'Battlefield' isn't a name that lends itself to heroics. It's workmanlike, sparse, matter-of-fact. It's nothing to do with Duty, or Honour, or Courage, concepts that inspire and evoke in equal measure. Battlefield games have never been about the actions of an individual, but rather the sense of a place, and a moment. Championed by their huge multiplayer, they're about being in the middle of the fight, with buildings crumbling around you as jets careen overhead, engines vomiting thick plumes of smoke as they go down. It's about the chaos of war, and being just one soldier among many.
It's not about any one story, but Battlefield's developers DICE would really like it to be. As much as it's a game that's always been defined by its multiplayer, they're still leading with the singleplayer narrative, so maligned in Battlefield 3, now back with a vengeance in Battlefield 4. The reason? Karl Magnus Troedsson, CEO at DICE, shrugs and puts it simply: "We feel like we have more story to tell."
Or, to put it another way, they're looking to improve and expand, create a singleplayer story that's worthy of the frenetic, brilliant, chaotic multiplayer that's always been the trademark of the Battlefield games. They don't fit the linear mould that's served Call of Duty so well for so long. They're not about funnelling you down a ratrun while fireworks explode overhead. And it seems that DICE has learned that lesson.
The demo starts with Bonnie Tyler, and the kind of dead end that only Bonnie Tyler is appropriate for. Four soldiers trapped in a sinking car, with only Total Eclipse of the Heart for company. It's claustrophobic, and deliberately so. Over the course of twenty minutes, the level moves through one location after the other, each one giving the player a little more freedom, and placing a little more emphasis on the player's choices.
The idea is to emphasise the new direction that Battlefield's singleplayer is taking, giving you bigger environments that offer more choices. In Karl Magnus' words, "there are some signature components of multiplayer that we want to bring into singleplayer. It's not about copy and pasting, but it's going to be a mix. There will be times where we control the player, and we dial the action up to eleven, but there will also be times where we bring the multiplayer values in, and it's really up to you at that point."
There was only one time in the demo where those ideas were allowed to manifest, when the player stumbles upon an abandoned building site, all bleached sand and weathered breeze blocks with rebar thrusting accusingly out at the sky. That's it's all but a sandbox doesn't feel like an accident, and the with it being so large, it wasn't hard to imagine all the different ways you might approach the situation.
Still, it's difficult to imagine it'll ever quite achieve the highs of surprise and excitement that has always been such a compulsion when heading into the multiplayer side of things. AI is still AI, and a singleplayer story is always going to be facing forward, chivvying you along in one way or another. Whether DICE have cracked the code is still very much up in the air.
More importantly, what will carry over into the multiplayer are all the improvements inherent in the constantly evolving engine that powers all the impressive graphical effects and even more impressive destruction that the Battlefield has become so known for. We're on the third iteration of the 'Frostbite' engine now, and rather than charging forward with ever more flashy and eye-catching effects, DICE are focusing more on the nuance and finesse of the engine, to really sell you on the reality of the game, both in the world you play in, and the characters you play with.
"It's not the amount of polygons that matters any more. What matters is the experience you convey to the players." Back in the sinking car, you're confronted with the face of Michael K Williams, most famous for playing Omar Little in The Wire. He's lost his recognisable facial scar, but the veracity with which his face is realised is nothing short of astounding. More than that; the animations run with a natural flow that's difficult to notice. It's hard to tell what's canned, specific to the single player campaign, and what's more of a result of what's happening around you, but if half of what you see can make it into the multiplayer, it's going to be close to uncanny.
That extends to the world, too. The wind buffets and billows around cloth and leaves alike, making the smoke from explosions and fires furl and swirl around itself in exactly the way you would imagine it would. Even the explosions have depth and power to them, the black plume shot through with a ferocious orange. Everything feels tangible, which was true enough of Battlefield 3, but it's as though the lamination has worn through here, and the grits getting between your toes.
There's never going to be enough information in 20 minutes of footage to tell you everything you need to know about a game as large as Battlefield 4. But it's enough to give you a taste, and to give you a feeling of the tone and intention that DICE are going for, and as far as the singleplayer goes, they're headed ont he right track. Battlefield should be about freedom, and extolling the virtues of the multiplayer. If they can carry that through the entire campaign, while at the same time throwing out enough set pieces to keep things interesting, and enough meat to the story to make you care about what you're doing, there's no reason Battlefield 4 couldn't be strutting around the first person shooter genre with the best of both worlds.
But, well, that's a lot of ifs.
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