EA’s flagship shooter has a bit of a comeback to make in 2021. After the fifth entry’s struggles,Battlefieldintends to come back anew next year.Battlefield 5has been around, and received a sizable amount of support before ending all updates this April. However, it’s no secret thatBattlefield 5just didn’t live up to expectations for both fans and media. The game’s incremental content approach was an impressive concept on paper, but in practice, the game had far less to offer in terms of map selection and gameplay. However,Battlefieldhas more than just its predecessor to improve upon in 2021.
Last year,Call of Duty: Modern Warfarescooted intoBattlefield’s territory with the revamp of Ground War. Rather than just being a big-team-battle variant of Domination, Ground War took things a step further by introducing sizably larger environments with a few extra capture points, as well as numerous new vehicles as well. Minus any of theBattlefield-specific mechanics,Modern Warfare’s Ground War was very familiar forBattlefieldfans. However, assumingBattlefield 6is still on the way for 2021, not only will the game have to improve uponBattlefield 5’s disappointment. It also has to contend with the other massive shooter franchise, now more than ever.
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Why Ground War is More Battlefield-esque than Combined Arms
AssumingBattlefield 6follows all the rumors discussing a modern setting, the truth is the game will be competing withModern Warfare’s Ground War over the franchise’s former stomping ground. Ground War emulates all the trappings ofBattlefield’s most iconic Conquest mode with aCall of Dutytwist. Some even argued it was just a blatant inspiration, but that didn’t stop Infinity Ward from taking over during a time whereBattlefieldwas commercially suffering. To some extent,Black Ops Cold War’s mode makes a similar effort, but the significant difference in map design means it’s far closer to a traditionalCall of Dutyexperience instead ofBattlefield.
For one thing,Modern Warfare’s iteration of Ground War utilizes the Verdansk sandbox in a similar fashion to howBattlefieldmaps are designed.Black Ops Cold Warfeatures standalone large-scale maps that can isolate portions for smaller game modes,and then utilize the full map for Combined Arms. These maps are far less sandbox-style and moreso linear map design, akin to that of traditional three-laneCall of Dutymaps. They’re much more narrow, and don’t really have much room for flexibility in terms of vehicle usage, at least in comparison to aBattlefieldgame. Ground War follows theBattlefieldsandbox approach, minus the flexibility of destruction.
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Ground War is a Tough Act to Follow
Ground War will end up being a much tougher act to follow compared toBlack Ops Cold War’s Combined Arms modes. The many sub-regions of the VerdanskWarzonemap have expanded Ground War far beyond any Combined Arms map. Even though Ground War didn’t really haveBattlefield’s signature destruction mechanic, it more than made up for it with proper vehicle balancing, intelligent sandbox design, and a significant jump in player count thatCall of Dutyhad never really attempted previously. Most wouldtoutWarzone’s 150 player count as impressive, but it’s not often talked about how Ground War touted 32 vs. 32 players at launch.
Unfortunately forBattlefield, Ground War carries a lot ofpositive similarities between it andBattlefield’s Conquest mode. Putting aside destruction as a defining difference, many of Ground War’s maps play out a likeBattlefield 3’s maps like Flood Zone or Siege of Shanghai. Lots of verticality, with the ground floor littered with armored vehicles and nimble jeeps, both maps reward teams with commanding footholds on capture points. Not to mention Ground War and Conquest have the same overall objective: capture points, reach the point goal (whether it’s draining tickets in Conquest, or acquiring more capture points in Ground War).
Battlefield’s absence from the limelight for the last few years has undoubtedly hurt the franchise in a significant way.The impact ofBattlefield 5wasn’t drastic enough to kill the franchise’s legacy or anything like that, but fans still anxiously await an official announcement forBattlefield’s future. In a way,Modern Warfare’s Ground War showed that there’s still a vested interest in the game mode thatBattlefieldpopularized. Pair that with the sorely missed chaos found in classicBattlefieldgames, and the franchise does have a proper platform to make a comeback.Battlefieldtypically releases in the fall, so hopefully mid-2021 will bring good news for the series' future.
Battlefield 6is in development.
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