[7][8][9] The name "Firestorm" refers to a literal storm of fire that constricts players similar to the popular Battle Royale game mechanic of restricting the play area.

The prologue begins after Battlefield 1's "Storm of Steel" left off, before cutting to a black screen with white text, commentating on how society was quick to forget the horror of the First World War.

This time, the player must shoot down a variety of Bristol Blenheim and Supermarine Spitfire aircraft during the Bombing of Hamburg in World War II, before being shot down themselves.

Upon completion of all introductory segments, the player is then shown cinematic clips of the war stories, before being treated to the game's title card.

In the spring of 1942 during the North African campaign, convicted bank robber William Sidney "Billy" Bridger, the son of another infamous bank robber, Arthur Bridger, volunteers to join the British army in order to avoid jail time, and is assigned as an explosives expert to a Special Boat Service team led by George Mason (Craig Fairbrass).

Billy is able to destroy the objectives, but detours to a nearby bunker to collect medical supplies for Mason, and uses the radio there to call HMS Sussex for evacuation.

In the spring of 1943 during Operation Checkmate, in Rjukan, Norway, a British commando unit is killed attempting to infiltrate a German-occupied facility and Astrid, the Norwegian resistance movement soldier assisting them, is captured.

In the late summer of 1944 after the Allied landings at Normandy during Operation Dragoon, Senegalese Tirailleurs soldiers are sent to help liberate France from German occupation.

However, Deme quickly experiences discrimination from the French army, with the Senegalese being blocked from fighting on the frontlines and instead assigned to perform menial tasks such as filling sandbags.

Finally, the Senegalese are allowed to participate in an assault on a heavily fortified German position by moving to destroy a set of anti-aircraft guns defending the area.

Idrissa is reluctant to proceed further since their commanders are dead and they have no support, but Deme is determined to keep pushing for the anti-aircraft guns in order to win recognition from the French army, and he convinces the rest of the unit to follow him.

In the April 1945 during the encirclement of German Army Group B, veteran Tiger I commander Peter Müller and his crew participate in the defense of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, in the city of Cologne against invading American forces, with orders from OKW that all soldiers must fight to the death.

At the behest of Schröder, the crew's young and fanatically patriotic gunner, Müller has the unstable loader Hartmann scout the ruins ahead for a passage through.

The Tiger receives orders to regroup at a cathedral with other remaining German forces for a final defense; en route, they discover that Hartmann had attempted to desert and was consequently hanged.

As a despondent Müller cradles his friend's corpse, American soldiers arrive and again demand their surrender, but the fanatical Schröder continues to fight.

[6][11] The decision to exclude these features was made following the outrage over the loot box system in Star Wars Battlefront II, another EA DICE title.

[12] The game was originally set to release on October 19, but was delayed to November 20 to enable the developers to "make some final adjustments to core gameplay".

The game ditches the "Premium Pass", which in previous Battlefield titles granted access to many benefits and new, paid expansion packs as they released, for free updates.

The announcement trailer generated a significantly negative reception, as fans of the series criticized the game for a lack of historical accuracy, authenticity and immersiveness.

[27] DICE's general manager Oskar Gabrielson also responded on Twitter, saying "Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay ... Our commitment as a studio is to do everything we can to create games that are inclusive and diverse.

Söderlund went on to say that the development team itself pushed for women in Battlefield V.[29] Despite this, in September 2018, prior to release, DICE "dialed back" the character customization options to be more historically accurate.

[30] In August, the Cowen Group, gaming industry analysts, reported that pre-order sales of Battlefield V were "weak", being 85% behind those of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

"[36] GamesRadar+ gave the game 3.5/5 stars, praising the gameplay but criticizing the online multiplayer, writing: "Not as drastic a change up as its WW1 predecessor, nor as wild or wondrous, Battlefield 5's deliberative design sidelines its strengths as a simulative sandbox.

[47][48][49] In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version of Battlefield V sold 110,653 units during its first week of release, placing it at number four on the all format sales chart.