Forget about multiplayer for a moment. Battlefield campaign returns after years and looks really decent

Now’s a great time to start exploring, because there are three unique missions available from the new campaign. They’re all quite different from each other, and I’m already excited to play the game – it looks really good. It might not be perfect, but it seems enjoyable.

What do we have here?

Let’s talk about a technical issue I ran into. Battlefield is known for its impressive visuals and explosions, so I immediately set the graphics to the highest possible settings, including the new ‘overkill’ mode. It turned out to be a mistake, though. The game didn’t run poorly – I didn’t experience any slowdown – but the ‘overkill’ mode clearly isn’t fully optimized graphically yet.

I played an unfinished version of the game, and surprisingly, I didn’t find any major problems. The only visual issue was with the shadows, which were quite faint in certain areas. Switching to the highest graphics settings fixed that, though. Honestly, it’s not a huge graphical leap from previous games – it still feels like classic BF. My biggest concern is the character models – the faces actually look worse than in the last couple of games. For example, the first boss has strangely prominent eyelashes. Hopefully, the developers will address this before release.

You’ve put together quite a team here…

The characters in our single-player campaign are all unique and work well together – it feels a lot like the team from the original Killzone. Each mission puts you in control of a different character chosen by the game, but you always cooperate to achieve your goals. You can give basic orders like telling someone to throw a grenade or scout an area. These commands are tailored to each character, as they all have different roles and abilities.

Haz Carter leads Dagger 13, our marine squad. He seems tough on the outside, but he actually cares a lot. Carter is our go-to guy for grenades, and Dylan Murphy can handle an RPG whenever we need it. Simone Espina, nicknamed “Gecko,” is a fast and accurate sniper who’s great for scouting. Cliff Lopez is always there on the battlefield, providing us with essential ammunition during and after combat. Finally, there’s Lucas Hemlock, who I only met recently on our last mission. He’s a bit of an enigma – we don’t know much about him at all.

The individuals involved are part of Dagger 1-3, a team working for a version of NATO – but not the NATO most people are familiar with, as several countries have since withdrawn. Their opponents are Pax Armata, a private military company aiming to destabilize the world.

We have D-Day at home

The third mission takes place in Gibraltar and I’ve nicknamed it “We Have D-Day at Home.” You play as Murphy in an amphibious vehicle driving towards the beach. As you approach, you see a large force of allied machines preparing for battle, and enemy defenses waiting on the shore, which you bombard with a cannon. It’s frustrating that you can’t control the vehicle, though. While there’s a lot happening, this stage didn’t really stand out to me or feel fresh for the series. The main issue is that *Battlefield* has trained us to expect huge, chaotic battles. I was hoping for something on that scale, but instead, we only see a small number of vehicles and occasional aircraft. It does make sense that, like a realistic modern battlefield, the focus isn’t on a massive infantry army, but rather on smaller, more powerful groups.

Gibraltar’s streets are tight and packed with interesting things to discover, like being able to breach buildings and explore apartments. Many of them even contain ammunition! We also act as our vehicle’s mobile repair crew, constantly fixing it up between battles to keep us moving. The environment is full of danger, with snipers and RPG-wielding enemies hiding everywhere. Luckily, we can often destroy their cover. We can use grenades, explosives, or even their own weapons against them! Simply put – it feels like classic Battlefield, and I’ve really missed playing it.

The sound design in this section is incredibly intense, with a constant stream of explosions that are particularly impactful with headphones. Honestly, I think the audio is even more impressive than the visuals – it’s truly well done.

A mission stronger than American walls

We’re heading to New York City, where a NATO and UN meeting is underway. Simultaneously, a group called Pax Armata has occupied territory in Brooklyn, and NATO has ordered them removed. In this mission, you’ll play as Carter, the assault commander. You’ll be equipped with four essential pieces of gear, including the LKM, which is particularly useful in close-quarters urban combat. Your primary weapon is a machine gun with a thermal scope – crucial for nighttime operations – and you’ll also receive thermal goggles for enhanced visibility.

But that’s not all – we also get a hammer, which we use to smash down doors. The New York mission really shows how flimsy American buildings are. You’ll find this happens a lot, as about a third of the game involves exploring apartments and stairwells in Brooklyn. Actually, I often didn’t even need the hammer or explosives to get to enemies; shooting through walls was usually enough.

Our primary goal on this mission is to find the red-haired character featured in the game trailer. This character has a personal connection to our protagonist, though we won’t reveal any details about that just yet. I especially loved this mission because it took us through a variety of locations – apartments, rooftops, basements, and even subway tunnels. The highlight was definitely chasing a train *with a car*! It was thrilling to be behind the wheel, and the slightly unsteady handling added a nice bit of challenge. Overall, this mission is a huge success and feels like a real movie scene. While it might not reach the iconic status of “Semper Fidelis” from the third game, it’s still incredibly well-done.

We also have an (almost) open world!

Here’s mission 8! We’re playing in the stunning mountains of Tajikistan, near a beautiful lake where Pax Armata has its headquarters. This time, you control Gecko, a sniper who also has a drone. The drone can not only spot enemies, but also drop bombs on them. Plus, you can ride ATVs through the valley – it’s a great way to get around, even without fighting! The map is semi-open, and the first part – destroying enemy radars – offers a lot of different approaches. You can choose which radar to hit first, and whether to go in with a loud, explosive attack or a quiet, stealthy one to avoid reinforcements. Since this is *Battlefield*, I decided to embrace the chaos and had a lot of fun causing destruction with all the vehicles available. There are a lot of enemies, and they can be overwhelming with just four of us, but it’s a really exciting mission.

Playing recently reminded me of *Bad Company 2*, but this time the game lacks the funny and sarcastic tone of the original. The characters are decent, but they’re much more serious. After a large open-map fight, we found ourselves squeezed into a tight space between a mountainside and a lake, moving toward a dam. Later in the mission, we got a well-worn weapon – a remote-controlled mortar – and had to use it constantly, firing it dozens of times. Eventually, we reached the dam, where the final battle took place.

The situation quickly became unbelievably ridiculous. We found ourselves completely surrounded by tanks, which started charging and firing at us – but somehow, they missed every single time. We spent what felt like a full minute dodging the shots, though honestly, I was just running! It was so over-the-top, it reminded me of something out of a *Yakuza* game, but thankfully it didn’t last long. We managed to escape just as a dam burst, and a huge wave of water flooded the area behind our vehicle.

It’s all good, the guys do a great job

Overall, the campaign seems promising. While it probably won’t match the gritty, wartime feel of *Battlefield 1*, it looks like a fun addition to an already great multiplayer game. Hopefully, it will launch without any major issues! But realistically, most players are buying this game for its multiplayer, not the single-player campaign.

Let’s hope the game stays focused on gameplay and doesn’t get filled with cosmetic items like character skins or overly flashy vehicles. It would be great if the developers didn’t shift their main focus to the battle royale mode either. The game is launching on October 10th.

2025-09-26 15:05