TheOverclocker Issue 40 | Page 39

lovely . But ! I have played the singleplayer campaigns of BF 3 and 4 , and those are just … they ’ re really not good . For all their shout-y bombast and grand spectacle and LOOK AN EXPLODING THING , those campaigns are empty . Hollow . They ’ re soulless , me-too tripe . By contrast , Battlefield 1 ’ s solo mode is unexpectedly brilliant .
Cleverly , rather than placing you in the combat boots of some invincible super-soldier , a painfully unrelatable one-person army tasked with singlehandedly preserving The Fate of the World , DICE instead opted to split the campaign into a handful of bitesized mini-campaigns called War
Stories . Each of these casts you as a distinct character , just another cog in the war machine , and DICE has made excellent use of these selfcontained narratives to highlight and celebrate the sacrifices of the countless men and women who risked their lives during The Great War . These heroes and heroines range from a famous Australian sniper , to a freedom fighter battling alongside Lawrence of Arabia , to a cocky pilot who cons his way into the British air force .
Some of these War Stories are more impactful than others , obviously . And let ’ s not forget that this is still very much a game about shooting things and / or blowing stuff up repeatedly , about getting creative with a wide array of destructive weaponry . But there ’ s nevertheless an undercurrent of sincere reverence and appreciation that runs through each micro-narrative . DICE has been very careful in honouring those who suffered and sacrificed so much during the war , and you ’ ll experience moments of genuine emotional poignance during the few hours it ’ ll take you to run through the solo missions . And yes , there ’ s a bit where you soar above the battlefield as a messenger pigeon , getting a bird ’ s-eye view of the devastation wrought upon the landscapes of World War I . In terms of the actual design of the missions
Issue 40 | 2017 The OverClocker 39