People like Free Stuff

Developer – DICE
Publisher – EA
Platforms – PC (Download)
Release – 25/06/09 (Offical Release, but the beta was taking place for a long time before)

Everyone likes free stuff. More people like free stuff that’s useful. And even more people than that like getting stuff that you should be paying for for free. Koreans especially.

In Korea, most games are not sold in stores, but are downloaded for free and then kept alive by microtransactions, often for items that can be done without. This system hasn’t work particualry well in the west,  probably because we are all a bunch of traditionalists but also because we expect a lot more from our games. This however is going to change. EA can smell the money it can make from this. They plan to release a Need for Speed game next year using this payment model, but this month they released a game that has been a long time coming. Battlefield Heroes.

Battlefield Heroes is a cartoon style shooter using the battlefield system from other games in the series (such as Battlefield 2 or Bad Company). Compared to the other games though, it feels a lot simpler. There are only 3 classes on each side and most maps are small scale with no more than 4 flags. It feels more casual and silly. The art style is similar to TF2 and the camera is in third person. But more important is the change to the class system.

As said before there are 3 classes on each side. However, unlike previous games where classes and sides would change from battle to battle, you chose your side and class when you create your hero. This is a persistent character, whose abilities and appearance are carried over between games. Each class (Commando, Soldier and Gunner) can use certain abilities unique to that class. Many of these are skits on annoyances in other games (such as the soldiers grenade spam). This carries on the sense of humour running through the game. Another thing that add to the comedy is the various extra clothing options. For Battlefunds (payed for by real money), you can upgrade your character with either proper military attire or as a participant in the eternal “Pirate vs Ninja” war or in other humorous clothing (like a “I’m with stupid shirt”). Now the only problem with the clothing options is the fact they cost money. And the free, original stuff is crap. Worse, the payed stuff has a limited life on it. This was a problem I also had in the beta, which annoyed me enough to make me blog on it. Thankfully, EA have managed to fix it slightly. Some clothing options can be bought with Valo(u)r Points which are earned ingame and the clothing can now be bought permanently for a premium. And the clothing does make the game look a lot better. The craziness of the clothing just adds to the overall bedlam.

And bedlam it is. In the last game, I saw a man in a sombrero knock a jeep into the air by clapping his hands, before waving to the jeep he just crashed. I saw a spitfire with a sniper and a gunner riding on the wings with all 3 doing chicken noises. The game is just fun to play, in a way COD or even BF2 just can’t be. The feel from it is just one of happy mayhem. But there are problems. It only has 4 maps at the moment, which is expected for a free game. Also there is a slight imbalance between the two sides. It seems to be much easier to join a game as a National (fake german look-alikes) than as a Royal (fake British troopers…with Kilts!). Not much of a problem as there are still plenty of players now, but after people lose intrest games might be much harder to find at your level. Finally, the nimber of items in the store is.. lacking some what. At the moment there are too few items for some sections and many of them are not actually that good.

But this is a free game, and it is something EA is more than happy to put money into. So we can expect development to last for a long time with the promise of new items and maps down the line. But at the moment the game is still great. Its a free version of Battlefield which is fun to play and can be quite addictive due to its persistant character system. And its free. Did I mention that?

I give Battlefied Heroes 88% at the moment, but this score is only 5 days after full release and so my complaints may be fixed.