I’ve been battle testing Electronic Arts’ Battlefield V for a few days, and I’ve finished the first three available War Stories, or the single-player campaign. I love the opening cinematics of the War Stories, where developer DICE gets to stretch its storytelling abilities.
The War Stories are vignettes about different characters which show off an untold aspect of the war. We all have images in our head from history books about the second World War, and we can recall our favorite scenes from war movies.
But these stories are the kind you haven’t seen before, like the discrimination against African soldiers who fought for the French empire, on French soil, against the German threat, only to find that they were written out of history.
“You won’t find the story I’m going to tell you in the history books,” says the narrator of the story Tirailleur. “That makes you disbelieve my words. But remember: Not everything that’s written down is true, and not everything true is written down.”
The stories include Nordlys (Northern Lights), about Norway’s resistance against the Germans; Tirailleur, about black soldiers taking back France; and Under No Flag, about the secret missions of British commandos. I think you’ll like all of them, even if they are a bit short. A fourth story, The Last Tiger, isn’t out yet.
These stories introduce the player to characters that we can learn about and care about — before we see them go off into battle. The vignettes give a scope to the global nature of the war and the respectful storytelling is meant to honor those who made sacrifices and persevered despite fear.
And since these characters are some of many, you never know if they’re going to live or die. I’ve included the video of the opening cinematics for each of the stories above. Battlefield V is available on EA Access now, and it debuts generally on November 20. We are working on a full review.