Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Despite its name, it is the fifteenth installment in the Battlefield franchise, the first main entry in the series since Battlefield 4 (2013), and the first World War I video game published by Electronic Arts since Wings of Glory in 1994. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One worldwide on 21 October 2016. One major DLC expansion has since been released, They Shall Not Pass (spotlighting and introducing the French forces), with three more in the works. The next DLC, In The Name of the Tsar (featuring the Eastern Front and introducing the Russians), is yet to be released.

Find the gameplay trailer here.


 * Action Girl: In The Name of the Tsar has women serving among the Russian forces, which is Truth in Television.
 * Alternate History: The ending narrations for Operations mode tend to slide into this, speculating what would have happened had certain battles turned out different from Real Life, and how it could have either ended the Great War much earlier or dragged it out further.
 * And Now for Something Completely Different: In contrast to previous entries in the Battlefield series, which generally cover the modern/near-future era, this one goes all the way back to World War I.
 * Automaton Horse: Not only are horses available (and thus allow for cavalry), but they also turn on a dime.
 * Bayonet Ya: Generally standard for bolt-action rifles, though the game also includes other melee weapons ranging from knives to trench shovels and clubs.
 * BFG: The various anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. The Albion map for the upcoming In The Name of the Tsar DLC meanwhile goes even further by introducing massive naval gun emplacements.
 * Cool Airship: Zeppelins are mentioned as aerial behemoths comparable to landships.
 * Cool Train: Certain maps make it possible to deploy armored trains that can deliver hell just about anywhere.
 * Darker and Edgier: Compared to previous Battlefield games, given the carnage and destruction on display.
 * A Day in the Limelight: The game makes a point to highlight how World War I wasn't just the trench warfare seen in the Western Front, including maps set in the Arabian deserts, the Alps and Gallipoli among others.
 * After their seemingly inconspicuous absence in the base game, the They Shall Not Pass DLC finally give the French their due, in addition to putting more focus on the harrowing chaos on the Western Front.
 * In The Name of the Tsar meanwhile spotlights the lesser-known and much more fluid Eastern Front as well as the beleaguered Russians.
 * Dueling Games: Of sorts with Verdun, which is also a multiplayer first-person shooter set in World War I albeit putting a stronger emphasis on realism and authenticity. Further solidified by the They Shall Not Pass DLC directly putting an emphasis on the infamous Battle of Verdun itself.
 * The upcoming Tannenberg standalone expansion is shaping up to be one to the In the Name of the Tsar DLC, given how both put a strong emphasis on the Eastern Front.
 * Everything Breaks: Like other recent entries in the Battlefield series, environments are thoroughly destructible.
 * Grey and Gray Morality: As with the real Great War, who the good guys and villains are is much less clear.
 * Historical Domain Character: Lawrence of Arabia and a certain Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron make an appearance in the "War Stories" campaigns.
 * Istanbul (Not Constantinople): A number of locales in that game use antiquated if not obsolete versions of their current names. The Tsariitsyn map the In The Name of the Tsar DLC for instance is set in a Russian city that's known today as Volgograd and during World War II as Stalingrad.
 * Meaningful Name: While Battlefield 1 isn't the first title in the series, the title name not only nods to its setting but also signifies the franchise returning to its historical roots.
 * No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted. While the "War Stories" single-player campaigns are all told from the perspective of soldiers among the Entente/Allies (including Lawrence of Arabia), Operations mode (which is a campaign-style mode for multiplayer) allows players to choose either side.
 * Frontlines, which is in essence Operations mode condensed into a single map, also allows for this.
 * Rare Guns: A number of prototype and limited-production firearms (including automatic rifles and submachine guns) are available and commonly used in-game, in contrast to the bolt-action rifles that were much more prevalent during the time in Real Life.
 * Real Is Brown: Averted. While the Western Front remains infamously bleak, various other theatres are decidedly more colorful but no less brutal.
 * The Red Baron: In addition to old-fashioned dogfights making a return, the Red Baron himself has made cameo appearances in the trailers.
 * Scenery Gorn: Many of the maps drive home the devastation wrought about by the Great War. The maps involving Verdun in They Shall Not Pass further ramp it Up to Eleven for nigh apocalyptic backdrops that are even on fire.
 * Shown Their Work:
 * Many of the weapons and vehicles seen in the game have markings, details and touches that are accurate to the time period.
 * The military alphabet used is that adopted by the British Royal Navy during the Great War, instead of the more familiar NATO callsigns used in the present day.
 * Even with the exaggerated, seemingly commonplace presence of Rare Guns in-game, DICE made a very solid effort in finding and researching them, especially when some of those guns are very obscure or never even entered mass-production.
 * Each side uses insignia, gas masks and other small details that are accurate to their respective factions.
 * The flags used for each faction are likewise accurate to the era and their respective countries. The US flag for instance has 48 stars, while the Austro-Hungarian one is that of the Habsburg monarchy.
 * The maps are all based on actual battlefields and locales, with the Operations mode similarly modeled on the historical campaigns waged on said maps.
 * Tsariitsyn as seen in the In The Name of the Tsar DLC has exactly one tank that can be deployed against enemies, which is a reference to how British military advisors to the White armies resorted to that during the Russian Civil War.
 * Tank Goodness: Various classes of early tanks are at your disposal, with the most powerful being large, lumbering landships.
 * War Is Hell: Even with the frentic action and much more colorful pallette, the game still manages to effectively drive home the horrors of war and how harrowing the Great War truly was. The narrations for Operations mode even reflect the brutality and grimness of it all.
 * World War I: The game is set during the Great War and covering various corners of the world. In The Name of the Tsar meanwhile adds the Russian Civil War into the mix, which lasted well after WWI ended and would lead to the rise of the Soviet Union.