Battlefield V

Das Beste könnte noch kommen, aber was da ist, überzeugt: Ausgezeichnetes, zugängliches Teamplay, großartige Maps und eine solide Kampagne.

Am Ende haben die eigenen Erfahrungen mit DXR in Battlefield V erste Eindrücke von der Gamescom bestätigt: Raytracing ermöglicht vollständig neue optische Effekte, die einen großen Unterschied machen – theoretisch geht noch viel mehr als das, was DICE zum Start umgesetzt hat. Schon die kleine Auswahl kostet aber in der Tat auch so viel Leistung, wie es zu befürchten war.

Eine absolute Baustelle in der Frostbite-Engine ist und bleibt auch in Battlefield V DirectX 12. Die Low-Level-API will einfach nicht rund laufen und ist darüber hinaus teilweise auch im Durchschnitt markant langsamer als DirectX 11. Aktuell ist das ärgerlich, aber kein wirkliches Problem.

Battlefield 5 ist konsequent auf die Unterstützung von Squads ausgelegt. Viele Elemente, von der Munitionsmenge bis zu den Klassen, wirken wie gemacht für Gruppen aus Fans der früheren Serienteile, die sich gemeinsam ins Gefecht stürzen möchten. Mit kampferprobten Mitstreitern fühlen sich die Matches wieder wunderbar episch an. [...] Einzelspieler kommen bei Battlefield 5 allerdings kaum auf ihre Kosten.

Ultimately though, as I said at the start of this review, Battlefield V is more of the same. It still looks and sounds great, the multiplayer is still the best large-scale FPS around. The single-player is still a weird mess. It’s just another new series in The B Factor. Strictly Come Battling. And that’s fine if you’re really into it, but for me there’s not enough here that’s sufficiently new or different to justify that eye-watering price-tag.

A strong if slim shooter that lays down strong foundations for the future, while feeling a little unfinished.

We honestly haven't had much time to really play it yet. It's a great looking game, and the versatile multiplayer feels more alive than the Battlefield 1 online modes did. There's a lot to come, and we can't wait for the launch to see bigger player numbers and really get stuck into it. For now, though, I'm going to get back to the RTX 2080 Ti build and give the singleplayer campaign a more thorough going through. Wish me luck!

DirectX Raytracing and NVIDIA RTX are as ambitious a technology as Ageia PhysX (which NVIDIA later acquired and popularized). Much like PhysX, DXR is facing a lot of teething problems with initial adoption. It requires you to not only have Windows 10, but also the latest "October Update". When we managed to get it off the ground, we were greeted by some astounding results.

Battlefield V has left us with mixed feelings, with many issues and annoyances that could be addressed by patches before the games official launch on the 20th. As it stands right now, Battlefield V isn't a finished product, and by this, we are not just referring to the game's lack of DXR support and its lacklustre DirectX 12 implementation.

For the team at DICE, there's simply no time to stop and lick their wounds. Like a good WWII-era mechanized unit, they've got to advance quickly to keep attention on their game during a busy holiday release schedule. Here's hoping that their supply lines can keep up with them.

Overall, we've had a lot of fun testing and playing Battlefield V. It lives up to most of its gameplay hype, even if it makes you feel shortchanged in the eye-candy front due to lack of RTX at launch.