In this Battlefield V review, we’ll go over the game’s messy marketing, new historical retellings, strange new gameplay mechanics, and the state of the game’s multiplayer mode as it stands in the present. Should you buy Battlefield V today? Let’s find out together down below.
Battlefield V is the most controversial entry in the entire Battlefield franchise. The liberty it took with its own ridiculous version of World War II, EA’s chief design officer insane message to those that didn’t like the game’s direction, and the addition of a battle royale mode announcement damaged the game’s image before it even launched. But three years have passed since then. Anyone that looks up a 2018 Battlefield V review won’t see the same game that it is today. Strangely enough, the last time I talked about the game was when it received sex new maps in Chapter 4.
Furthermore, it seems the franchise wants to go back to its roots. Near-future warfare, completely destructible environments, and huge maps for us to battle on with guns, vehicles, and anything else we can get our hands on. All of that and more arrives with Battlefield 2042. But first, let’s see if there’s a reason to try the previous title.
Battlefield V’s horrible marketing
Everything went to shit because of the game’s strange marketing direction. You see, Battlefield V went with World War II. However, not your standard version of history’s most disturbing war. No, this one has a lot of women in it, over-the-top face pain, advanced limb prosthetics, and so on.
It’s strange the creative director didn’t highlight actual female accomplishments in WWII but put female Rambo killing machines with robot arms. Imagine if we got War Stories where we played as some of the many female spies in highly intense cover operations? Now that would be amazing but alas it wasn’t meant to be.
Battlefield titles never went with 100% immersion. It’s not Escape from Tarkov, ARMA 3, or Red Orchestra 2. Therefore, the bar for realism isn’t that high. And then we got the Battlefield V Announcement Trailer:
It all looks like one flashy Hollywood movie scene, doesn’t it? Our heroes storm a house, take out the soldiers, spot a tank, jump through a window, and then ride away as those very tanks drive through everything, planes soar over their heads, and there’s also a zeppelin on fire that’s crashing right beside you.
Well, it’s definitely a version of World War II that we never saw before. Still, this isn’t the peak of the game’s horrible marketing strategy. That belongs to EA’s chief design officer Patrick Soderlund saying:
“Listen: this is a game. And today gaming is gender-diverse, like it hasn’t been before. There are a lot of female people who want to play, and male players who want to play as a badass [woman]. And we don’t take any flak. We stand up for the cause, because I think those people who don’t understand it, well, you have two choices: either accept it or don’t buy the game. I’m fine with either or. It’s just not OK.”
As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with fans. You can’t go around and shove a middle finger in the face of your fanbase. Yet, it’s time to separate the marketing from the actual game. Let’s start things off with Battlefield V’s single-player mode, aka the War Stories.
Battlefield V and its War Stories
Any Battlefield game review focuses firstly on multiplayer. However, we’re going to quickly go over War Stories and their missed potential. Since DICE went all-in with their “untold stories” ideology, there’s a chance they told some memorable and unknown stories.
As a matter of fact, there is one. The Last Tiger is a War Story where we shift perspectives. I don’t want to go into details as it’s actually brilliant storytelling that subverts expectations and lets us see through the eyes of our “enemies”. It’s the only time Battlefield V tries to show the true colors of war without sensationalism and makes you question the whole concept of who’s right and who’s wrong in the slaughter fest that was World War II.
The rest of it is littered with horrible dialogue, rough pacing, and a ton of insanely funny dialogue. Under the Flag sounds like a World War II parody. In that context it’s superb. Imagine any 90s Hollywood war movie and that’s what the War Stories are. I’d love to say more about them but they’re so utterly incompetent and poorly written that there’s no point. Do play The Last Tiger though, that one is immaculate.
Battlefield V has fun casual multiplayer
Now we come to the pinnacle of every Battlefield game review, the multiplayer side of things. In short, Battlefield V has a fun multiplayer mode for casual players. The maps have awesomely designed terrain for on-foot and vehicle combat, there’s a constant stream of skirmishes so there’s no downtime as the maps are smaller as well, and the sniping feels awesome.
