What the next Battlefield game will look like isn't entirely clear, as DICE remains committed to Battlefield 2042, and no concrete information about a follow-up has been released. Whenever the next Battlefield game releases, and whatever its premise and setting wind up being, it has a unique opportunity to inject some more thoughtful and mature themes into its narrative, and it can do this by taking some notes from Spec Ops: The Line.

Battlefield's campaign modes are worth experiencing but, like most military shooters, they aren't very thought-provoking or critical of war, choosing instead to take a more archetypal and straightforward approach to narrative. The franchise, along with other flagship series like Call of Duty, sacrifice complexity in favor of spectacle and iconic character building, using war as a vehicle to present bombastic action and aspirational heroes. These narrative conventions are subverted in 2012's Spec Ops: The Line, which doesn't shy away from the horrors of war and the negative impact it has on both occupied communities and members of the military that participate in destructive acts. This fearless and unforgiving presentation of war hasn't been recreated in the AAA scene since Spec Ops, but Battlefield could change that.

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A New Battlefield Could Fill the Void Spec Ops: The Line Left

The Next Battlefield Can Tell a Meaningful Story

Games like Battlefield are generally focused on action and, in more ways than one, the glorification of war and killing. If one of these military shooters does show the ugly side of war, it's usually only to move the plot forward (e.g. the protagonist's best friend gets killed or injured, spurring them onward); they aren't usually critical of war as a whole, almost never showing the civilian toll of battle unless, again, it's with the intention of justifying further violence, like how Farah Karim's traumatic childhood is used as a narrative device to encourage and explain the bloodshed she participates in as an adult in the Modern Warfare remake.

These games are often considered apolitical, but it's very challenging, if not impossible, to send a certain moral message in a game built around interactive warfare. The creative minds behind Spec Ops: The Line understood this, which is why they leveraged interactivity to strengthen the game's narrative: players aren't simply watching the Spec Ops protagonist commit atrocities, they are committing them themselves. This is a bold narrative approach, but it pays off in a game that is harrowing, striking, and unforgettable, treating war with the solemnity and respect that it deserves. With this degree of thoughtfulness being mostly absent in the world of AAA war games, Battlefield could fill the void, rather than just offering a slightly different take on a Call of Duty story.

Battlefield Following Spec Ops: The Line's Lead Could Be a Double-Edged Sword

One of the greatest successes of Spec Ops: The Line is its ability to flip audience expectations; at first glance, the game looks like a typical military shooter with a story that's not too different from Call of Duty or another major franchise. This pre-defined expectation makes the dark twists of the story hit that much harder, and Battlefield would be even better positioned to deliver this sort of subversion, as it's a long-running franchise with an established reputation.

On the other hand, the fact that Battlefield is a prolific franchise with a heavy multiplayer focus could make a Spec Ops-style approach harder to pull off: it would be difficult to sell future games or a purely combat-focused multiplayer mode if the series took an explicit anti-war stance. Still, maybe Battlefield could retain its identity while incorporating more distressing, thought-provoking elements into its singleplayer narratives only, taking inspiration from Spec Ops: The Line rather than emulating it.

Battlefield

EA's Battlefield franchise is a series of first-person shooter games. The games have predominantly been set in the modern day, though there have also been titles set in World War 1, World War 2, and in the near future.

The Battlefield franchise is often compared to Call of Duty, with both franchises offering single-player campaigns and online multiplayer.