This Battlefield 1 review will probably be different than the vast majority of reviews around the game currently. This review will attempt to capture what made the campaign, called "War Story" mode so captivating, and hopefully show those who jumped straight to multiplayer what they are missing in this particular iteration of the game
Story Telling in First Person Shooters
There are examples of terrific stories in the FPS genre, the best example of this is the Bioshock series. However, while the story contains one of the best plot twists in gaming (in my humble opinion of course), the gameplay doesn't really compliment the narrative. You are a character, mowing through enemies by their dozens, all while someone is talking in your ear, you could get the same story by just having the narrator talk to you while a movie is playing on screen.
However, Battlefield 1 does something different, they captivate the player in the story by showing that the character they are playing is human, EA DICE does an amazing job of humanizing war, and takes you out of the role of "supreme badass" and shows you the human side to every soldier, something that hasn't been done well in a long time
Battlefield 1's Story Mode Layout
The story mode in Battlefield 1 is different than nearly every other FPS, in that it is discontinuous. You are not 1 war hero moving through a single campaign, similar to world war 1 itself, you are a myriad of soldiers, or in some cases scoundrels, who are part of distinct nations and military campaigns throughout the theater of war. This discontinuity allows the story telling to be fluid as well, with some narratives being first person, some a recounting from a veteran, and some even being potentially untrue. As with all good stories, however, they capture the audience and drive them forward ceaselessly.
The Campaign(s)
As mentioned, the campaign is not singular, Battlefield 1 follows the story of six separate soldiers spread across the various battlefields of world war 1. The game opens with a poignant message about the war, and its survivors, and proceeds to discuss likelihood of survival for a soldier in front-line combat. Without going into too much detail, you are not expected to survive the first mission.
Right away you are given a different view point than most war based FPS games will give you, someone on the losing end of a firefight. Moving on from there, the player is able to pick 1 of 5 various "war stories" which follow a single soldier through a single military campaign, and these stories are all meant to give a glimpse of that particular campaigns type of warfare.
Without further ado, lets get into the storytelling of the game!
Spoiler's Ahead!
Through Mud and Blood
The first war story I chose to undertake was telling the story similar to the movie "Fury" starring Brad Pitt and Shia Labeouf.
A young driver from Britain is attached to a WW1 British "Landship" (read: tank) crew, and their first mission is to drive through German fortifications until they reach, and capture, a French village. As with most plans in wartime, the attack quickly falters, and soon the tank is isolated, behind enemy lines, in a forest filled with traps specifically meant to destroy tanks. Sound familiar?
Eventually the tank makes it clear, but not before suffering casualties, eventually there is a heroic last stand, and only the driver and one other crew member make it. But, while all this is occurring, the driver is changing. He reflects on his life in Britain, and eventually realizes that he is no longer the same man, made apparent when he removes his white driving gloves, now completely blood soaked.
This particular story was the closest to what I call an "interactive movie". The storytelling and drama involved are reminiscent of script writing, but the player is still in the drivers seat, literally and figuratively in this case.
The Runner
Something to keep in mind about WW1 was that it occurred from 1914-1918, the world was just beginning to develop radio as a means of quickly communicating over great distances, before that, and in the middle of a battlefield, there were two ways to get messages delivered, carrier pigeons, or you would deliver it yourself.
"The Runner" campaign follows an Australian soldier through the experience of being said runner. The campaign story notably has you dodging artillery strikes, both Turkish and British, as you try to deliver messages between command posts. The story revolves around the protagonist, a rugged veteran, trying to keep a green recruit alive by volunteering for these missions, and saving the rookie a number of times from near death experiences. This rapid development of a "Father-son" relationship is catalyzed by the constant threat of death raining from the sky, and a looming Turkish castle, heavily fortified. Ultimately, the veteran sacrifices his life in a desperate attempt to buy time for his rookie to escape by single-handedly assaulting the castle, knowing full well that British artillery was about the blow the entire area out of existence. The last shot of the campaign is of Frank Bishop, the veteran, looking out from the courtyard at the bay, filled with British ships, as they begin bombarding, and he smiles, knowing his rookie escaped.
