US, February 29, 2008 - In North America, there are few clearer examples of the disparity between PC and console trends than with DICE's handling of their Battlefield IP. Bad Company, a variation of the franchise featuring realistic environments and character models, is coming to consoles only. Battlefield Heroes, a cartoony casual-style, free to play, pay per item title is coming to PC. That's not to say Heroes is better or worse than what fans are likely looking for from DICE, it's just different.
While DICE is looking to push into the casual category with bright, cartoony graphics and highly accessible gameplay, it isn't abandoning the core Battlefield crowd on PC. "Battlefield Heroes represents a new side branch of the Battlefield series, along with Battlefield Bad Company on PS3 and Xbox 360," says Ben Cousins, senior producer at DICE. "We will still continue to make the high-end, deep and realistic Battlefield games on PC in the future."
Why make Battlefield Heroes in the first place? "The team went on a business trip to South Korea at the end of 2006, and saw the huge success of this Play 4 Free model in that country," says Cousins. "Given DICE always likes to be at the forefront of new online trends, we decided to experiment with this business model in the west."
That's a kill.
Heroes is accessed through a web portal. You sign up, launch the game from there every time after, and can use the site to browse statistics. Advertising exists on the website and on loading screens, but not in the actual game. As far as character choice goes, you choose from Royal or National armies. From there you can choose soldier, gunner, or commando classes. Unlike Battlefield games of the past, you don't swap between classes in the game. Instead, you select a class, customize your avatar's appearance and stick with that class thereafter, like in an MMOG.
As you play you'll level up your class, gaining new special abilities and clothing types along the way. Gaining more experience in combat lets you level up special abilities, making them more effective. "You may be a stealth based sniper, or a gunner focused on absorbing damage from enemies rather than attacking," says Cousins. "Each class has a unique set of weapons and abilities to unlock and customize."
In addition to the three classes to appear in the final version, DICE toyed around with a few other types. "For a long time we had a fourth class (the 'Pilot/Driver') but we couldn't flesh him out enough to make him a dedicated class which was as interesting and strong as the other three, so we dropped it," says Cousins. "There are the possibilities of course of adding more classes as the game progresses."
The game is free to play, but you'll have to option to spend cash on microtransactions. "The things we sell will be determined by the opinion of the community, but we will probably start off with two types of items," says Cousins. "The first kind is purely visual items for your character – glasses, hats, boots, jackets etc. The second type of items is what we call convenience items. Let's say we have two people playing Heroes – one has lots of time on their hands and plays the game for four hours a night, leveling up their character quite quickly and unlocking new items and abilities (for free). The second player has less time on their hands as they have a kid or job. This second player can buy an item which gives him double experience points over a single weekend – so he's still playing the game, he's still building up skill and he's still unlocking the same items and abilities of free players, but he's doing it a little quicker because he's bought this item."
Sitting on plane wings is now an option.
Will the cosmetic clothing purchases eventually provide some kind of ability boost or otherwise give players a competitive advantage? "The current plan is that they are just for show, but if we think the community is interested in clothing items which give a stats boost, we will consider them."
Heroes will take place almost entirely from a third-person perspective, but DICE says it'll still feel like a first-person shooter. "The one instance where the game has a first person view is when you zoom the sniper rifle; otherwise the game is third-person only," says Cousins. "I think there is a bit of misunderstanding among the community as to what third-person means. It doesn't mean we have a Mario or Tomb Raider control scheme. Our control scheme is identical to an FPS – you use the mouse to aim the reticule and move the character with WASD, with jump and crouch. You can transfer all of your FPS skills to Battlefield Heroes. The only difference is instead of a gun in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, you have a character in the bottom centre of the screen."
And it wouldn't be a Battlefield games without vehicles, of which there'll be two at launch. A Sherman tank with arcing shells and plane will available to players, the latter of which will have a simpler control scheme than in the franchise's past. Three players can occupy the flying machine at a time, one in the cockpit, two sitting on the wings. To simplify the process of scooping up squadmates, pilots need only swoop down near a player on the ground. The potential passenger can then hop about with the press of a button. It'll also be easier to dismount, as players can eject safely from the craft when near the ground. If piloting solo, it's also possible to swap positions at will.
A new look for Battlefield.
As far as gameplay goes, you can capture flags in the game's two maps set for launch, but you don't need to. Each game is basically a team deathmatch with a 50 life limit. A kill detracts one point from the other team and for each flag snagged a multiplier for points taken away is added. To keep things moving along swiftly, respawn rates will be on a five second timer. Players worried they may be set up against difficult opponents need not fret, as a built in matchmaking system will try and bunch together those of roughly equal skill levels in the 16 player matches.
During combat players will have quite a variety of skills. Incendiary bullets, x-ray vision, and temporary health bursts should keep gameplay varied. The commando class, the sniper, can cloak and sneak around the battlefield. At long range he'll be invisible, but his camouflage will be rendered somewhat ineffective at closer distances.
The user interface has been streamlined, eliminating the traditional minimap in the top right corner of the screen. In the top left will be a character portrait around which snakes an experience bar, and along the screen's bottom will be a skill hotbar.
We didn't get to play the game, so we can't really provide any impressions as to how it feels.
Beyond launch, DICE is planning on updating according to player feedback. As for when it's coming out, we'll let Ben Cousins have the last word. "We'll start with a closed beta of a few hundred people in the near future, gradually ramp that up to ten thousand or so in the month or two following, and then launch for everyone with an open beta later in the year. When we launch, there will be no items for sale, we want people to enjoy the game world and get used to the game and the gameplay before they are introduced to buying items."
IGN: Battlefield Heroes Preview