With the success of Call of Duty Mobile, it was only a matter of time before Electronic Arts found someone to develop a mobile version of Battlefield. We've known since April that Battlefield Mobile was in development, with a fresh Play Store listing that popped up at the beginning of September. This listing was published in preparation for the first alpha test launched in Indonesia and the Philippines this past weekend. As you can imagine, gameplay videos have been leaking online, and it would seem EA forgot to region lock the game, which is how I was able to sideload the APK to record a 25-minute gameplay video at 1080p/60FPS. So if you'd like to take an extended first look at how the alpha for Battlefield Mobile is shaping up, I've got you covered.

25 minutes of gameplay where I constantly die

The above gameplay video dives into Battlefield Mobile's settings and then jumps into multiple rounds of gameplay. Since this is an early alpha build, there isn't much content to explore, but online matches are working in a few of the Conquest capture-the-flag maps, and boy was the competition tough. While I started strong with a few kills, I soon found out that running and gunning is an awful strategy. Battlefield is all about cooperation, at least for the capture-the-flag mode available in the alpha, and so I was quickly singled out anytime I ran out into the open. I.E., I was slaughtered, which was in no way fun for me whatsoever. This is the part where everyone will tell me to "git gud," in the comments, but please allow me first to illustrate why I didn't have any fun.

Home screen and matchmaking screen

To begin, the touch controls feel unwieldly, and there's no controller support outside of a functioning left thumbstick that has no ability to run. Worse yet, snapping to shoot appears to be absent, and auto-shoot feels delayed (which is why I had this option turned off in the above video, perhaps to my detriment), possibly an issue because of the server distance from my location. This creates a situation where you'll swing your gun wildly to adjust to the fact you can't snap to any targets. It would also seem player distance also played a huge role, where I'd unload an entire clip into an enemy at a distance, clearly hitting them but never once wearing their energy down to dead. By the time I was close enough for my gun to do any worthy damage, I was dead at the hand of someone not suffering from aiming issues.

It's also too easy to get hung up on objects outside of your peripheral, and yet jumping, running, and all-around elusiveness was exhibited by other players, all telltale signs of experienced players that know how to doge during shootouts in memorized maps. To say matches felt uneven is an understatement, yet my team often won, assuredly without any help from me. And I'm no stranger to touchscreen shooters, but something wasn't clicking.

Map and loadout selection screen

Another troubling issue is that matches feel like they take forever to wrap up, something I can't imagine will lend itself well to portable play. The funny thing is if you check out the game's subreddit, players are already complaining matches are too short. This is a conundrum since the mainline title is known for lengthy matches that can span up to 45-minutes, and the further EA strays from the original, the more longtime fans will be unhappy. But you see, this comes at the cost of the casual audience where I doubt inexperienced players will be willing to invest their time in long matches. So it will be interesting to see how EA handles this.

As for the graphics, I think the game looks pretty good for an alpha, and map destruction is included, a staple of the series, which is great to see. So far performance is pretty good. I managed to play at 1080p 70FPS the entire time I was recording on the ROG 5, with the graphics on the highest setting possible. You can also adjust your framerate to cap it at 30FPS, something that should help out those playing on mid-range devices.

For an alpha the game looks pretty good

Now, my experience with this alpha is to be taken with a grain of salt since the game is an early build being tested on servers halfway around the world from me. There's a chance my aiming woes are directly related to the delay from the testing servers, plus we already know EA is working to improve the game, which is what this alpha is all about, making sure Battlefield Mobile is appropriately balanced before its official release next year. So while I may not have had a lot of fun dying at the hands of much better players who weren't suffering from server delay, it already looks like Battlefield Mobile is well on its way to offering some stiff competition for the other shooters on mobile platforms, currently leaning towards hardcore gameplay that should appeal to longtime Battlefield fans. So as long as EA can shore up the iffy gunplay and match length issue, we may very well have a hit on our hands.