The single-player trailer for Battlefield 1 has arrived, and it's brought along a ton of details to sniff out. It's our first extended look at the game's globe-trotting campaign, which tells a series of stories from several unique perspectives and war fronts. Unfortunately, it's still a bit tough to tell from the trailer who you'll play as and who's just there to point and shout at the objective markers…
Fortunately for us, the ESRB doesn't give a hoot about carefully crafted narrative reveals. The ratings board laid out four roles that players will take up in the single-player campaign: a "fighter pilot, armor crewman, rebel fighter, and message runner". Cross referencing that info with everything else we already knew about Battlefield 1, here's my bet for the historical heroes you'll get to play as.
Battlefield 1's armor crewman
This young man staring fondly at a tank is a pretty safe bet for our "armor crewman". And it looks like that fellow standing on the top and shaking hands could be the seasoned tank expert to show him the ropes. Well, as seasoned as anybody could be with a piece of military technology that was invented just years beforehand.
Battlefield 1's pilot
The handsome fellow in the dark scarf appears to be our fearless pilot, while his rounder companion is an aerial photographer. Airplanes were extensively used for reconnaissance in World War I so expect to do some scouting missions with this duo in Battlefield 1 - scouting missions that inevitably turn into desperate dogfights, naturally.
Battlefield 1's rebel fighter
Both the woman and the man wearing keffiyeh get similar amounts of screen time. But I'd say the woman is likely the main character for Battlefield 1's Arab Revolt missions, since she's previously appeared in Battlefield 1 screenshots on horseback with saber aloft. The guy looks an awful lot like T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia, the British emissary and adventurer) as well... Update: EA's website confirms you'll fight alongside Lawrence himself.
Battlefield's 1 messenger
Here we have another dynamic duo who appear together multiple times throughout the trailer. They kind of look like younger and older versions of each other, right down to the hat. But ruling out any BioShock Infinite style dimensional manipulation, my money is on playing as the younger man. And I'm just spitballing here, but I'm pretty sure that means the wise old rough rider is going to perish tragically in the process of saving your life at some point.
Battlefield 1's mysterious Hellfighter
Even though he's the star of Battlefield 1's box art, this striking Harlem Hellfighter only shows up very briefly at the end of the campaign trailer (also very briefly about 20 seconds before, where he's loading his gun, and he could be the narrator). I wonder why he has such a small role in the trailer, and why he doesn't seem to be referenced at all in the ESRB rating. Could his part of the campaign be a capstone for all the others, or perhaps the through line that connects it all? We'll find out soon enough.
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