Developer EA Motive is looking to Hollywood for inspiration for the next big entry in the Battlefield series. But where it's pulling that inspiration is a little different than you'd expect.
"I'm a big fan of Lioness," creative director Roman Campos-Oriola told Inverse. The show, based on a real-life CIA program that recruited an all-woman team to operate in the Middle East, is a little more cerebral than the typical macho military films centered around soldiers on the frontlines.
Meanwhile, executive producer Philippe Ducharme told Inverse, "I really enjoyed Civil War." Alex Garland's 2024 film, which follows a group of journalists documenting an American secession crisis, also subverts war movie tropes. "Some of the things that we're pushing [in this game], the film is actually a good reference," Ducharme says.
"The elements we're really interested in is the concept of talented but ordinary people put in extraordinary situations," Campos-Oriola, said. "That creates a very interesting dynamic in terms of relationships with other people. These are elements we're looking to capture in the single player."
The Montreal-based Motive has made a name for itself with robust single-player experiences like
Star Wars Squadrons and, most recently, the excellent 2023
Dead Space remake. The studio hopes to apply its skills to one of Electronic Arts' most important franchises.
"
Dead Space allowed us to know the quirks and strengths that we all have, and how we complement each other as a team," Campos-Oriola said. The goal of refining the 2008 survival horror classic while staying true to its spirit was a unifying one for the young studio, but it also gave them a surprising amount of preparation for transitioning to Battlefield.
"On
Dead Space, we talked a lot about the curve of tension. How to go from beat to beat, having the highs and the lows to keep players hooked, and even play with their expectations a little bit," Ducharme said. "It's obviously very different in a game like Battlefield. But we still brought that mentality over."
"We work with their leads and directors to understand what steps we should be following, what the right approach is to make sure we're delivering maps at the high level they've been doing," Ducharme said. "And they've been extremely generous with their feedback and time. We knew how to use the tools, but we didn't necessarily have the knowledge to deliver the best maps."
Thanks to that help, Ducharme believes Motive's maps are some of the best on offer thus far.
"I play [our maps] more, so maybe it's the knowledge I have of the spaces," he said. "But they're extremely fun, and I think the results show just how our teams really worked together to get there."
