EA is Tuning Battlefield 5's Multiplayer to be a More Survival, Team-Focused Experience

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On May 23, EA revealed the new Battlefield 5, a game confirmed to be set in the midst of World War Two. Although the shooter series has visited the war before, EA is determined to put a slightly new twist on the gameplay this time around: there’s a distinct survival element.

In a presentation to the press prior to the reveal of Battlefield 5 to the world, EA detailed the retooling of the multiplayer mode for the upcoming shooter, set to release on October 19, 2018. No matter which online mode you enter in Battlefield 5, whether it’s team deathmatch or domination, you’ll always enter it with four other random players in a Squad.

It’s through this inclusion of a randomized Squad for all players that EA hopes to put the focus back on teamplay in Battlefield 5. You’ll earn distinct rewards called Squad Reinforcement Points for playing with your team, and you can then take these points and purchase in-game bonuses while you’re playing. For example, you could purchase a barrage of smoke onto the battlefield to aid your Squad, or a stationary machine gun to defend a position if you’re playing domination.

We don’t yet know exactly how you’ll earn these Squad Reinforcement Points while playing Battlefield 5, but it’s fairly safe to assume you’ll earn them through playing together as a team. Everyone knows that there’s an undeniable strength in numbers for online shooters, and your Squad represents this bonus in Battlefield 5.

But the changes for Battlefield 5’s multiplayer don’t stop there. When you spawn into an online match of Battlefield 5, you’ll start with only a small supply of ammunition. EA hopes this will fundamentally change the way people play Battlefield 5, with limited ammunition deterring players from all out assaults on enemy positions. You’ll have to scavenge the battlefield for ammunition at all times while playing Battlefield 5, and your magazine reserves are only so deep.

You also won’t be able to automatically regenerate your health to 100 per cent. Hiding behind cover can still regenerate a limited amount of health, sure, but you’ll need to get your hands on a medical pack in order to heal yourself properly. But then even this can’t regenerate your health to the maximum. For this, you’ll need to enlist the services of a Medic, the only way you can get a player back to full health.

The Medic has a brand new revival mechanic, which EA has talked about as being more “personal”. To execute this, the Medic will have to focus on a single player for a few seconds, injecting them with a needle in order to get them back up from bleeding out on the ground. Since the Medic has more of an intimate focus on the players around them, this will hopefully equate to the Medic receiving more protection from their Squad.

Destroy and Then Rebuild

You’ll be accustomed to building destruction in the Battlefield series, but Battlefield 5 actually lets you reconstruct destroyed military fortifications and buildings. When a tank would roll through a location in Battlefield 1, it could lay waste to everything around it, restricting the ability to of the opposing team to hide in cover, exposing them to weapons fire and explosives.

In Battlefield 5, this all changes. Every player is equipped with a Fortification tool, which they can use to slowly rebuild any destroyed buildings or cover, although the Support class can repair structures with increased speed. You can’t rebuild destroyed buildings back to perfect health, but you can barricade buildings with wood and sandbags, fortifying your positions against enemy attack. This could entirely change the dynamic of location-based modes like domination, as you’ll be able to build up fortifications around the point which you’re defending.

With these changes, EA is looking to push Battlefield 5 to be even more grounded than Battlefield 1. There’s a move away from players venturing out into the midst of the battlefield on their own to play as “lone wolves” as EA put it. You’re going to be a lot more vulnerable if you choose to ignore your Squad, and this should make team play come more naturally.