I dove into the Battlefield V beta last night. While I enjoyed the tense gunfights, I’m not so sure about some of the game’s changes. From shifts in how ammo is handled to changes to weapon customisation, my fun was tempered by some scepticism about what my favourite multiplayer shooter might be like at launch.
The first major change, and one that fans either seem to love or loathe, is limiting how much ammo a player can have. When you spawn in, you have two magazine for your primary weapon. This is fine if you’re running around as a recon soldier and nailing headshots with your Kar98, but if you’re interested in playing a more aggressive role like the assault class, it starts to become a problem.
Having only two magazines for my machine gun meant I kept running into situations where I was forced to pull out my pistol or otherwise shuffle to one of the many supply points on the map to restock. In theory, this change is meant to give the Support class more value.
If folks need ammo more often, it becomes essential to have a Support soldier in your squad to hand out those glorious bullets. In practice, because maps are so big and separation from your squad is common—either from being overwhelmed by enemies or tactically splitting up – it mostly leaves you in a pinch if you manage to survive more than a minute or two.
Sure, it might cut down on the sniper camp-fests that plagued Battlefield 1, but the more time I spend with this system, the more it feels like it doesn’t work.
I’m not sure how I feel about the weapons upgrades, either. Broadly, you’re able to upgrade weapons with certain tweaks—faster reloading or ADS time—that take place on an upgrade tree with a few different paths. You choose which path you want to prioritise and then it’s locked into place for that gun.
If you want a different variation, you have to start upgrading a “new” version of the gun, which leaves you with multiple versions of a gun instead of, say, simply having attachments that you can swap out at will.
It’s clumsy, and it’s made ever clumsier by the fact that while you can alter your weapon’s cosmetics from in a match, you need to leave a match in order to select and make upgrades. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it feels unwieldy. I don’t think it’s an improvement over the more straightforward approaches of previous games.
Battlefield has always been a highly tactile series; it captures the feeling of running around and handling heavy weapons. Upgrades currently feel nebulous and divorced from the actual gameplay in a way that’s pretty noticeable for the series.
The result of these two systems is that players need to constantly resupply and to leave matches to upgrade their gear. It’s a lot of busy work that makes heroic flag pushes and dangerous kill streaks more of a rarity. Individual combat exchanges are fast and snappy, but the higher level pace of each match is oddly stuttered.
I think Battlefield V’s raw gunplay is some of the best of the series, but without some tweaks, that intense Battlefield feeling I’ve come to know and love doesn’t quite shine through.
Comments
14 responses to “Battlefield V’s Beta Feels Too Slow”
I’m one of the one’s who quite liked the limited ammo on all the classes. But overall, I just felt like this was COD on a bigger map. I miss the sprawling maps filled with vehicles and strategically taking points. This game just feels like a constant deathmatch with people all around
I want to like BFV, I really do, but a (frankly boring) couple of rounds in the beta last night left me feeling like wasn’t a good use of my free time. The frustrating part is that I cant seem to work out why it’s so underwhelming… maybe its just a lot of little things I don’t normally notice individually.
I’ll definitely give it another shot or two, but this might very well be the first battlefield I skip completely.
That’s how I feel. Tonight I jumped into a BF4 match and I enjoyed it more than I did the matches I played in BFV. I don’t know if it’s not being used to the game, not having enough unlocks ect. However, it was just “fine.” Nothing hooked me.
Only played an hour or so last night so it’s still early days, but I love what I’ve seen of it so far. The only change I really don’t like is the spotting – it’s basically pointless now, might as well ditch it altogether and find some other use for that button.
Try to spot a tank a 100 meters off.
End up spotting some random part of the burnt out building you’re in and the only way not to get the building is to move out on the street where you’re immediately shot in the head by some recon twat.
I dislike the weapon upgrade system and would vastly prefer something more like the attachment system from BF3/4 for weapon customisation.
Disagree about the ammo thing being a problem – You can pick up weapons/ammo from other dead players, there’s USUALLY a support player around, and those static resupply points… I’ve occasionally run out of ammo playing as assault, and I like the extra tension it brings as I’m scrambling for options.
In general I massively prefer this game to BF1. Game feels a lot less chaotic, which was a big problem I had with both BF4 and BF1 compared to earlier titles, change to spotting is great IMO – really hated how much the old spotting mechanic negated concealment – revive system encourages much better squad play…
I still don’t like it as much as BF3 or BC2, but it’s a move in the right direction I reckon.
100% this. I’m prefeering it to BF1. Squad unlocks are great too. The ammo system is great as it’s making people think and forces strategy creation.
Movement is much better also good along with the improved TTK.
The V2 rockets are the most terrifying sound I’ve heard in a BF game.
It’s a beta so I’m confident final product will satisfy.
I’d be open to trying the game; but the account is trying to send me a verification email which doesn’t work… no BFV for me
You weren’t playing the Beta, this ‘Beta’ was actually the third Alpha, the real beta begins on 20th November 2018 and that beta will continue for 18 months as it progressively gets improved month by month until it is a complete and relatively bug free game.
…at which point they’ll announce BFVI.
Two magazines a player?
Does anyone remember the time the EA exec John Riccitiello was recorded talking about charging people for ammunition mid game?
Dollar for fucking donuts, this is exactly where this is going…
My only gripe is i cant play the medic class, it keeps saying deploy point is unavailable but as soon as i swap to another class i can spawn in, i thought maybe theres a squad limit to medics but even in a medicless squad it still wouldnt let me be one
I don’t agree with it being “slow”, if anything is faster than BF1. I think the ammo change is a good thing and im glad there is no 3D spotting. Where are those Battlefield moments though which defined BF4?!!!
I thought the graphics looked on xbox one looked terrible. My wife, who doesn’t notice games that much, walked in when i was playing it and said “oh is that an old game?”