The one area where Battlefield 1 hasn’t impressed me as much as previous games has been in map design. Few offer compelling points of interest, like the massive radio dish in Battlefield 4’s Rogue Transmission, or high-activity chokepoints like the dank tunnels of Battlefield 4’s Operation Locker. Right now the close-quarters maps are especially weak, with levels like Fao Fortress offering little else than major camping opportunities. A round of Deathmatch on Ballroom Blitz had virtually no players wandering the open courtyards inside or outside the French Chateau at the center because everybody was climbing to the balconies up top and waiting, sights trained on each ladder.

That said, the large-scale approach still works well in this new World War I setting in Conquest and Operations. Amiens is a particularly strong map, set in a ruined city full of crumbled facades, alleyways, and bridges with a railroad running through it, which creates a ton of varied environments for compelling firefights. Perhaps my favorite close-quarters map is Argonne Forest, an extremely dense, green wooded area full of snaking ravines and with a wrecked train at its centerpoint.

The one area where Battlefield 1 hasn’t impressed me as much as previous games has been in map design. Few offer compelling points of interest, like the massive radio dish in Battlefield 4’s Rogue Transmission, or high-activity chokepoints like the dank tunnels of Battlefield 4’s Operation Locker. Right now the close-quarters maps are especially weak, with levels like Fao Fortress offering little else than major camping opportunities. A round of Deathmatch on Ballroom Blitz had virtually no players wandering the open courtyards inside or outside the French Chateau at the center because everybody was climbing to the balconies up top and waiting, sights trained on each ladder. That said, the large-scale approach still works well in this new World War I setting in Conquest and Operations. Amiens is a particularly strong map, set in a ruined city full of crumbled facades, alleyways, and bridges with a railroad running through it, which creates a ton of varied environments for compelling firefights. Perhaps my favorite close-quarters map is Argonne Forest, an extremely dense, green wooded area full of snaking ravines and with a wrecked train at its centerpoint.