Just a few days ago we received quite a bit of news about the last DLC for Battlefield titled Apocalypse.
Fitting the title, this expansion will let us revisit some of the most horrifying battles of The Great War and it's set to release in February. It's quite surprising considering that the second part of The Turning Tides still isn't here...
Let's see what's coming with Apocalypse, starting with maps and then moving on to weapons.
1. Caporetto
The first one is Caporetto. In real life, Austro-Hungarians were stuck in a stalemate against Italians. The front was fluctuating throughout the Alps with soldiers taking mountains, just to lose them again soon after in a pointless struggle in which millions died 10,000 ft above the sea level. In fact Battle of Caporetto other name is The 12 Battle of Isonzo River.
TWELFTH major offensives, by one or other side, shook those mountains. It really is something and if you have some time, you should check out this video by the channel The Great War, which among other things, covers the First World War week by week, as it happened 100 years ago.
IRL Italians fought Austro-Hungarians heavily reinforced by Germans, but in BF1 we will play Austro-Hungarians without the support of their German allies.
This will be an uphill battle for a mountain pass. On the whitebox (textureless) version of the map details are hard to discern but you can expect a lot of rocks to hide behind, some ruins and a new piece of artillery called Livens Projector - a launcher set to drop gas projectiles around the middle of the map. This is a piece fixed in one position, can't be moved or aimed, but can be activated by players.
2. Somme
This one is really exciting for me because it saw the first use of tanks in the First World War. To mirror that event the British side will be augmented with a single landship that is supposed to balance the struggle as this map features the Conquest Assault game mode.
In Conquest Assault game mode one faction starts with all flags capped and has to defend them against attackers who usually have additional tickets, equipment and vehicles that balance the battle.
The map, like Caporetto and Passchendaele, isn't textured yet, but we can see the Somme river, wheat fields, farm buildings, and mills - the general rural look - cut by trenches and bruised with bomb craters.
3. Passchendaele
Also called The Third Battle of Ypres, Battle of Passchendaele is one of the most pointless of the war as what little ground was won by the British Empire was lost the next year in the Battle of Lys or, you know the drill, The FOURTH Battle of Ypres.
This naturally swampish land, after heavy rains and even heavier bombardment, created a so-called Moon Scenery due to total lack of flora (except for the dead trees) and ground filled with crater, filled in turn with water.
In fact, many soldiers drowned in those craters.
In game, Passchendaele is a labirynth of trenches. Where there are no trenches, there are ruins of village, and where are no ruins there is mud and craters. Maps focus is infantry and right now there are now vehicles to use (just like irl). One interesting detail is a cloud of poisonous gas that is visible on the horizon. Many hope that this will bring a new weather effect that will enforce gas masks and reduced visibility for that amazing CQC feel.
4. Air Superiority is back
We'll be able to dogfight on two maps - London Calling over the capital of United Kingdom, and Razor's Edge amongst unspecified mountain peaks.
I'm not much of a pilot myself and there is no proper information about this mode and maps so I'll leave you with those two beautiful concept arts.
5. New weapons and equipment
CSRG SMG - basically a RSC 1917 SMG with a very small (8 rounds) magazine (Assault)
BSA Howell - Lee Enfield converted to semiauto, featuring peculiar sights (Medic)
LMG 08/18 - one of the fastest firing LMGs as of now, very tight spreed (Support)
Ross Mk3 - straight pull sniper rifle (Scout)
1917 Enfield - infantry rifle (Scout)
Webley Mk VI - a legendary British revolver (universal sidearm)
AA Rocket Gun - rocket gun firing the same round as stationary AA guns (Assault)
There are also new melee's: Broken Bottle, Meat Cleaver and Prybar.
Final words
This DLC will of course have all sorts of new assignments, dog tags, specializations etc. that I'll show of when this expansion goes live.
