The Battlefield V Closed Alpha started June 28th with invitations being sent out to reviewers, influencers, and random players of the Battlefield franchise. This closed alpha is limited to PC players and players in North America and Europe. For the full list of supported countries see the details of the Battlefield V Closed Alpha here. If you have played Battlefield games in the past, have an Origin account that allows emails from EA, and live in one of the supported countries you could have been sent an access code for the alpha. Currently, Battlefield ‘Game Changers’ or influencers such as JackFrags are also giving away access codes. So while the alpha codes are limited, there are various routes of getting your hands on one.
The build itself for the closed alpha is very similar to the build shown off at EA Play this year. Players will still be battling it out on the winter map Arctic Fjord located in Norway but will now have access to two different game modes, Conquest and Grand Operations. The Conquest mode available in Battlefield V at the moment is much more similar to the Battlefield 4 mode than the Battlefield 1 mode. In this mode, each team starts with one thousand tickets which are then drained away by not holding onto flags or by being killed. The team who drains away all of the tickets of the other team wins. The limited version of the Grand Operations mode in the closed alpha has players fighting it out over two fictional days where the attackers land via paratrooper aircraft and try to take over entrenched positions within sectors to determine the outcome of the 2nd day of the operation. If the attackers take over all sectors at the end of the second day they win.
Other than an extra mode to play in this build, squad commanders also have the ability to call in reinforcements based on their squad points. On PC, the squad commander can hold the C key which will bring their radio handset up to their ear to prepare to call in reinforcements along with displaying, currently, two options for reinforcements that the commander can call in. The cheaper of the two options for each team is a unique and powerful tank, while the more expensive option is a rocket. Squad points used to call in these reinforcements are acquired simply by your squad playing the game which includes getting kills, reviving teammates, and resupplying teammates. Additionally, DICE has added a Special Assignment to the game where if the player selects it to be tracked and they complete the tasks outlined in the assignment, the player will then receive a special Closed Alpha Dog Tag that can be equipped when the full game is released.
In my opinion, the gameplay changes featured for Battlefield V in this alpha greatly improve on the past Battlefield games in a number of ways with few shortcomings. The movement system has been dramatically changed allowing the player to dive to the ground and go prone in any direction. For example, a player can be shooting while walking backward, then hit the prone key, which will result in the player laying on their back with their gun still up ready to fire. This implementation has a great amount of gameplay potential. In the first few hours that I played I used this feature to escape enemy fire by diving behind cover, then while lying on my back with my weapon ready to fire I was able to quickly turn the battle to my favor when the enemy rushed after me to finish me off. I was also very pleasantly surprised by the new Fortification system. Like in Battlefield 1 where everyone had a gas mask bound to the T key, in Battlefield V every player has a Fortification toolkit bound to the T key. Unlike what some speculated would be the Battlefield version of the Fortnite building system, the Battlefield Fortification system only allows the player to rebuild blown up parts of buildings and place defenses in certain specified locations. The building process also takes quite a bit of time, making the player vulnerable to the enemy. These two things combine to make the new system advantageous and risky enough to the player that using it is a tactical and strategic decision on the battlefield.
The idea of Attrition introduced in Battlefield V was also executed well in my opinion. This design philosophy is realized with players having less ammunition when spawning and by players’ health not regenerating fully. This means that classes such as support and medic who can give you ammo and health now play a much more important role in the game. This design philosophy also leads to a lower perceived time to kill because most people are not at one hundred percent health. While this aspect of the Attrition design philosophy can be debated as either a good or bad thing for the Battlefield franchise, I believe that it adds to the decision making process players find themselves in while playing the game which I think in turn adds to the skill ceiling of the game. Do you take on those last two enemies while at twenty-five percent health or do you retreat back to a medic and come back?
On a final note, without the new player customization system implemented into the alpha, we can’t accurately gauge how this will affect class identification as a whole which has been crucial for the Battlefield series for some time. However, the alpha has shed some worrying light on team differentiation. There were several times where I had no idea that the enemy right next to me was an enemy, particularly when I was playing as the Germans because the British army’s uniforms and color scheme are very irregular. I believe that this is one of the few things that really need to be worked on before the game is released in October. Especially for game modes such as Hardcore where user interface cues that show which teams are which are removed and where friendly fire is turned on.
The main purpose for this Battlefield V Closed Alpha is of course to test the stability of the game servers and to tweak the features and balance of the game itself. So, if you are one of the lucky ones who have received an access code to the alpha, please, head on over to the Battlefield Forums and let your feedback be heard.
