Battlefield 5 may have launched last November, but it was missing a key part of its advertised experience: the battle royale mode, which is known as Firestorm. We’ve heard various bits of information about this first battle royale mode in a Battlefield game, but fans of the series have been kept waiting for it to be patched into Battlefield 5. Now, with the mode’s release surely not too far away, there’s been a Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak that sheds new light on what it’ll play like.
The leak is of a video, which seems like a genuine promotional video for Battlefield 5‘s Firestorm mode by developer EA DICE, and contains all-new footage of the mode being played. It also describes various new points of information about this Battlefield royale, so we’re going to go through it all and see what we can pluck out. You’ll get a look at the full Battlefield 5 Firestorm map, for starters. The big question is though, has Firestorm got enough to differentiate it from other battle royale games already available, including EA’s own Apex Legends?
Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak | What does the map look like?
Taken from the leaked Battlefield 5 Firestorm tutorial video, we get a good look at the entire Firestorm map. At least, we assume it’s the entire map, as there’s fog covering a significant portion of the top and right side of the map in the video, so there may be more there. It certainly looks gigantic. It’s been called “the biggest Battlefield map to date” in promotional materials, which was always a given seeing as it’s a battle royale, but it still looks huge even compared to other battle royale games.
From what we can gather, the map looks very wintry, and seems based on a northern Europe country such as Norway or DICE’s home of Sweden. Locations such as Minerva Docks, Friggatino Train Yard, a depot, a town, a village, and others seem pretty standard, although the frozen Arctic Lake and the “Pluto Dig Site” are certainly interesting. Furthermore, by the looks of the shot above, players do not get the full run of the map when they drop for the first time, as the Firestorm circle is already active. That’s certainly an interesting twist, and suggests that the map really is significantly large already.
Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak | How can it be played?
Unlike fellow EA battle royale game Apex Legends, which can only be played in three-person teams, Battlefield 5‘s Firestorm is a bit more classical. You can play Firestorm in solo, duo, or in a squad. The leaked video doesn’t say how big a squad can be. Squad-based play seems to be the preferred way of playing Firestorm, as the various objectives all seem to take team-based play as standard.
Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak | How does it differ from other battle royale games?
At the start of the leaked tutorial video, Firestorm doesn’t look any different from any other battle royale mode. You drop from an aircraft by parachute on to the vast game map. The tutorial narration helpfully notes that urban environments can be full of decent loot to scavenge, but are also more likely to attract other players, just like every battle royale game ever. Backpacks can be found to increase your inventory space, for another example.
Fortunately, the video soon starts to describe new features that may make Firestorm stand out a bit from other battle royales, such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and of course, Apex Legends. It starts to describe objectives and safes for players or squads to find. We’ve known that Firestorm won’t just have plain survival, like other battle royale modes, and will have these objectives to be completed around the map, but we’ve had no information on what these objectives could be, or what you actually get for them. Hacking safes is a completely new thing, for starters, although we don’t get to see what’s actually involved.
Is hacking safes time consuming? Is there a minigame involved? Can other players tell if a safe is being hacked nearby? We just don’t know. What we do know however, thanks to the video, is that players won’t just get loot from completing objectives or hacking safes. Players will also gain access to Reinforcements (possibly the chance to respawn a teammate?), particularly rare loot, or even vehicles.
Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak | What vehicles are in Firestorm?
The video reveals a number of vehicles coming to Firestorm, and they’re quite wide ranging, including personal vehicles for one person, squad vehicles, flying vehicles, water vehicles, and heavy vehicles. We see a player get in a one-person unarmed helicopter, a duo in an armed gunboat being strafed by a larger helicopter, and even a tank driving across the landscape (and squishing a player). However, the tutorial notes that these vehicles can reveal your location, and can be countered with anti-vehicle weaponry.
Battlefield 5 Firestorm leak | When’s it coming out?
EA and DICE have previously promised Battlefield 5 Firestorm for March, and there’s no reason to suspect that it won’t come out this month. The official Battlefield Twitter posted a five-second teaser for the new battle royale mode today, just before the tutorial video leaked, so a release date reveal is probably coming soon. The tweet tells fans to check Reddit for new details, so presumably the team will be posting something there before not too long, probably on the official Battlefield subreddit. We think it’s a safe bet to assume that Firestorm will get revealed and released very soon.
https://twitter.com/Battlefield/status/1103680522222481408
