Highlights
- Battlefield has the opportunity to capitalize on Call of Duty's recent missteps to regain its position in the gaming industry.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's lack of memorable set pieces in its campaign was a letdown for fans of the franchise.
- The next Battlefield game should prioritize action-packed set pieces and intense missions, in order to both outshine Call of Duty and make its own story mode more memorable.
The rivalry between Battlefield and Call of Duty has been subtly burning in the background for well over a decade now, but both franchises are in very different spots from where they first started. While Call of Duty managed to maintain its hold on the gaming industry by evolving slightly over time and continuing to expand, Battlefield has slipped in recent years, delivering a few games in a row that haven't been major hits with critics or fans. But Battlefield might finally have its opportunity to spring back into action.
While it may have still sold ridiculously well, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the worst critically reviewed game in franchise history, and for good reason. An incredibly disappointing campaign and a fierce overreliance on nostalgia, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 marked a new low for the franchise, and it's one that Battlefield could easily exploit.
Why The Battlefield Franchise is Better Off Skipping a 2024 Release
A lot is riding on the next entry in the Battlefield franchise, and the project should steer clear of 2024 to capitalize on 2025 instead.
Battlefield's Campaign Can Do What Modern Warfare 3's Didn't
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Campaign Dropped the Ball on Set Pieces
From the very first game in the franchise all the way back in 2003, Call of Duty has prided itself on its cinematic campaigns, with its big, bombastic set pieces often being one of the game's biggest selling points. From Call of Duty: Black Ops' Vietnam chopper sequences and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Nuke to Call of Duty: World at War's Stalingrad sniping mission, the best Call of Duty campaigns also tend to have the best set pieces, and even the worst CoD campaigns still have one or two memorable set pieces to offer.
It was a bold move, then, for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to have virtually no set pieces at all. Throughout its absurdly short three-hour runtime, players will come across maybe just one moment that could be considered a true action set piece, and it comes right at the beginning of the game during the opening prison escape sequence. And even then, this set piece is extremely short and doesn't allow the player to actually interact very much with the action they're being shown.
Instead of traditional action set pieces, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 traded them in for Open Combat missions. Not a bad idea on paper, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Open Combat missions saw players approach a set of objectives in a more open-ended environment, giving them freedom in their approach. However, the lackluster level design and ironically repetitive nature of these missions led to some of the dullest Call of Duty campaign content in a while.
The Next Battlefield Should Go All In On Set Pieces
The Battlefield franchise has never had the most memorable campaigns, but they're far from being bad. In fact, several Battlefield 3, 4, and Battlefield 1 missions are still talked about today as being some of the best in a military shooter. And now, it's the perfect time for Battlefield to step out of Call of Duty's shadow, and beat it at its own game.
The next Battlefield game should double down on its set pieces, including vehicle missions, missions that see the series' trademark destruction physics at full capacity, and missions that involve high-octane chases and plenty of loud explosions. Battlefield has often taken a more methodical and calm approach to its single-player content, but if it wants to go above and beyond Call of Duty right now, it needs to go loud.
