There has been chatter about the so-called death of single-player games, and while this is surely overstated, a shift toward multiplayer is absolutely happening in some franchises. The Battlefield franchise, which is developed by EA`s DICE studio in Sweden, is bringing back the much-loved War Stories single-player campaign from Battlefield 1 for the new Battlefield V. I recently had the chance to sit down with War Stories director Eric Holmes, who spoke about DICE`s belief in single-player as a means to allow players to have a more emotional connection to the game.Holmes wouldn`t be drawn into discussing Call of Duty`s decision to forgo a traditional campaign, telling me that`s a question better suited for Activision. But for Battlefield, Holmes said single-player is necessary to help players feel the emotion of battle.`I think there are lots of things that single-player does for Battlefield. It adds texture to the world in the way that you ... you can`t really have a moving, informative experience in multiplayer,` he said. `You can have adrenaline and you can have action and you can have friendship with your friends and you can make bad jokes and laugh and annoy people. There`s energy in that. But there`s not much emotion.`People who have played War Stories; I`ve seen people cry. And I`ve never had that in any of my games before I started working on Battlefield,` Holmes explained. `There is a `feeling` quality to it, which really only lives there. I don`t think it`s because of a shortcoming of multiplayer; I think it`s just a different thing.`Battlefield V`s War Stories campaigns--which include Nordlys, Under No Flag, Tirailleur, and The Last Tiger, as well as a prologue--aim to tell untold or forgotten World War 2 stories. Don`t expect to see D-Day or other well-known battles. And don`t expect to play as a hero who single-handedly kills Hitler and wins the war. No, Battlefield V`s War Stories aim to tell stories of human beings having personal problems during ...
|