This particular story differs from the majority of other war time FPS, as it demonstrates that not all heroes are survivors, and that sometimes to save your fellow soldier, you need to be willing to sacrifice your own life in exchange.
Nothing is Written
The 3rd war story follows one of the more controversial campaigns, and "heroes" (depending who you talk to) of WW1. The campaign follows the guerrilla warfare of Laurence of Arabia and his Bedouin tribes as they fought against the much better equipped Ottoman empire in Arabia. While the player does not play as Laurence himself, they assume the role of his right hand, a Bedouin warrior who excels at this particular brand of warfare. While most FPS's have missions where the hero is stuck behind enemy lines, but in this particular case, there are no enemy lines, you are outnumbered and outgunned in every sense of the word. Yet, against all odds, in this particular mission you are able to overcome those odds and knock the Ottomans back a step.
Avanti Savoia
The 4th war story is where the writers started to deviate from the more traditional types of story telling. in Avanti Savoia, the first cut-scene isn't of a field camp, or the beginning of an assault, its of a man, sitting at his desk, looking at pictures from the war itself. He is joined by his granddaughter, who asks him to tell his story.
This man's story if of his brothers final mission in the Italian army, while the protagonist is a member of the Arditi, an elite Italian unit whose motto is along the lines of "Victory or Death", the protagonists brother is a member of the regular infantry. While assaulting a heavily defended Austro-Hungarian fort, everything goes to hell, and the assault falters, all while the protagonist is narrating to his granddaughter.
At this point, the protagonist begins a nearly one man assault on the fort, and as he describes his decision, to look for his brother whom he believes is dead, his granddaughter gasps and doesn't believe him.
As the protagonist assaults, and eventually succeeds, in capturing the fort, he desperately seeks his lost brother, the player is hearing this survivor describe this scene to his family.
Ultimately, just as the protagonist is giving in to the hope that his brother found a way to survive, he is found dead, just outside the fort walls, and finally the player knows that the story being told was about the death of the protagonists brother, not the victorious assault on the fort.
Friends in High Places
The final war story to be covered has one of the most interesting twists in a while, especially coming from a triple A game.
Friends in High Places tells the story of an American scoundrel who wants to fly a British plane. It opens with the protagonist stealing a plane from an Earl in the British airforce, and impersonating said pilot so that his co-pilot doesn't get suspicious.
While their first training mission goes rather well, resulting in the scoundrel finding out about a large German weapons depot, the second mission does not go so well. While assaulting the depot found in the first mission, the plane is shot down in No-man's land, a stretch of land between the French and German trenches, where anything moving gets shot. While the protagonist was able to jump out of his plane and land behind German lines, his co pilot was not so lucky. As the protagonist is making his way through, he comes across the downed plane, with the co-pilot injured, but alive. The protagonist is faced with a decision, escape on his own, or try and save the co-pilot. As the scoundrel plans to leave, his co-pilot demands that he either be saved, or the scoundrel kills him himself. At which point the protagonist picks up a 2x4 and is about to kill the co-pilot before he undergoes a change of heart.
After rescuing the co-pilot, the scoundrel is eventually arrested and is going to be court-martialed for stealing the plane of the earl. However, before he is able to be sentenced, the Germans attack. Ultimately, after a daring rescue, and seemingly saving London from being destroyed by bombers, the protagonist climbs out of the river Thames and looks at the camera. He begins to say, that while he is a hero, others might tell a different story. One in which he didn't save his co-pilot, but rather killed him, and instead of saving London he simply slipped away and worked his way through west Europe.
The introduction of a potential deviation of the story, one in which the player can't trust the storyteller. This particular story stuck with me the most, because it is one of the more difficult story telling techniques to do. By forcing the player to call into question the validity of the story, the player typically goes through the entirety of the story in their head, getting them to solidify it.
The Wrap Up
While the gameplay in Battlefield 1 will be familiar to those who have played an EA DICE game before, the storytelling is radically different. Most of the stories are interesting tales that capture the attention of the player in ways games of the FPS genre typically don't. Battlefield 1 shows that war is hell, and the survivors are not necessarily the lucky ones.
I hope with this review of the story mode will speak to the players who have neglected it, and convince them to give it a second chance to enjoy the experience and the diverse styles of storytelling.