In case you missed it, Battlefield 5 had an open beta. Reaching it’s end on September 11, you know I had to run to the Internet to give you guys my opinion on Dice’s newest entry.

I honestly don’t even know where to start. I really want to like this game, and trust me I’m hyped for this as much as the next person who’s hyped for this. However, the beta really shined some lights on things that made me realize I’m glad I didn’t preorder this yet. Let’s dig deeper.

Gameplay/Visuals

Battlefield 5 keeps the series’ well known shooting mechanics going strong. There are some new additions of course:

• There’s a new ‘scarcity’ element, which means that you’ll spawn with less ammo and explosives than in previous games (this is called the Attrition system).
• Revives can now be done by any class, although they take far longer than Medic revives and only restore a limited amount of health.
• You no longer regenerate to full health – only a Medkit dropped by a Medic can fully heal you (or by picking up bandages from a station).
• Spotting has changed too – you now highlight areas of danger, rather than pinpointing specific enemies (except the sniper class can mark players).
• There’s a new construction option in the game (yes, like Fortnite), which allows you to fortify structures, and create new things. Support class soldiers can build faster, and create more things – you can now build fixed LMGs, for example – but every soldier is capable of building.
• You can destroy buildings from the inside out, and flying debris will now kill enemy soldiers. Bullets will penetrate walls too, so you can shred houses and kill enemy troops inside.

A lot of this information was made known by early articles covering the game, yet I added some of my personal notes after playing the beta.

There’s a new game mode called Grand Operations, which is basically Operations from Battlefield 1, except over a two day in game period. This was the only game mode I played because I loved Operations in BF1. Unfortunately, players could only play on Arctic Fjord for Grand Operations. The cool part was, if you’re attacking you jump out of plane to start the match.

Your character has some new movement tricks such as jumping through windows and rolling. and can also prone backwards (not sure if that’s the right terminology but think Rainbow 6 Siege). It’s the little things folks.

There is a skill tree where you can earn currency to unlock said skills. They do allow for extensive customization of your guns like changing the barrels, muzzle, stock and skins. Pretty cool.

The game looks pretty freaking good. Snow falls and the Northern Lights look pretty awesome when you’re not shooting at enemies. The game looks good, and Dice usually delivers on the visual aspect.

Impressions

I really tried my hardest to be as good as possible, and not spoil any critique I had. Now it’s time to unload the LMG and get to work.

Change is a tough concept to grasp. Some can be good, others can be bad. To me, BFV is making some bad changes starting with the Attrition system. Basically, you spawn with less ammo and explosives, which is fine for balancing. However, having to constantly look for ammo stations is so back-asswards. Let’s not forget to mention, the weapons feel like they have crazy recoil, and you’re already low on ammo. You can pick up ammo from fallen foes, but most times it’ll be 5 bullets. What the hell am I going to do with 5 bullets in my STG44?

Reviving is bizarre. Everybody can revive, but Medics revive faster. Upon death, you go into a second chance mode where you can reach out for help to be revived. Sounds cool except nobody revives. This isn’t Dice’s fault, I know, but the problem lies in what happens when nobody revives you. You sit on your back like a helpless turtle with your arm out “calling” for help. You can hold down a button to make the bleed out time go faster so you’re not waiting forever, but it’s slow. If I were to improve that system, there should be a button that automatically lets people skip the animation and respawn AND/OR they add a feature that highlights your icon if you want to be revived therefore making it borderline impossible to be ignored. As of now the font is too small, and most people probably change classes when they die.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the vehicle weapon sounds are pretty bad. The tank sounds weak as heck, and hopefully, they’ll realize that.

There’s been ton of technical difficulties as well. My friend died, and the game wouldn’t let him respawn. That same game I died and respawned with no HUD. Matchmaking was borderline atrocious as we had to quit the game multiple times in order to get a game. I feel like every year there’s always something wrong with Battlefield betas, and this one just keeps the trend going forward.

I think what really scares me about this beta is that the game was scheduled to release in October, but they pushed the date back to November. Imagine if it came out in this state, and Dice was hoping they could use patches to fix the state of the game? BF5 would’ve been buried.

I did have a ton of fun playing the beta, I won’t lie. There are just a lot of technical issues, which are understandable, and a lot of gameplay issues, that aren’t easily fixable. I’m still looking towards the November release, but I can’t help but wonder what state is the game going to arrive in. Are they going to make any significant changes based off of fan feedback?

Only time will tell soldier.