Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 pulled the series out of the near future and deep back into the past, setting it during the First World War, a conflict big shooters had long avoided. It launched on PlayStation 4 in 2016, and the very opening scene, in which the player gradually dies in the role of various nameless soldiers while only their names and years appear on screen, made it clear right away that DICE this time didn't want to glorify, but to remember. The campaign takes the form of a collection of several separate stories from different fronts, from the Italian Alps through the Arabian desert to a tank battlefield in Western Europe.

The heart of the game, though, remained its multiplayer mode for several dozen players, in which sprawling maps combine infantry, cavalry, armored vehicles, aircraft, and heavy artillery. A new addition was the Operations mode, which linked several maps and phases into one long-running campaign of attack and defense and managed to convey the feeling of a genuinely fought-out offensive rather than an isolated skirmish. Early-twentieth-century weapons, meaning bolt-action rifles, early submachine guns, and unreliable machine guns, change the rhythm of combat: shooting is slower, every hit hurts, and a bayonet charge or a gas grenade can turn an entire line.

Technically the game ranked among the best-looking things running on PS4 at the time. Environmental destruction, changing weather, and sandstorms aren't just window dressing, since they directly affect how a battle unfolds, and the sound design, with the deep impacts of artillery and the whistle of shrapnel, was often called the pinnacle of the entire series. Contemporary reception was very positive, and Battlefield 1 became one of the best-reviewed entries in the franchise. Today it's remembered above all as the moment a big-budget shooter managed to be both a spectacular showpiece and, at least in hints, a serious statement about the futility of trench warfare. The collectible records and short profiles of real weapons also tie the game into history and have led more than a few players to go read up on the period. Even today Battlefield 1 remains among the best-looking shooters ever released on PlayStation 4.