Battlefield 1 BETA: Honest Review (HUGE Letdown)

So I woke up this morning to find that the open beta for BF1 had started. I was so excited to play this game ever since I saw the trailer. In my opinion the game is a MASSIVE letdown. I was hoping for something a LOT more realistic. I didn't think this was too much to ask for from DICE. As it stands I just find the game ridiculous, for various reasons discussed in the video I made below. (Warning: there may be a swear word or 2 in the video but nothing major)



Has anyone else here played it? If so what are your thoughts?

For those of you who can't watch the video here is a brief run down of the games flaws from my point of view:

- Characters have too much health. One bolt action rifle shot to the chest should take someone down and maybe 2-3 pistol shots.
- There are too many people running around with crazy weapons! Even though the weapons existed in WW1(or at least to my knowledge), I know that realistically there wouldn't be so many people running around the battlefield with fully automatic weapons and sniper rifles. Most people would simply have a bolt action rifle and if they were lucky a sidearm.

Sorry DICE but I was expecting a lot better..

a reply to: TechUnique

I'm still waiting on my beta to drop....I'm on XB1 and haven't heard a peep so far.

a reply to: TechUnique

Having played the alpha as well as getting access to this beta I can tell you that the other maps do give a better feeling for WW1, the town map in the alpha was great.

Yes weapon damage is weak and yes SMG's pretty much dominate the game but it looks so damn beautiful I don't really care, I'll be buying it but not at full price I'll wait until a year after enough patches and it goes on sale to buy it.

Not to mention you can ride horses and hack enemies down with a sabre while riding said horses

It's as close to the original battlefields as I'll ever get, one thing that I am disappointed about however is yet another BF title WITHOUT mod support, Dice/Ea are absolute sh1ts since BF3 taking away modding support

originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: TechUnique

Having played the alpha as well as getting access to this beta I can tell you that the other maps do give a better feeling for WW1, the town map in the alpha was great.

Yes weapon damage is weak and yes SMG's pretty much dominate the game but it looks so damn beautiful I don't really care, I'll be buying it but not at full price I'll wait until a year after enough patches and it goes on sale to buy it.

Not to mention you can ride horses and hack enemies down with a sabre while riding said horses

It's as close to the original battlefields as I'll ever get, one thing that I am disappointed about however is yet another BF title WITHOUT mod support, Dice/Ea are absolute sh1ts since BF3 taking away modding support

Thanks for your comment you make some good points. I haven't seen enough of the game yet to have any final thoughts on it. I will be doing a full review of the game when I've had a chance to play it properly on release. But from what I've seen so far I really am very disappointed. It certainly is more like the old battlefield games than the recent ones are but I don't feel as though they have made it realistic enough. I simply can't get over the fact that most players are running around with submachine guns and sniper rifles and it takes so many shots to actually down someone.

As it stands it feels more like COD. I hate COD. Saying that though I absolutely loved the original call of duties on PC like 1,2 and 3. Even world at war was an excellent game. It just seems to me as though the FPS gaming industry has gone downhill.

Downloaded it last night only to realize it was 6 gigs, next thing I knew I had to be at work this morning... Going to give it a whirl tonight.

a reply to: TechUnique

You EVER play Battlefield games in the past? Seems like pretty the pretty standard Battlefield level of realism, to me anyway. What exactly were you looking for?

I played it a little last night, it was alright. I'm sure they will have a hard core mode in it when released. I can't stand the normal mode.

a reply to: TechUnique

They're points a lot of us raised in the Alpha forums when the devs asked us for feedback. We all told them SMG's are overpowered but it seems they didn't bother listening to us and kept them in anyway as they haven't changed since Alpha.

The problem with BF is expecting realism, even 1942 wasn't very realistic, however 1942 had modding support which gave us Forgotten Hope which was pretty realistic with 1 hit rifle kills, tanks 1 hit kills on tanks etc

There is however hardcore mode which will likely be in full release so you'll get your 1 hit kills there although there's not much you can do about the SMG spam unless people manage to make rifle only servers.

One thing which has pissed me off during both the Alpha and this beta is that we're being asked to test stuff but they haven't given us the full game to test, we're supposed to get battleships come release but none of us have tested to see how/if they work and therefore no balancing will be done, but it's not like DICE listen to our testing feedback anyway (see above). They've done some minor changes from Alpha to Beta but it's barely noticeable, so I guess DICE have their own vision and don't really want major game changing feedback despite them asking for it from us in the Alpha

originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: TechUnique

They're points a lot of us raised in the Alpha forums when the devs asked us for feedback. We all told them SMG's are overpowered but it seems they didn't bother listening to us and kept them in anyway as they haven't changed since Alpha.

The problem with BF is expecting realism, even 1942 wasn't very realistic, however 1942 had modding support which gave us Forgotten Hope which was pretty realistic with 1 hit rifle kills, tanks 1 hit kills on tanks etc

There is however hardcore mode which will likely be in full release so you'll get your 1 hit kills there although there's not much you can do about the SMG spam unless people manage to make rifle only servers.

One thing which has pissed me off during both the Alpha and this beta is that we're being asked to test stuff but they haven't given us the full game to test, we're supposed to get battleships come release but none of us have tested to see how/if they work and therefore no balancing will be done, but it's not like DICE listen to our testing feedback anyway (see above). They've done some minor changes from Alpha to Beta but it's barely noticeable, so I guess DICE have their own vision and don't really want major game changing feedback despite them asking for it from us in the Alpha

I could understand the current character health on battlefield 4 or something like that where the troops have body armour but if there's nothing but a layer of clothing protecting you from an incoming rifle shot then you're not gonna be able to turn round after someone has shot you and unload a whole SMG clip into them. From the trailer I was expecting a much more hardcore experience.

