Inappropriate content for children. Xbox. EA. DICE.
Frostbite. Low, muffled tones of the countryside, birds chirping in the
distance. An odd assortment of items, revealed to be strapped on the side of a
tank. Tense sharpening, the loud sound of a body hitting metal. Then a yell:
Find cover! A squad of British and American soldiers moves into heated close
quarters combat against the enemy. A Cockney female fighter with a crude
prosthetic arm. A commando with a katana. A man in need of a corpsman. Movement
up to the second floor, tanks in the distance. The narrow setting then explodes
into the wider battlefield, the tanks crash through the house, showcasing the
game engine’s destructive capabilities. Destructible buildings, hulking
vehicles, crashing planes, incessant gunfire and artillery, the familiar
colorful orange flames and sparks contrasted with the soft, melancholic blue
tones, a hallmark of the Battlefield series. The drone of a V1 rocket.
Deafening explosion, the knockback. Suddenly, the face of an enemy, the viewer
being choked, a brief struggle. Rescued by a comrade, “Hello, old friend.” The
same Cockney lady, armed with a cricket bat lined with nails. Looking up,
transport planes and paratroopers in the sky, the sirens of an air raid. Battlefield V.
but can they stop the progress of machines?
It’s a scripted, delightful, and exciting sprint through a
chaotic and dazzling presentation of the latest upcoming game in the renowned
shooter franchise. Admittedly, the trailer is rather confusing. The action is
disjointed, ridiculous, and far from anything resembling an actual WWII
battlefield. It doesn’t dawdle so much in context, perhaps because WWII is such
an enshrined and familiar setting in the FPS genre, not to mention all the
films we’ve all seen. Instead, the trailer spends time focusing on the spectacle
of what players can expect, presenting the game less as an homage or tribute to
WWII and more as an Inglorious Basterds style,
fictionalized rendition of WWII set with Battlefield mechanics fans know and
love. There’s a kind of tone deafness with so much happening and crammed into
such a short reveal, but it certainly incites interest and curiosity as to how
the whole game will pan out. What we have so far is a brief look into a journey
through familiar territory with a no-holds-barred attitude exercising some big
creative freedoms.
The official reveal trailer for Battlefield V on YouTube sits at 6.1 million views with a
polarizing 50:50 split on likes and dislikes as of writing. Vocal fans have
taken to online forums to express their dissatisfaction that stems from the game’s
more unrealistic qualities, chief among them the presence of a female soldier
in frontline combat. Although women served in the armed forces during WWII,
they were generally barred from frontline combat in both the UK and US
militaries. This generalized historical inaccuracy has prompted members of the
Battlefield community to see an overt and unwanted exercise of political correctness, and just about everyone has something they want to say
regarding the issue.
It’s amazing how a single trailer can rile up so much
discussion and protest about gender politics and the gaming world. It’s not
anything new by a long shot—remember when Call
of Duty: WWII featured black female German soldiers? The Battlefield V trailer is short, but it
does raise some questions. Does the inclusion of women in such a gung-ho,
fictionalized manner dilute the actual contributions of women during WWII? Is
it fair to rewrite historical moments to promote a modern sense of diversity
and inclusion when doing so may mask the discrimination and injustices of the
past?
I think what we have so far is promising of an exciting title, but of course, we only have a brief and narrow look at what the game will
entail. DICE have stated that they want to focus on the untold stories of WWII,
the less familiar aspects. It remains to be seen precisely what kind of game
they’re able to ship and how they handle representation of women.
