Full ReleasePC

Battlefield 1

EA Digital Illusions CE · Shooter, Action

Overview

Battlefield™ 1 takes you back to The Great War, WW1, where new technology and worldwide conflict changed the face of warfare forever.

Join the strong Battlefield™ community and jump into the epic battles of The Great War in this critically acclaimed first-person shooter. Hailed by critics, Battlefield 1 was awarded the Games Critics Awards Best of E3 2016: Best Action Game and gamescom Best Action Game award for 2016.

Battlefield 1 Revolution is the complete package containing:

Battlefield 1 base game — Experience the dawn of all-out war in Battlefield 1. Discover a world at war through an adventure-filled campaign, or join in epic team-based multiplayer battles with up to 64 players. Fight as infantry or take control of amazing vehicles on land, air, and sea.
Battlefield 1 Premium Pass — Plunge into 4 themed expansion packs with new multiplayer maps, new weapons, and more. (Expansion packs = They Shall Not Pass, In the Name of the Tsar, Turning Tides, Apocalypse)
The Red Baron Pack, Lawrence of Arabia Pack, and Hellfighter Pack — Get themed weapons, vehicles, and emblems based on the famous heroes and units.

Battlefield™ 1 takes you back to The Great War, WW1, where new technology and worldwide conflict changed the face of warfare forever. Take part in every battle, control every massive vehicle, and execute every maneuver that turns an entire fight around. The whole world is at war – see what’s beyond the trenches.

Key Features:

Changing environments in locations all over the world. Discover every part of a global conflict from shore to shore – fight in besieged French cities, great open spaces in the Italian Alps, or vast Arabian deserts. Fully destructible environments and ever-changing weather create landscapes that change moment to moment; whether you’re tearing apart fortifications with gunfire or blasting craters in the earth, no battle is ever the same.
Huge multiplayer battles. Swarm the battlefield in massive multiplayer battles with up to 64 players. Charge in on foot as infantry, lead a cavalry assault, and battle in fights so intense and complex you'll need the help of all your teammates to make it through.
Game-changing vehicles. Turn the tide of battle in your favor with vehicles both large and larger, from tanks and biplanes to gigantic Behemoths, unique and massive vehicles that will be critical in times of crisis. Rain fire from the sky in a gargantuan Airship, tear through the world in the Armored Train, or bombard the land from the sea in the Dreadnought.
A new Operations multiplayer mode. In Operations mode, execute expert maneuvers in a series of inter-connected multiplayer battles spread across multiple maps. Attackers must break through the defense line and push the conflict onto the next map, and defenders must try to stop them.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Players recommend Battlefield 1 for its atmosphere, its campaign and the way it still looks a decade after release. The longer reviews return to its atmosphere and sound (25%), its visuals (22%) and its War Stories campaign (27% mention the campaign or its stories), and some add that it runs well on modest PCs and costs almost nothing during the frequent sales. 11% call it the best or the last great Battlefield, and reviewers who tried the newer entries say they came back to this one. Online, players single out Operations, the multi-map attack and defend mode.

Most of the frustration is about getting into a match at all. Over half of the negative long reviews (54%) describe a technical or access barrier: EA's Javelin anti-cheat, which reviewers say was added years after launch and now blocks Linux and Steam Deck players, flags unrelated software, or knocks out some Wi-Fi adapters; the mandatory EA app; games that refuse to start; and a party system that struggles to put friends in the same match. Inside the game, players complain about cheaters on official servers, veterans who flatten newcomers, and how snipers, horses, mortars and vehicles shape matches.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The War Stories campaign is short and memorableHigh

The campaign comes up in 27% of the long reviews, usually warmly. Players single out the opening mission, where each death switches you to a new soldier, plus the tank, pilot and runner chapters; one wrote "Singleplayer's opening mission has got to be the strongest intro to a game EVER." Some bought the game only for the campaign at a deep discount and say it was worth that alone. The recurring caveat is length: 4% of long reviews call the stories too short or wish there were more, often in the same breath as their praise ("i feel like all of them were too short but that's a sign of a good campaign right?"). A smaller group finds the chapters bland or calls them a training course for online play: "They play more like tutorials for the multiplayer game".

Atmosphere, sound and spectacleHigh

A quarter of the long reviews (25%) praise the atmosphere, immersion or cinematic feel, and 11% single out the sound design or music. Players describe whistles before a charge, airships crashing in flames and artillery that never stops: "Just mud, a bolt-action rifle, a zeppelin crashing out of the sky in flames, and a guy charging at you with a shovel while a whistle blows." Some play with the HUD switched off to heighten it.

