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Ever since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released in 2007, I’ve always played Call of Duty over Battlefield as my yearly FPS. I switch off and blast away those pesky terrorists, killer robots, exo-suit wielding mercenaries, or Nazis that need dealing with once more. Whilst the Call of Duty campaigns can be more flippant than British weather, by and large I tend to enjoy shooting my way through the virtual masses. However, recently I’ve had an epiphany, even if I am roughly 18 months late to the party. That being that after playing through ‘War Stories’ (read: single player campaign) in Battlefield 1, I think that this was the most stand out campaign to a Call of Duty or Battlefield I’ve played for many years. It may not be my favourite of the two franchises, I’m a big sucker for Call of Duty: Black Ops, but it’s certainly a strong contender. Now that I’ve got that statement out of the way, it’s time to explain why.

Year on year, the Call of Duty campaigns tend to focus on a fictional cast of characters you’ll spend between 4-10 hours with (depending on the entry) before the credits roll. Alongside this comes the multiplayer, of which your experience with this aspect of the game will vary dependent on skill and how much tolerance you have for young children claiming what heinous things they have done to your mother. The big notable difference to me with Battlefield 1 was that ‘War Stories’ is divided in to five separate chapters, with each focusing on a different character. Despite spending less time with each of these individuals when compared to their Call of Duty counterparts, there are dozens of Call of Duty characters whom I’ve forgotten, yet the Battlefield 1 ensemble seemed more memorable to me. They each had their own individual story, and despite their tales being more of a microcosm to the overall WW1 picture, I felt more of a connection with them than I did with grunt 345 of Call of Duty fame. By having this tighter, more focused narratives I felt like there were greater stakes to each story.

Whilst the characters you take control of are all fictional (Lawrence of Arabia does make an appearance, but he isn’t playable), the events in each chapter all focus around real events from WW1. At least to the extent that the settings and references to each battle were real, your individual role is fictitious. Maybe its because of this ‘Hollywoodized’ telling of each story that I found ‘War Stories’ to be more impactful. As I said, by knowing it’s at least based loosely on real-world history, made the outcome of each character’s fate seem more harrowing. It’s not that Call of Duty games don’t contextualise themselves around real-life events, the ongoing war on terrorism in the Modern Warfare titles is still on-going, but in Battlefield 1 the locations and events you experience are historically true, at least to the extent that they are based on real events yet spiced up for gameplay and entertainment purposes. Whilst a giant German blimp didn’t crash into Big Ben (as one mission sees happen), the raid on London really did. Whether it’s the mission that tasks you with controlling a tank, riding a horse and blowing up an armoured train, or the assault on a bunker in the mountainous countryside whilst kitted out in full metal armour, there’s such a variety in each mission that each chapter felt like it was completely standalone, but at the same time completely fitting with the overarching story of the WW1 conflict.

The final reason ‘War Stories’ stood out to me was the way in which it subtly, but very cleverly, introduces you to gameplay mechanics you’ll take through to the multiplayer. In terms of learning to point a gun and shoot, don’t expect to have a hard time mastering that. However, there’s also the way the campaign teaches you how different weapons and vehicles operate in certain situations. For example, after playing through ‘War Stories’ you’ll know exactly which type of anti-vehicle explosive or weapon to use should these armoured behemoths pop up on the enemy team, you’ll understand how to ‘spot’ enemies (highlighting them for your teammates to pick off as they please). You’ll also know how to operate vehicles yourself, the ways in which you can switch between seating positions or repair your vehicle should you need to. You’ll also feel comfortable with the controls for either an airship high in the sky, or a nimble horse down on the ground. By the time you finish ‘War Stories’, both the stealthy and faster paced combat missions will have prepared you for every aspect of multiplayer. At least, in as far as they can until some otherworldly player mows down your entire squad with god-like skill. You never really stood a chance.

Ultimately those are the reasons why I think ‘War Stories’ has had a more lasting impression on me than many of the Call of Duty campaigns. It’s not me saying I don’t enjoy the Call of Duty campaigns, because I do, just that maybe I’d like to see what would happen if Call of Duty took this approach, that of taking real world events and adding fictitious elements, whilst staying respectful and somewhat faithful to the truth. By taking small snippets of a larger outcome, ‘War Stories’ made me feel like tiny cogs in a machine, but that I wanted to pay closer attention to detail to each of those pieces, so that the clock ran smoothly overall. So maybe that wasn’t the clearest analogy, but yes good job ‘War Stories’, you made me feel invested in your campaign and I’m glad I finally gave Battlefield 1 a go.