The Gameplay is good, fast paced, TTK is really low, weapon balance is good, vehicles still need improvement

A disservice to history. Intentional “sabotage” of uniforms and equipment, just out of fear for being bashed for making “Nazis look cool” or whatever (then why make a WWII game at all?)…

One of the most disrespectful things I’ve ever seen in entertainment, is to be found in this game; the act of replacing the eight Norwegian soldiers (under British control) with a local Norwegian daughter and mother. That is just beyond me. “Operation Gunnerside” was a unique operation during WWII, being one of the few notable things happening in Norway during the war, and being a strong symbol of resistance and the willpower of an oppressed people (despite the fact that it turned out the Germans were far away from making a nuclear bomb, and the operation didn’t make much of a difference). These eight men put their lives on the line, contributing to the effort of making us free and being able to, for instance, sit here and write reviews on IGDB. Some films were made, and that’s great. But now that gaming finally has started to become a generally accepted form of entertainment (also increasing insanely in worth, being a BILLION dollar business), I find it truly sad to see things like this happening…

I have been waiting for a triple-A video game for ten years now. We only got two (CoD: WWII & Battlefield V) – and neither of the developers had the guts to make a true WWII-shooter. I loved the previous WWII-game produced by a triple-A company (CoD: WaW), but I would truly love to see one with great graphics and attention to detail. WaW was filled with mistakes, but they can be excused by the budget and limited technology of 2008 and before. Now EA has the best mechanics (at least in my opinion, I love the “feel” of their games), the best graphics (argueably) and they DO have the budget. They had the chance of a decade to nail down every little detail of the war, to make the game of possibly the decade. But instead they turned their back to their customers, fans and to those interested in history (espeically WWII).

A few things to mention in regards of the details:

– In Battlefield 1, the Germans wear “Field Gray” uniforms made out of mostly wool. They NAILED it, in regards to the look, the shininess, the way it looks when it’s wet, etc.. The Germans kept on using this material for their uniforms in WWII – yet the developers at EA/DICE decided to trash the previous excellent work and make the Germans wear some strange-looking blue-gray ish shirt-like material (not even with the right design). This is a great example of the sabotage done, as they already had someone make the perfect material (I believe that’s quite a job, wool is not easiest material to make digitally/graphically), yet they trashed it (for no other reason I can think of, than to piss *ff geeks like me, who pay attention to details).

– Arguably, the most iconic part of the German uniform is the infamous “Stahlhelm” (steel helmet). Once again, to avoid backlash by radically-left media (for having “NAZI ITEMS” in a popular media), they decided to use the Hungarian M38 helmet – which is fairly similar, but very different at the same time. The strange things about this, is that as a helmet collector, I can tell you that the Hungarian helmet is rare to come across (at all), compared to the German one. For every Hungarian helmet I come across (online, in antique shops, etc), I come across 40+ German ones (due to ~25M German helmets being made during the war, compared to >50K Hungarian ones). So why in the world would they choose to put a Hungarian one in the game, when German ones are SO much easier to find and make a 3D-model out of? And no, Germans did not wear Hungarian helmets – at least not in enough numbers to make every God d*mn helmet in this game like that.

– A complete disregard to the course of the war. Almost all the Germans seem to be wearing camouflage. That would be fair enough for an ~April 1945 based game, not for Norway in 1940 (many of these camouflages didn’t even EXIST by that time). You can see Tiger I tanks in Norway during 1940, and in Libya during 1941 – even though, funnily enough, the first Tiger I was deployed in the very end of 1942… And as a cherry on the top; the German Tiger I in Norway has desert camouflage – despite being in snowy Norwegian mountains/fjords (just like Germans were idiots, which they definitely were not).

– The Germans were known for having quite some insignia on their uniforms – yet near none of this is to be seen in the game. You have stupid twists like an Iron Cross medal on the German visor cap, even though the Iron Cross were ONLY seen below the neck or on the left chest, during the war. Who the f*ck puts medals on their hat, either way!? I saw some random multiplayer characters showing a great mix (and a great f*ck up, in regards of history) in someone’s gameplay. It was an enlisted soldier (one of the four bottom ranks, based on the shoulder boards), he was in the artillery (based on lining on the hat), he had a dyed-blue WWI camouflage on his tunic (pure fantasy, did not exist during the war), with a general’s cord on his visor cap (despite being an enlisted private), of all the equipment he didn’t wear, he had his mess tin (the “tool” you can drink from and cook food in) strapped to the front of his chest (random as F*CK, couldn’t he have a roll of toilet paper as well?), etc., etc., etc….

To the people who say that people like me just are afraid of women in games, and minorities – then how come no other of the previous shooters faced a backlash like this? It’s because this is set in a historical setting. That’s why. You can look on for hours and hours, and find one woman there, one black guy there, etc – but what’s the point when tens millions of white men fought and died in this conflict? And if you find those single persons out of millions more important than the majority – then why don’t you focus on that? For instance, lots of “minorities” fought for the Germans, despite common belief. Just look up a GREAT Facebook page called “Foreign Volunteers of the Wehrmacht” (the title is wrong, as it’s the Wehrmacht and the SS, but whatever). You’ll be surprised to see Eurasians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Slavs, etc fighting for Germany (voluntarily). It would have been truly awesome and eye-opening for people to play as these. And before you call me a neo-nazi or something like that – I hate Nazism, racism, Communism, Capitalism, and all radicalism equally. I don’t want Nazi Germany to be put in a positive light, but I would like to see more about the average German soldiers; because they were just like you and me, after all.

To conclude, I hate this game, as this would have been my favorite game for decades – had it not been for this ridiculous revision of history. It COULD have been so good, so very, very good… I guess I’m just extremely disappointed and frustrated, as others game companies now thinks that WWII is a risky setting (as they think the games sold bad due to the setting, not the execution) – and I’ll have to wait another decade for a worthy WWII-game (unless they f*ck those ones up as well, it wouldn’t surprise me, to be honest)…

In my opinion as a veteran battlefield player, battlefield has had their best times and their worst moments. Overall, I would say that the campaign is informational on things I never found out in WW2 history. The multiplayer is smooth (if you have a great system to play on). In rebuttal of Heinrich’s negativity review, EA does not want copyright infringement first of all. Second, this a review not an opinion whereas what you hate or love. Third, there is no need to have the nazi signs where it can offend people and/or the media when it comes to this making a WW2 game that contains nazi germany. Last, why write a negative review on a game that did not finish their campaign yet. After all, I would say that EA has more improvements/fixes in their game that would make the game more enjoyable for years to come.