Visuals that hold up after a decadeHigh

The graphics draw praise in 22% of the long reviews, and 10% make the point that the game has aged well, often by comparing it with newer shooters: "Ten years later and somehow this still looks, sounds and feels better than most modern shooters." Weather, mud, destruction and lighting are the details players name.

A few dollars on saleHigh

Price or sales come up in 14% of the long reviews, mostly as advice to buy during one of the frequent deep discounts: "it's $5 and will be one of the best $5's youve spent in your life." Several say they would not pay full price for a game this old, and a minority of negative reviews say even the sale price felt wasted once they hit technical problems.

Players rank it above later BattlefieldsHigh

Comparisons with other entries in the series fill 11% of the long reviews, and another 11% call it the best or the last great Battlefield. Players who tried Battlefield 6 or 2042 often say they returned to this one for its maps, classes and tone. A smaller group prefers Battlefield 4 or V and finds this one overrated.

Runs well on modest hardwareMedium

Laptops, integrated graphics and older cards run it smoothly, according to 6% of the long reviews: "It's amazing how good it looks while still being able to run on a potato." A handful report stutters or frame drops, mostly in campaign cutscenes or with DirectX 12.

Operations and the big-battle sandboxMedium

Operations is named in 5% of the long reviews, usually as the reviewer's favourite mode: "Operations is one of the greatest game modes of any game ever." Players also enjoy the behemoths (armoured train, airship, dreadnought) that arrive to help a losing team, the class roles, and medics who actually revive. A few complain that Operations servers rotate the same few maps, Gallipoli above all.

Where players are split

Snipers, horses, mortars and vehiclesMedium

About 12% of the long reviews talk about what kills them: snipers across the map (5%), horses that soak up damage (3%), tanks, planes and artillery trucks (2%), and mortar and grenade spam (2%). Some players joke about it as part of the chaos ("sometimes the horse is on steroid and I hate it"), and one recommending review promises shell shock from the "ABSOLUTE MORTAR and GRENADE SPAM in every single match". For others it decides whether a match is fun at all: "getting sniped from across the map by someone lying in a bush gets old quick." A few name specific weapons, the SMG 08/18 most often.

Whether the servers are aliveMedium

Players disagree on how easy it is to find a match, and region decides a lot of it. 5% of the long reviews say servers are still busy, especially in Europe and especially for Conquest and Operations: "After a full decade, community servers are still packed at any hour of the day, mostly Conquest and Operations". 2% say the game is dead for them, and 4% raise ping or region, with players in Asia, India, Oceania, South America and North America describing few nearby servers or 150 to 200 ms connections: "NA Servers are all but non-existent so if you're in America, it's quite pointless to get this game." Quick Match draws complaints for dropping people into empty or restricted lobbies, and players advise each other to use the server browser and sort by player count. A small group says some servers pad their counts with idle bots, so they look full: "these servers try to lure you in by purposefully falsifying player count to show up in your filter."

Learning curve against long-time playersMedium

How newcomers fare against people who have played since launch comes up in 5% of the long reviews. Some who love the battles still hesitate to recommend the multiplayer to new players ("The learning curve can be pretty brutal"); others gave up after being outgunned by players with every weapon unlocked: "I kept getting matched against experienced veterans who knew exactly what they were doing, so I spent a good amount of time getting destroyed." A few report that servers labelled for new players are full of veterans.

Community servers and their adminsMedium

With few official servers left, players depend on community servers, and 3% of the long reviews mention the server browser or community hosts, usually as the way to avoid cheaters. 2% complain about admins: kicks "to make room for admin", bans for beating the host, and rules that limit everyone to standard rifles or no vehicles. One player wrote about "the salty admins that ban you for shooting down their plane or ending their kill streak". Others like the bolt-action-only and 200% damage servers that these rules make possible.

How much WW1 it should beLow

Historical accuracy comes up in 3% of the long reviews. Some are glad the game trades realism for fun; others object to automatic weapons, optics and prototype guns everywhere: "WW1 and full of automatic gun and red dot." Players who want the period feel point each other to standard-issue rifle servers.

What frustrates players

Anti-cheat that locks players outHigh

The Javelin kernel-level anti-cheat comes up in 11% of the long reviews and in 32% of the negative ones. The largest group is Linux and Steam Deck players (5% of long reviews, 14% of the negative ones), who say the game ran well through Proton for years until the anti-cheat arrived, and that it now refuses to start even for the campaign: "used to run perfectly on linux, but they dropped a new anticheat that made it impossible to play through proton." Windows players describe other blocks: the game refusing to launch because of Daemon Tools, ReWASD, AutoHotkey, RGB or MSI software, or "driver version 0.0.0" errors, sometimes without saying which program is at fault: "if you have Daemon Tools installed, no matter if it's not running and the drivers are deactivated, Javelin (EA's great anti cheat software) won't let you play the game." A smaller group, mostly people who had just bought the game, report that it disables their Wi-Fi a few minutes in ("crashes WiFi network adapter and completely disconnects you from the internet"), and a handful report blue screens or driver crashes. Most of the Wi-Fi reports were written in March and April 2026. A few reviewers credit the anti-cheat with fewer cheaters.

