell what weapon someone is using when you’re in a situation that has to rely on sound, maybe because all the sounds of the weapons aren’t completely unique from one another. The weapons mostly sound the same, except different booms and power of the sound of the weapons. This problem becomes more noticeable at range. Sound design: 4.5 out of 5.

The major game-mode for Battlefield V is Grand Operations. This is a remake of the previous operations game-mode from Battlefield 1, but it is much bigger than the old operations game-mode. In Grand Operations the phases are called “Days” and on the first day attackers will deploy from a plane and grab bombs as soon as they land. Their objective is to try to destroy 4 artillery guns before the time runs out or they are out of lives. Unlike the Operations in Battlefield 1, if the attackers loses Day 1 it will still carry to the next day. In Day 2 it will go to a different part of the map and the attacker will now try to capture sectors like in Battlefield 1.

Now on to the game-play of the new game. The game-play of Battlefield V is pretty different when compared to Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4. The game-play of Battlefield V is a mixed bag, with the best of the game-play going towards the infantry, which we’ll talk about first. The gun play for the infantry is some of the best in my opinion, due to it requiring more skill when compared to Battlefield 1. For example, Battlefield 1’s “sweet spot” sniper bonus is no longer there in Battlefield V, meaning you have to put effort into completing a headshot instead of aiming at the torso from a certain distance.

Also, the weapons now have heavy recoil, with spray patterns that require to be mastered, similar to that of Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4, except the recoil and spread of the weapons aren’t affected by the RNG. This change basically rewards players who mastered the recoil of their weapon and punishes players for spraying too much. The gun play would be perfect, if it weren’t for the weapon upgrade system that came around in this new Battlefield.

If you didn’t know, the weapon upgrade system is similar to that of Battlefront 2 2017, where you spend points to upgrade your weapon, without any downsides. This system, I’d say, basically makes the best players/the most time spent players have a massive advantage when compared to newer players, or others who do not spend as much time upgrading their weapons. It would be preferable if this weapon upgrade system would give downsides to your weapon, such as lower spread on your rifle, but heavier recoil. Hopefully this can be ironed out by the time of release. 

Vehicle game-play is different, very different when compared to Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4. The vehicle play has changed for the worse, as vehicles are much slower and have a harder time dealing with players, but not as hard as that of Battlefield 1. This change in speed to the vehicles, in particular tanks, give less time for players to react to infantry, resulting in more tanks being destroyed than destroying. Thankfully, EA has stated that the tanks and planes will being buffed at release, making them faster and more powerful against other players. 

In our opinion the beta was good, not outstanding. The game-play was smooth for a beta, and while there were some bugs, they weren’t game breaking. The new Grand Operation game-mode was really fun and packed with action. The game has a good replay-ability factor, as there’s a good amount of content in the beta, and more coming on release. This high replayability factor is because of all the weapons to level up on, the cosmetics to grind up on, and the fact that the gun play has a high skill cap, making players willing to come back for more. All of this blending together makes the game have a lot of content to work on and level on. Replay ability factor: 4 out of 5.

We would rate this 4.5 out of  5.