Battlefield Heroes was a game which looked good originally and had a lot of promise. It was going to be a "Play 4 Free" cartoony third person shooter based on the Battlefield series, but with microtransactions, mainly for customised costumes and perks that would not affect the actual game in any significant way.
What is it in reality? A borefest which gets repetitive after a while and also one where microtransactions are almost a necessity, especially since a (not so) recent update rendered Valor Points (the free ingame currency which you gain from completing missions and participating in matches) almost valueless by raising prices and making items only purchaseable with VP for about a day or three, whereas to keep them for longer or even permanely, you need real money to buy Battlefunds to buy the items.
As for the actual gameplay, there are three classes in the game, and quite frankly, a lack of variety in the game. The classes you will expect are:
Gunner, a heavy weapons specialist of sorts, who runs in with a machine gun or shotgun and blasts enemies to death from close range. Also comes with the ability to shield themselves and allies temporarily from damage.
Soldier, a typical infantry class with the ability to use Shotguns, SMGs, Pistols, group healing abilities and incredibly overpowered burning bullet attacks which can negate bandages.
and finally.... the Commando. Basically a weakling who will have to either rely on sneaking up to players and stabbing them in the back (literally) or sniping them from range.
Vehicular combat is also quite lame. You either have Jeeps which are pretty much useless for anything except getting to an area quickly, Tanks which are pretty overpowered when not faced with another tank, anti-vehicular weapons or even a plane, and a Plane, which is incredibly hard to control, and which you'll spend more of your time flying around like an imbecile than actually getting frags with.
Map choice is also a bore, as of writing, there are only 7 different maps which follow the typical "capture points, get 50 frags to win" gameplay (apart from one exception) including:
- Sunset Showdown
- Riverside Rush
- Buccaneer Bay (and a Night version too)
- Seaside Skrimish (night version also included)
- Midnight Mayhem (an exception, which is a "capture the rocket and make your timer hit 0" map)
- Victory Village
- Coastal Clash (Night version too)
As for the graphics, they look colourful and cartoony, which means the game has its own style of doing that which is good. But unfortunately, every map looks the same. They'll all be grassy usually with one or four tiny villages in them. There hasn't been a strikingly different map in the game at all.
And the sounds are kinda bad too. The only theme tune the game has is the same jingle which you will hear all the time and eventually get fed up of.
Another criticism about the game is the semi-recently introduced language filter, which in many cases is oversensitive and does ******* out some common phrases. It makes great sense to censor out filthy language especially for the kids who want to play the game and don't want to be called every profanity under the sun, but its a bit too sensitive.
In conclusion, the graphics are pretty but the samey maps available are not doing the game justice graphically. In addition, much of the game feels quite unfinished, like they could have added one or two new classes and a whole slew of maps and weapons. Hence, it deserves a 2.5/5 from me.