Battlefield 5 vs Call of Duty Black Ops 4: The War for Supremacy Rages Again

After a year in hiatus, Battlefield returns to war with Battlefield V this October. Wednesday’s reveal also officially ushered in the next chapter of an ongoing rivalry: Battlefield vs Call of Duty. This is a particularly interesting year in the BF v CoD saga, with both franchises making big changes to the formula in the hopes of attracting players across the world. Now that both games have been revealed, let’s set them side by side and see who has an early advantage heading into E3 2018. Also, and perhaps more importantly, are these games doing enough to upend the battle royale craze initiated by games like Fortnite and PUBG? Let’s take a look.

Single-Player

We don’t really have to dwell on this one too much. Battlefield V has single player in the form of War Stories, where solo players or co-op groups can play through multiple stories from World War II. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII has no single player to speak of. Battlefield V wins by default. Players can expect some level of story going on in Zombie mode in Black Ops IIII, but it remains to be seen if anything beyond that will appear in the game. 

Battle Royale

Again, not a whole lot of time needs to be devoted to this part. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII’s Blackout mode is bringing the hot new format to Call of Duty for the first time, infusing it with familiar faces and locales from Black Ops’ illustrious past. Battlefield V doesn’t have a battle royale mode at all...yet. Admittedly Call of Duty being the only battle royale game of the two will likely hold far more weight than the single-player comparison, but we’ll get to that later. For right now, Blackout exists and DICE has yet to reveal anything to match it. What's more interesting is that Blackout will feature elements that will apparently span the whole series' history of characters and weapons. We don't know much of Blackout yet, but it has our attention.

Multiplayer

This is where the Battlefield V vs Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII war is truly waged. Both games are focusing on multiplayer in a huge way, allowing players to compete in many different ways. Black Ops IIII has ditched the wall-running, jetpacking ways of its predecessors, making “boots on the ground” gameplay the core component of each match. It will feature all of the standard multiplayer modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination. Customization is a huge part of the game, letting you choose a Specialist and then customizing that choice however you see fit with a unique kit assigned to each Specialist. It seems Black Ops IIII’s focus is on player agency and unique character performance via the Pick 10 Create-A-Class system.

Battlefield V’s multiplayer will also allow for character customization, but it takes things one step further with vehicle and weapon choice as well. The signature multiplayer modes appear here as well, but Battlefield V has a brand new mode ups its sleeve in Grand Operations, a multi-day mode that allegedly lets players play BFV multiplayer in ways they never have before. Each day of the Grand Operation brings new challenges and setbacks, and you must adjust if you're going to win the entire operation.

There’s one more crucial point to make, one that we think may be overlooked: Battlefield V didn’t take Fortnite’s battle royale format...but it did borrow its building mechanics via Fortifications. Each player gets a Tool Kit which allows them to build structures in certain places for protection. Other buildings can be fortified or restored after being damaged as well. While it’s not exactly Fortnite’s freeform building scenario, it sounds like it’s enough to scratch that building itch and create some very unique encounters for the Battlefield series.

Extras

Each game has one final unique extra mode, formats that will only appear in their respective games. For Black Ops IIII it’s the ultra-popular Zombies mode, which announced three separate and equally insane zombie stories from medival warfare to a trip on the Titanic. We don’t have much to go on with these modes outside of some bonkers trailers, so until we see some gameplay, it's hard to say what to expect.

Battlefield V is bringing Tides of War, a chapter-based system that will add new co-op missions, multiplayer modes, and single-player War Stories to the mix in timed intervals a la Fortnite’s Seasons. These chapters will follow the sequence of real events from World War II, starting with the Fall of Europe which drops one month after the game comes out. There are a few extra details that need ironing out, specifically how long these timed features will be available, but learning that these will come at no extra cost certainly sweetens the deal. 

Which one will win?

Unfortunately this question cannot be answered until the two games come out, but on paper this race looks super tight. Battlefield V is clearly taking the “traditional” first-person shooter approach, keeping single-player modes around while adding new modes to the classic multiplayer formula. The Season-based Tides of War structure is cool, and the nonexistent price tag certainly helps, but even those don’t rock the boat all that much. EA is playing it safe with Battlefield V, catering to the old-school FPS player.

Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII throws caution to the wind meanwhile, erasing single-player modes entirely and replacing them with the white-hot battle royale genre. A Call of Duty twist on this new format could be a huge selling point to a lot of newer Call of Duty players, but it also faces two unique dilemmas: one, Blackout Mode hides behind CoD’s purchase price while Fortnite is free; and two, should the battle royale explosion turn into a fad (a longshot, but it could happen) then Call of Duty backed the wrong horse and players will leave in droves. The traditional multiplayer modes and Zombies are back in a big way, but it’s clearly Blackout mode that will make or break Black Ops IIII.

I personally am an old-fashioned sort of player, so being able to play a traditional single-player campaign tips Battlefield V ahead in the early going. Blackout mode does pique my interest however, and if I eventually see gameplay that convinces me Black Ops IIII is a good fit for battle royale then that could change things. With E3 2018 and the rest of convention season on the horizon, I won’t have to wait very long.

Black Ops IIII releases on October 12, 2018 and Battlefield V comes shortly after on October 19, 2018, both on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

One factor of Battlefield V that caught our interest for sheer is the absence of a traditional Premium Season Pass. We go into depth on if this marks a turning point for EA when it comes to paid DLC.