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‘Firestorm’ is the squad-based ‘Battlefield V’ take on battle royale

Gabe Gurwin
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This is Battlefield V

Back in June, Electronic Arts and Dice introduced us to Battlefield V, and the companies teased the first-ever battle royale mode in a Battlefield game. Today, we have our first details on the mode, called Firestorm, and it looks like it will be appropriately intense.

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In a Battlefield V overview video that you can watch above, Electronic Arts shared just what will separate Firestorm from other games’ battle royale modes. In keeping with the squad-based tradition of the series, it will be comprised of 16 four-person squads, meaning it will feature the same number of players as most games’ Conquest mode, but it will take place on the largest map ever created for Battlefield. As we saw in a recent teaser, the playable zone is surrounded by a literal firestorm, which is quite a bit more intimidating than the magical force field we’ve seen in PlayerUknown’s Battlegrounds or storm in Fortnite.

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Firestorm will also include the same destructibility and vehicle-focused gameplay as most other Battlefield modes. The crumbling buildings should help it stand out from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, though the latter will also include vehicles.

The same Battlefield V overview video also gave us some more information on the game’s single-player War Stories mode. One particularly exciting piece of the anthology mode is the Under No Flag mission that tasks a “young British criminal” with traveling behind enemy lines to fight the Axis in North Africa — call him “the Dirty One-zen,” perhaps.

There will be four War Stories available in Battlefield V at launch, including the prologue, and The Last Tiger will be added to the game after release. Electronic Arts and Dice hope to support the game for the long haul, with the Tides of War events giving players reasons to come back and compete for months to come, in addition to all DLC being free this time around. The first Tides of War event is The Fall of Europe, set in France during 1940, while the second will take place in Greece and debut next year.

Battlefield V was recently delayed, and will now arrive on November 20 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. A beta is currently available to those who pre-ordered the game and will open up to everyone on September 6.

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Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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