It just doesn't have the playability factor that I loved so much in the older battlefields and call of duties. I honestly think insurgency is MUCH better than the modern battlefield games. In Insurgency if you get shot with a 1911 in the chest you go down. If you get shot in the chest with a rifle you go down. And that is even with body armour.

But alas I guess this is what people want. I'm sure I am part of a minority in not liking the game.

The experience you are looking for doesn't transfer to the casual player which is really their target audience.

Oh you just said that in your last post lol. CoD always had the hardcore option for that experience, wonder if Battlefield will do something similar.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
The experience you are looking for doesn't transfer to the casual player which is really their target audience.

Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head there. The majority of FPS players want spray and pray games. It's kinda sad really but at least there are some companies out there making legit FPS's. Insurgency is honestly the best shooter I've ever played. Closely followed by Rising Storm: Red Orchestra.

originally posted by: TechUnique
So I woke up this morning to find that the open beta for BF1 had started. I was so excited to play this game ever since I saw the trailer. In my opinion the game is a MASSIVE letdown. I was hoping for something a LOT more realistic. I didn't think this was too much to ask for from DICE. As it stands I just find the game ridiculous, for various reasons discussed in the video I made below. (Warning: there may be a swear word or 2 in the video but nothing major)

Has anyone else here played it? If so what are your thoughts?

For those of you who can't watch the video here is a brief run down of the games flaws from my point of view:

- Characters have too much health. One bolt action rifle shot to the chest should take someone down and maybe 2-3 pistol shots.
- There are too many people running around with crazy weapons! Even though the weapons existed in WW1(or at least to my knowledge), I know that realistically there wouldn't be so many people running around the battlefield with fully automatic weapons and sniper rifles. Most people would simply have a bolt action rifle and if they were lucky a sidearm.

Sorry DICE but I was expecting a lot better..

Battlefield? BF is lame. If you want a realistic FPS WW1 experience get 'VERDUN' Phenomenal game.

a reply to: 191stMIDET

Yeah Verdun is quality. I mention it in the video actually, as well as Insurgency and Rising Storm: Red Orchestra. I can't wait for Rising Storm: Vietnam to come out. No doubt it will be epic!

I used to play the battlefield games. Bad Company 2 was probably my favorite game for years.
BF3 was such a letdown, I vowed never to give EA another dime and went back to playing bad company 2.
Favoring graphics over gameplay is a terrible path. Ever since games started being built for consoles and ported to the PC, they've gotten pretty terrible.
Honestly, the last truly good FPS I remember playing was aliens vs predator- from sierra, I think. Super well balanced game.

Recently, a friend got tired of playing alone and bought me BF4- and it's just like 3 with more annoyances than gameplay, plus a few new bugs.
Only difference I spot is some new maps, and a new unlock system that takes a casual player far too long to acquire any good weapons. I stand by my decision- I'm done with giving EA money.

originally posted by: lordcomac
I used to play the battlefield games. Bad Company 2 was probably my favorite game for years.
BF3 was such a letdown, I vowed never to give EA another dime and went back to playing bad company 2.
Favoring graphics over gameplay is a terrible path. Ever since games started being built for consoles and ported to the PC, they've gotten pretty terrible.
Honestly, the last truly good FPS I remember playing was aliens vs predator- from sierra, I think. Super well balanced game.

Recently, a friend got tired of playing alone and bought me BF4- and it's just like 3 with more annoyances than gameplay, plus a few new bugs.
Only difference I spot is some new maps, and a new unlock system that takes a casual player far too long to acquire any good weapons. I stand by my decision- I'm done with giving EA money.

Bad company 2 is awesome! Also I remember playing AVP on PC round a mates house YEARS ago. That game is so old but I remember it being highly playable!

I love it, played the sh** of it yesterday, (cuz I'm a fancy insider lol) and I had a blast, old school tanks and planes, rifles, I really did enjoy it and can not wait to be off work today so I can play alittle more

I got my early beta access code for XB1 yesterday. Im out of town until tomorrow, so I havent had a chance to try it yet.
To be honest i was sceptical about it from the get go. Ive been a BF fan since Bad company. Love BF3. Played BF4 for well over a year. Belonged to a clan for ages 25+. We played a lot of tourny's on Level BF's live streams.
Then one day I woke up and was like I never want to play this game again. Havent touched it in over a year now.
I will try the beta, just for the glimmer of hope that it will spark interest for the game.
But to be honest I have ZERO trust in DICE and EA. So im not expecting much asides from a game riddled with bugs, that crashes constantly, and makes having fun almost impossible.

et al Battlefield 4 - first 6 months.

I did love the easter eggs Dice implemented into BF4. Our clan was one of the first groups to get the crossbow after the final code was discovered.

I agree with you. I just saw this morning that Beta is free so I downloaded it and started playing. To me, it looks like they just took Battlefield 4, re-did a lot of the skins/weapons and made a new map. It looks more like an expansion or addon rather than a whole new game done from scratch.

I wouldn't say I hate the game as I only played for about 30 minutes so far, but from what I see so far, a big let down.

*edit* This should be a lesson to everyone that no matter what the game, do not pre-order. It seems they do this so that your stuck with it no matter what the outcome is (pc users anyway. Cannot return a pc game) As far as the weak guns, that is something that can be changed and im sure they will get a lot of mail after this beta is over from players addressing these concerns.

I feel it lost some of that good old fashioned Battlefield chaos. Some of the weapons are really dumbed down, hit markers for days. Vehicles are harder to take down. And just an all around arcadish feeling to the game. Feels more commercialized towards call of duty players. Also don't understand why they did WWI if most of these guns didn't exist. I see what they were trying to do but in my opinion they should have just made a BA next gen WWIII game. Mustangs and zeros, come on, that would have killed it.