Battlefield 1 is the new sequel to the Battlefield FPS series, and Infinite Warfare is the new addition to the Call of Duty franchise. Battlefield has gone back in time to World War 1, and continues to hold true to the ground-fighting, action-packed battleground of cutthroat first-person-shooting action.
Meanwhile, Infinity Ward has created their new installment to the Call of Duty Franchise, aptly named “Infinite Warfare” – homage to the developer’s name, most likely (Infinite Warfare, by Infinity Ward). Instead of taking the traditional route, they have taken it out of this world – literally. Their new game is taken literally into space.
While Infinity Ward can definitely be commended for their creativity, ground-breaking changes to FPS gameplay, and amazing effects, is this really what gamers want? The answer is a complete and total definitive and resounding Absolutely Not!
While I have to commend the Dev team on their creativity and work in making such a revolutionary game, it seems they have completely missed the point of what their gamers want in an FPS game. That, or they really don’t care at all what their fans want.
Over the years, Battlefield developers have held true to the core fundamental principles of an FPS game that fans crave. Sure, it hasn’t been perfect. Hardline was a disaster (I hated it anyway), Battlefield 4 was released too early before it was ready, which resulted in degraded initial gameplay and lots of bugs and glitches (this has all been fixed now though). Also, the PC version requires you to log in through a browser – all things that fans are not happy about. However, at least they still have the traditional FPS experience, even though you have to go into the smaller maps which really requires Premium.
Meanwhile, the Call of Duty franchise has been moving further and further away from what their fans want. They have been trying to change what an FPS game is, implementing really groundbreaking new movements like sliding and jumping – but neglecting to realize that this is not at all what gamers want.
Fans were really mad when the much desired and long-awaited Black Ops 3 came out and instead of the traditional experience it included the same despised jetpacks and flying around from Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. This really changed the FPS game dynamics, as it took it from a relatively 2D field of gameplay (forward, back, left, right) to a 3D field of gameplay (up and down) where you can get shot also from above or below and people can fly around in the sky and run on the walls.
Whereas this was a unique and interesting gameplay, it wasn’t what fans wanted. Fans of the Black Ops series tolerated it; and since Black Ops 3 is the only decent COD game for PS4 (or Xbox One), Black Ops 2 fans have decided to play it anyway since Black Ops 2 is not available for PS4 (or Xbox One). But just because they got used to it, that doesn’t mean they like it, and a quick forum search will show you tens of thousands of people who are very verbose about this distaste for jetpacks and flying around.
Even though this new kind of gameplay is revolutionary, the additional dynamics of the game has just taken it too far for many gamers. Instead of getting a thrill shooting enemies, now they have to learn a whole new game dynamics and this makes the games much harder, especially for casual gamers, which are the bulk of the COD fanbase.
Unfortunately, Infinity Ward did not learn their lesson when they created the greatest COD failure of the series, COD Ghosts, 3 years ago. Now instead of going back to the basics, they decided to take it to an entirely new level of absurdity – by taking it to space. Now, players don’t even have the option to run and gun much of the time which is the entire reason for playing an FPS. Now they are forced to fly around practically the entire time – in space.
As cool as this sounds, to play an FPS game in space, this isn’t what FPS fans want. Sure, there was Star Wars Battlefront, which was revolutionary and amazing, but not because it changed FPS gameplay. It was because they had one of the most successful movie franchises of all time as the foundation for their revolutionary game. COD does not have that.
COD fans want a game that has new cooler maps and better resolution and graphics; better and cooler guns (but nothing too crazy), and perhaps new perks and new achievements; but they do not want to change the fundamental aspects of the game. However, Infinity Ward has done just that.
COD Ghosts, COD Advanced Warfare, and even Black Ops 3 have implemented some game-changing revolutionary new movements and gameplay into the games, which have changed some (but not all) of the fundamental aspects of gameplay. However, with COD Infinite Warfare, the developers have completely removed everything that made an FPS game an FPS game – except only for the principle of shooting members of the other team.
How do fans feel about this? They hate it! Take a look at the following stats from the Battlefield 1 pre-release gameplay video and the COD Infinite Warfare pre-release gameplay videos:
Battlefield 1:
1.5 million views
22,642 upvotes, 833 down.
Ratio: 96.5% upvoted, ONLY 3.5% downvoted
Infinite Warfare:
1.5 million views
35,183 upvotes, 87,775 downvoted!
Ratio: ONLY 28.6% upvoted, 71.4% downvoted!
This has to be one of the absolute worst rated 1,000,000+ views video on youtube ever posted. Fans have voted and decided that they absolutely hate the idea of an FPS in space and everyone literally flying around! Will the Call of Duty Franchise ever wake up and listen to their fans?
See the trailers for both games below:
Battlefield 1 Gameplay Video
Infinite Warfare Gameplay Video
So what do you think? Do you love or hate the new Call of Duty Infinite Warfare? Do you love the new Battlefield 1 like pretty much everyone else?