Most Battlefield V PC reviews say this is just a Call of Duty game with bigger maps and vehicles. While there are aspects of that which are true, the Battlefield identity is still strong.
The best aspect of Battlefield V is the gunplay. It’s responsive, packs a punch, and while the recoil is a bit low for World War II weapons it’s still tolerable. Starting weapons are also well adjusted, so you don’t have to wait to unlock The Ribeyrolles 1918 or the M1935 to efficiently kill people. The StG 44 is the first assault rifle you get and it’s one of the best ones at that.
That being said, time to kill is low and now everyone gets to revive you. Medics do it a lot faster, but if you’re bleeding out you have the option of waiting for a teammate to come and revive you. Some hate this feature, others love it. I didn’t mind it, but since you’re waiting a lot when a normal player and not a Medic revives you, it’s easier to die right away and spawn on another location.
Another important subject is the player base. I catch a lot of people saying Battlefield V has a low player count. I’m not sure if that’s the case for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, but SteamDB shows a healthy number of 80, 000 concurrent players. Free weekends help but if you want to play Conquest, Frontline, Team Deathmatch, Domination there’s no shortage of jampacked servers.
However, Battlefield V has a low player count when it comes to its Firestorm mode. A battle royale mode just doesn’t seem to work for the Battlefield franchise. Strange considering the battle royale style of gameplay is what Battlefield games perfect a long time ago. I couldn’t hop into one match in 3 whole days so that says a lot about that.
The hacker problem
There is one glaring problem with Battlefield V that any PC review mentions, and that’s the hackers. I did run into a couple of them since wallhack is obvious in a game with destructible terrain since enemies blow you up no matter where you hide or how well you hide. While playing Battlefield V for this review, I didn’t notice that ALL the servers caught the hacker virus. I was able to hop out of one and enter another that was clear of them. Still, a lot of players reported these issues so it’s quite a rampant problem that DICE just refuses to deal with.
DICE isn’t addressing these issues for some reason and that’s quite a horrible decision. Battlefield V is a fun, exhilarating multiplayer shooter that’s fast-paced and easy to get into. Good gunplay, various vehicle options with good controls, and quite a few exceptional matches. But all of that fails if there’s just one hacker in the game.
Don’t buy it at full price, it’s not worth that much, but there’s one place where you can get it for dirt cheap.
Buy a Battlefield V PC key on HRK Game for dirt cheap
Why spend a ton of money on a Battlefield V game key when you can get it for an insanely low price? Head on over to HRK Game and get a Battlefield 5 origin key for -99% off! There’s a ton of content in the base game, but you also have the Battlefield V Deluxe Edition and the Battlefield V Definitive Edition.
Battlefield V Deluxe Edition
If you need to pick up the Battlefield V Deluxe Edition on Xbox One for cheap, we’ve got you covered. But before that, what’s the difference between Battlefield V Standard Edition and Battlefield V Deluxe Edition? Well, the latter gives you:
- Five Sets of Paratrooper Outfits
- Special Assignments
- 20 Weekly Items with Airlift
If you’re looking for the most complete Battlefield V experience you have the Definitive Edition.
Battlefield V Definitive Edition
Diehard Battlefield fans want the most content out of any Battlefield game. That’s why Battlefield V on PC is best experienced through the Definitive Edition (that’s currently heavily discounted). Buying this edition gets you:
- All gameplay content (weapons, vehicles, and gadgets) from launch, Year 1, and Year 2
- All Elites
- 84 immersive outfit variations for the British and German armies to enhance the WWII sandbox
- 8 soldier outfits from Year 2
- 2 weapon skins from Year 2, applicable to 10 and 4 weapons respectively
- 3 vehicle dressings
- 33 Chapter Reward items from Year 1
That’s it for this Battlefield V review. Do share any thoughts and comments you have down below!
