The Battlefield 5 Closed Alpha is underway, starting today. Somehow I got selected and have been playing it a little bit. There isn’t a NDA, so participants can share gameplay.
Battlefield was never a more hardcore shooter like Red Orchesta / Rising Storm, but it wasn’t Call of Duty either. I know the purists will say BF2 was the best and perhaps it is.
To be honest, I’ve played many BF games. BF2, BF:BC2, BF3, BF4 and BF1.
I have many memories in BF3, BF4 and BF1 of seeing SuperReviving where a medic goes around the room and revives 3-4 people in 15 seconds. Not in BF5. Squad mates can how do mini-revives where there’s a duration and not-full health on revive. Medics will be able to do it better, but I think the quickie revives are gone.
In the support class there are two archetypes, at the moment. The engineer and machine gunner. The engineer will have an ammo pouch with limited mags (at least in the alpha). The machine gunner has the ammo crate which is more of a squad supply system. Players of all classes are limited in ammo, so it’s more critical to stay close to support people. But now it’s more important than ever for support (machine gunners) to do their job.
Also, at least in the alpha, the invisible parachutes that you have appear to be gone. In previous games, when you jump from a building or rocks, you can deploy a small personal parachute to slow your decent. I learned that the hard way.
I would say this is less arcadey than your previous BFs, but it’s definitely not realistic/hardcore.
I’m sure there are streamers that will give you nice video footage and better commentary, but this was my take, as far.
Here are some screenshots that I took. Running at 1680x1050 doesn’t do the game justice, but the graphics are on par with BF1, if not a little better.