DICE revealed some additional details about Battlefield 1 Friday that represent a significant change from previous entries in the franchise. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC players will need to pick specific classes to control vehicles in the game this time around. There’s also one fan requested class change.
Battlefield 1 will contain four primary classes for players to choose from – Assault, Medic, Scout, and Support. You may have already noticed one change here already. The Assault and Medic classes are now separate instead of combined into a single class and the Engineer has been dropped.
The developer has added two additional classes to Battlefield 1 – a Tanker and a Pilot. DICE Senior Producer Aleks Grondal confirmed the new classes in an interview with Xbox On. He explained the primary weapon for each class is their respective vehicles while YouTuber JackFrags suggests players will spawn directly into their respective vehicle.
We do know that vehicles will have their own sub-classes. For example, tanks will come in light, medium, and heavy variants with different stats and abilities.
It’s also unknown how the class role structure will affect other vehicles shown in the trailer and mentioned on stage by DICE. This includes the Zeppelins, Destroyers, and even horses.
Traditionally, Battlefield players have been able to pick up any vehicle that is available on the map regardless of their role. This sometimes leads to fights over vehicles between teammates or players driving away on a vehicle and dumping it once they reach their destination. It will be interesting to see how making the use of vehicles in multiplayer class-based will work.
As for the rest of the classes, the Assault players will have SMGs. Support will carry LMGs, and the Scout will carry the Sniper Rifle. The Medic looks like it will carry a semi-automatic weapon along with the medkit. Pistols, shotguns, and dynamite have also been confirmed, but it is unknown which classes will have access to the latter two.
Battlefield 1 is scheduled to be released Tuesday, October 18 for those that purchase Early Enlister Deluxe Edition. Everyone else will have to wait until Friday, October 21.
