Every time a new Battlefield drops, there has been a Call of Duty released in tandem. This has sparked a friendly and unspoken rivalry between the two military shooters that has led each game to seek new ways of improving its mechanics. Call of Duty has been notorious for trying strange things with each new entry to stay fresh, while Battlefield has stuck to improving on the gameplay and level detail that has made the series popular. However, this time around Battlefield 6 has to one up the battle royale and multiplayer super giant that Call of Duty has become, in the time that the last Battlefield has lost fans. Battlefield 6 can do it, if DICE chooses a different route.
While most of these more recent shooters have put a hard focus on gunplay and multiplayer, each game do try to sneak in some form of a narrative experience in between the explosive combat. While Call of Duty captured audiences in the original Black Ops in 2010, the campaigns have since been somewhat suffering as the developers put more emphasis on improving multiplayer, like Warzone. When the developers tried to create a similarly captivating experience in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the missions were enjoyable, but overall the campaign was too short to make any lasting impact. Battlefield 6 can improve upon the short single player experience Call of Duty had.
Black Ops Cold War's Campaign
Like the original Call of Duty: Black Ops, Cold War's campaign saw players in elite strike forces conduct covert political or military operations during the later years of the Cold War. Just like the original Black Ops, this entry has a loose base in history, with notable figures and dramatization of former classified military information. Perseus, for example, is actually a heavily mentioned member in real-life Soviet documents of a spy who sought America's nuclear secrets.
Perseus appears in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War as the main antagonist behind a Soviet plot to detonate American planted nukes in a whole lot of major European cities. Overall, the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War campaign was okay, but hasn't caught on like the original Black Ops' narrative. This follows a trend of stereotypical and disappointing campaigns from Call of Duty.
Throughout the campaign, the main protagonist Bell goes through an identity crisis in which they realize that they had been working for Perseus before their current team brainwashed them via military project MKUltra. This is a similar theme to the original Black Ops, which played with protagonist Alex Mason's memory, as he was the victim of an attempted Russian programming to assassinate John F. Kennedy. This would ultimately fail, with Mason being released from his mind control by his allies and helping take down the enemies that started his torment to begin with.
In Cold War, the main player Bell is a close asset of Perseus who gets betrayed by someone jealous of their position. With some of the squad from the first game, including Mason, Woods, and the new addition of Adler, they take the injured Bell for medical attention and interrogation. Through several weeks of heavy psychological torture and drugs via MKUltra, Bell is implanted with fake memories and phrases for their handler Adler to keep them in check. While the team runs into several bumps on their journey, Bell is made aware of their past allegiance to Perseus, and the player must choose between saving or betraying their team.
If the player chooses to save Europe and get the good ending, then they are likely executed in the final moment of the game. If they choose the bad ending and all the bombs in Europe go off, they will either be executed by their squad or survive to watch Woods, Mason, and Adler get executed by the Soviets as they return their allegiance to Perseus.
How Battlefield 6 Can Improve
There are rumors that Battlefield 6 may feature a return of War Stories mode, which are separate campaigns taking part during the same war. In Battlefield 5, players take on the role of multiple perspectives and stories from protagonists across the world during World War 2. While they were on the shorter side, they featured some innovative gameplay and beautiful cinematics. However, this didn't really make the same impression that the original Black Ops, or even Cold War left on audiences, mostly due to a lack of time to flesh out each story. The characters and scenery were beautiful, but there wasn't enough narrative content to make a lasting impact.
Battlefield really has an opportunity to improve where Black Ops Cold War dropped the ball. If DICE were to focus more on evolving the War Stories mode from Battlefield 5, DICE could truly impress players and subvert expectations of typical military shooter campaigns. Separate stories of modern day heroes, or near future in this instance, would surely be interesting to gamers who seek new FPS experiences.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that fans were disappointed with Battlefield 5, be it upon release, or when DICE ended development support last year. The appetite for a new entry that expands on what Battlefield has done well in the past is there, but the singleplayer War Stories mode will need to innovate in some fashion. If DICE can improve their level destruction and multiplayer, while providing a worthwhile single-player experience, it could easily take the lead in the long-running rivalry.
