Four urgent changes Battlefield V Firestorm already needs
Battlefield V‘s hugely anticipated entry into the battle royale genre is available to play now. While the general feedback for Firestorm has been positive, there are four changes EA need to make now.
Inventory management
Without question, the most complained about element of Battlefield V Firestorm is managing your inventory. It isn’t intuitive and has a steep learning process.
Clunky
Firstly, the inventory is accessed using the d-pad as opposed to through the menu. This is frustrating as it is different to other already established battle royale games.
Navigating your inventory isn’t easy either. You can scroll through your gadgets, guns and ammo using the right analog stick but you’ll naturally find yourself using the left analog or d-pad.
Solos and squads are the only two modes available in Firestorm upon release…Ammo
One incident, which others have been a victim of, resulted in trying to pick up ammo for your gun and not being able to do so – even though you don’t have any. This is because there was no space due to having other ammo. Unfortunately, this wasn’t clear and has taken players longer than necessary to figure out.
A way to resolve this could to just allow a player to pick up as much ammo as they can. While not realistic it would resolve the issue rather easily but would also take away from one of Firestorm’s original selling points.
Guns
Another annoyance is having to load up the inventory to see the names of the guns you’re using. This won’t be a problem once the guns become familiar but right now is awkward.
The console version of PUBG has a lot of bad points but perhaps the thing it does best is inventory management. It make take a little while to get used to but once it becomes second nature it is very efficient.
Knowing which gun you’re using is a bit of a learning curve…Looting
Separate from inventory management is looting. The problem with looting isn’t substantial but it is enough to lessen your enjoyment while playing Firestorm.
The problem is two-fold. Firstly, picking up loot isn’t as responsive as other games. In Blackout, for example, if you’re so much as over the loot you can pick it up. Conversely, in Firestorm, you need to be looking at it directly.
Secondly, which contradicts the first point somewhat, is picking up specific items, especially in a death stash, isn’t anywhere near precise enough. Both these points cause the looting process to take far longer than it should.
Global Community Engagement Manager, F8RGE has confirmed that improvements to looting are on the way.
Matchmaking
Hopefully this is just teething issues but matchmaking is taking far longer than it should. We know the player base isn’t an issue as it has been just over a day since Firestorm released. Despite this matchmaking is taking excessively long.
Five to ten minute wait times have been reported which suggests there is a flaw in the matchmaking system.
These are three issues, that while not disastrous, do need addressing quickly. Fortunately, due to their nature that can all be fixed relatively quickly.
First person spectator mode
Battlefield Firestorm is rather finite, if you die that is it. This is in contrast to recent battle royale entrants Apex Legends and Blackout specific playlist, Hot Pursuit, where there are respawns.
This means when you die you need to wait for your teammates to finish the game. Battle royale players have plenty experience of this but usually you can watch the action.
Unfortunately in Firestorm you will only see your teammates in third person. This ruins the experience somewhat as you can’t fully tell what’s going on. It is unknown why the spectator mode isn’t in first person but hopefully it will be added soon.