How to fix Battlefield V Firestorm’s looting problem
Battlefield V Firestorm is the latest battle royale game to have hype behind it. However, looting has been universally criticised.
Looting in Battlefield Firestorm
General looting in Firestorm isn’t as good as other battle royale games, such as Fortnite and Call of Duty Blackout. While the process isn’t exactly excellent in these either, it is a lot better than Firestorm.
When looting houses or items found on the floor, this is different from looting bodies, and it can feel quite clunky. This is because, in comparison to other games, you can’t simply be running over it to pick it up. Instead, you need to be looking at the item directly.
Picking up items off the floor is what it is, there is no other system that can be made for it. However, Criterion Games, who developed Firestorm in partnership with DICE, certainly could make it more responsive.
Looting death boxes by categories would simplify the process.Firestorm loot box
The responsiveness of looting might need a small adjustment to improve it, but looting bodies needs a complete overhaul.
Items fall on top of each other, which makes picking them up awkward and in some cases impossible. Items can be hard to distinguish between also.
Furthermore, the actual inventory management system is a challenge to use. Navigating it isn’t natural and dropping items requires you to click the same button twice.
Consequently, a new looting system involving death stashes is needed. Using it does improve with practice. Nevertheless, it should be simpler from the outset.
Looting concept designs
One interesting idea is to separate the loot in terms of its category. The concept provided divides by weapons, ammo, armor and gadgets.
Like for like inventories would make looting death stashes clearer.This would allow you to access what you need most in the quickest time frame, which can often be the difference between surviving and dying. However, some prefer a more traditional approach where all the loot is listed together.
An alternative design aligns the loot within a death box against your current inventory. This allows you to make like for like changes and makes the whole process a lot clearer.
EA respond
Fortunately, there has been an official response from EA stating, “We’ve got some improvements to looting on the way.”
This a rather broad statement and it isn’t really clear whether it relates to looting in general or more of an inventory management perspective.
Either way, it’s encouraging that feedback is being taken into account and that a resolution is being worked on.
It should be noted that many critics have also given EA and the developers Criterion Games praise with Firestorm as a whole.