Skip to main content

Battlefield V: War Stories hands-on videos — Single-player mode captures war’s emotion and horror

The British commander in Under No Flag. He recruits criminals and misfits, and then gets them to fight in unconventional battles.
"OK. Now, I just need to shoot him in the head 15 more times."
Image Credit: DICE
@deantak

Electronic Arts’ DICE studio bet big on the single-player vignettes, dubbed War Stories, for its upcoming Battlefield V first-person shooter game coming on the consoles and PC on November 20.

These missions, like their predecessors in Battlefield 1’s World War I setting, depict the horrors of war through four well-told stories. I played through the full Nordlys story, about the infiltration of a German heavy water factory in the Norwegian wilderness, in a hands-on session at Electronic Arts’ headquarters in Redwood City, California.

I also played the early missions of a British story, Under No Flag, featuring near-criminals in unconventional warfare, and the early missions of a French story, Tirailleur, where you play black French army soldiers who are only given the chance to die for their flag as a last resort. I played for more than five hours, but I’ve trimmed the videos of my gameplay below to about 10 minutes each.

Eric Holmes, the design director of War Stories at EA’s DICE studio, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the stories are fictional, but they are plausible as they are based on kernels of historical fact. They show a variety of characters, experiences, locations, and aspects of the Second World War. Most of these stories aren’t the kind of thing you’ve seen in war movies or history books.

June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC

Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.

I felt these stories point out the bravery of soldiers as well as the horrors of war in a way that multiplayer can never accomplish. When you go on a secret mission in the snowy woods of Norway under the Northern Lights, you’ll find that the cold weather is just as big an enemy as the Germans.

Here’s a video of the British story, Under No Flag.

Here’s a video of the French story, Tirailleur.

Here’s a video of the Norwegian story, Nordlys.

I didn’t get to play the German story, The Last Tiger, but you get a feel for it in EA’s War Stories trailer.