The EA app and launch problemsMedium

The required EA app or account draws complaints in 8% of the long reviews, and 2% say the game would not start at all. Players describe repeated logins, activation prompts, the app opening on its own at startup, and loops between Steam and the EA app: "Download through Steam. Click Play. Forced to download EA client." Account problems also appear: hacked accounts that could not be relinked to Steam, and a few bans players say they cannot appeal. Some players who recommend the game mention the launcher too, as an annoyance they put up with.

Cheaters on official serversMedium

Cheaters are mentioned in 7% of the long reviews. For some they ended their time with the game ("the cheating in multiplayer is just too frequent and annoying to make it not fun anymore"); others say cheaters are a problem mainly on official and Asian servers and avoidable on moderated community ones: "Quickplay can have the occasional cheater, but you can find plenty of active community servers that are moderated." Players also ask for a working in-match report or vote-kick.

Playing with friendsLow

A small group describes the party system failing: invites that never arrive, "Error code 1" when the group tries to join a server, and friends who end up in different matches. One player "Spent more time trying to invite my friend to a party than actually playing the game itself," and a few groups say they refunded over it.

Lopsided teamsLow

A small group says matches are decided before they start because skilled players stack one side or switch to the winning team: "all 10 of the god players will be on one team and all trash on the other."

Weapon unlocks and assignmentsLow

Some players find the weapon assignments slow or tedious, especially those rebuilding progress they had on console: "they thought of the most tedious trials they could think of to unlock the top 50% of weapons."

Campaign bugsLow

A few campaign players hit bugs that stop them: losing the binoculars "when you pick up a weapon out of a crate you lose your binoculars", objectives that do not trigger, and an item that fails to spawn in the final mission.

3. The player conversation

The tone is affectionate and often nostalgic. 5% of the long reviews mention playing on PS4 or Xbox first and rebuying on PC at a deep discount, and newcomers write that they finally tried the game they had watched others play years ago. Comparisons with other Battlefields come up in 11% of the long reviews, and reviewers who mention the Battlefield 6 beta or launch mostly use it to praise this game.

The positive and negative reviews talk about different things. 56% of the positive long reviews praise the look, the sound or the campaign. 54% of the negative long reviews describe an access problem (anti-cheat, the EA app, launching, connecting or partying up), while 32% criticise how the game plays. Wi-Fi breakage comes mostly from people who had just bought the game, most of them with under three hours logged. Linux complaints come from owners who say they had played for years on Steam Deck or Proton. Complaints about cheaters, admins, balance and unlock grind come largely from players who stayed for dozens of hours. Linux complaints appear in every period of the slice, while the Wi-Fi reports cluster in March and April 2026.

4. What the developers could do

Let the campaign run without the kernel anti-cheat, and restore Linux and Steam Deck play. The anti-cheat appears in 32% of the negative long reviews, Linux and Steam Deck owners write 14% of them, and players stress that even the campaign no longer starts.
Fix Javelin's false positives and the Wi-Fi crash, and name the program that triggers a block. Players are blocked by Daemon Tools, RGB and controller utilities or phantom driver errors, and some lose their network adapter minutes after launch, often with no message telling them what to remove.
Make the Steam launch path work in one click. Reviewers describe login and activation loops, the EA app autostarting, and games that never open.
Repair party invites and joining friends. Groups report invites that never arrive and "Error code 1" when joining a server together, and several refunded after failing to play as a group.
Act on cheaters on official servers and add an in-match report or vote-kick. Cheater complaints focus on official and Asian servers, where players say nobody moderates.
Clean up the server browser and Quick Match. Players ask for honest player counts without idle bots, visible rule sets such as rifle-only or no vehicles before joining, Quick Match that avoids empty or restricted lobbies, and more servers in Asia, India, Oceania and the Americas.
Ease the newcomer gap. New players describe being outgunned by veterans with every weapon unlocked, and some find that servers labelled for new players are full of veterans. Faster assignments or beginner servers that actually keep veterans out would address both.
Fix the long-standing campaign bugs. The binocular bug and missions that fail to trigger keep stopping players who bought the game for its story.