The Battlefield V live reveal showcased a wide array of the game’s upcoming content in great detail, but left a number of different clues about the game’s progressive direction as well thanks an influx of female soldiers front and center during the presentation, and on the game’s key cover art. While the reveal didn’t focus too heavily on the intent behind adding prominent female soldiers into the game’s art and narrative direction, the presence of these characters spoke volumes.
Battlefield V is shaping up to be a massive evolution for a franchise that has recently found success in shaking things up. Following the critical reception of Battlefield 1, developer DICE has chosen to embrace one-shot storytelling even more with the return of War Stories. According to DICE, these new War Stories will focus even more on the untold tales of war heroes, an angle that lends itself nicely to some prominent female leads within the game’s World War II narrative.
The evidence that points toward Battlefield V female soldiers becoming much more prominent lies within the live reveal’s promotional images. The game’s artwork showcases a number of different women in combat and support roles, while the brief tease of the first Battlefield V War Story, “Nordlys” (which means “northern lights” in Norwegian) also hinted that a female soldier would play a crucial role in one of the game’s most important iterations of the upcoming narrative mode.
By far the most intriguing inclusion is the claw-handed woman who features in a starring role within the new Battlefield V trailer. Whoever this Battlefield V heroine is, she’s clearly important enough to become a central figure within the title’s marketing campaign. She also manages to survive an ambush, an explosion, and planes falling from the sky like meteors to reach a squadmate and save him from certain doom - whoever she is, she’s certainly one of the more impressive soldiers to appear within a Battlefield game in some time.
The move to an inclusionary philosophy in character design is a smart one from DICE, as it is something that AAA war games have traditionally lacked and been criticized for. Creating an impressively diverse cast will go a long way in expanding Battlefield V’s target demographic, while coupling these female leads with a character customization system that is built to let players express themselves through a breadth of different aesthetic options will help hammer that message home. Battlefield V is clearly a very deliberate, well-though evolution of a franchise that appears to be making a grab for the multiplayer shooter crown, and we’re excited to see where decisions like the one to embrace diversity eventually lead.
In Battlefield V’s ‘Company’ system (where players gather, customize and upgrade their soldiers, weapons, and vehicles), players can choose gender for any of the four classes for their teams on both sides of the conflict. And that’s in addition to customizing faces, face paint, helmets, jackets, pants, etc.. Smart!
