Battlefield V clicked for me because its movement finally feels right

I have never loved a Battlefield game. One of the biggest barriers for me was always character movement. Getting around — especially clambering through windows or over obstacles — never felt as smooth and buttery as Call of Duty. It wasn’t awful in Battlefield 1 or its predecessors, but Infinity Ward and Treyarch had something better than DICE. But while spending 90 minutes with Battlefield V at the EA Play event in Hollywood prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo last weekend, the shooter clicked for me — and that’s because DICE has made drastic improvements to character movement.

Battlefield V is due out October 19 for PC and consoles. It takes players back to World War II with single-player vignette story campaigns, cooperative quests, and a battle royale mode. During this session, however, we spent all of our time in the Grand Operations, which are multiple-day and multiple-map missions where your results as the attacking or defending team on day one affect what happens on day two. This mode is massive, and it works well because your actions have consequences beyond a screen that pops up and says your team won at the end.