Free Battlefield. Could they pull it off? Thumbs up, EA: you just made a game for all ages and the best free-to-play yet
As a veteran of both Battlefield and free-to-plays, I was hoping for a lean towards the Battlefield side. The creation a FTP Battlefield is ambitious, and I didn't want another Counter-Strike knockoff (sorry Combat Arms) or graphics that looked like they came from the stone ages (not sorry Runescape). EA pleasantly surprised me.
From the get-go, hard-core gamers will be shocked to find that Battlefield Heroes doesn't hold much ground between the Battlefield franchise and the newest addition. In fact, this may be a turn-off, like it originally was for me. However, after a good amount of playing, you find that this new Battlefield is suitable for all gamers, both hard-core and casuals.
BFH keeps the Battlefield theme of capturing command posts and good vehicular gameplay. Differences, however, apply heavily. The game takes a Team Fortress 2 approach in that the three main roles are all ability laden. The commando, for instance, can turn invisible, but has little health, while the gunner has a large amount of health and a good shielding ability. Each role has five abilities that can be maxed with "hero points" that are earned as you level up. The points are refundable, and the abilities add significant strategy to the game, but a hard-core player without abilities can still outperform any ability-laden casual player.
Vehicles also take a dramatic turn. Now the four basics are jeeps, tanks, planes, and AA guns, with little change in them. Because every class is given TNT and his abilities, vehicles now are much more susceptible to a player kill (for instance, a commando can snipe a plane out of the sky with a full clip and a damage-rising ability). Because of this, and the 8v8 maps, the game takes on a smaller strategy than the sweeping 32v32 of Battlefield 2.
Speaking of which, the maps are quite superb. While only limited to four, these games have yet to bore me, and remind me much of Blood Gulch on Halo, which is still the most played map of all the Halo games. The visuals lean to the cartoonish, but the graphics are done quite well, and the draw distance for a web browser game (no downloading!) is around 600 yards. Sound quality is excellent, the best from a web browser game yet. Sadly, the biggest downside so far is the lack of VOIP, meaning coordinated assaults are lacking.
A large customization store also awaits from points you earn in the game for buying everything from gloves to a new sniper rifle. There is also a money order, but those points don't go towards any weapons, only asthetics, meaning everything you buy won't severely affect gameplay. Even the guns are not a severe change of the weather, and are confined to only three or four roles, meaning there is no overpowering weapon or super weapon that can be bought. The in-game money is recycled so quickly that you never feel the need to "save" for that one special item, and buying times are standard seven days, meaning you'll get plenty of play from them.
The other large problem I've encountered is that, instead of simply picking a server, you're forced into a matchmaking application, which so far has shown no promise and is terrible. Luckily, most servers cycle maps quickly, so you don't feel confined to one map, and the community is hard at work petitioning EA to standardize back to picking your own server.
All-in-all, this is the best web browser game by far, and a worthy game in and of itself. While EA is waiting for positive results from the community before they continue to update content, I can say this is possibly the best game for any and all ages. EA has really hit the spot with their cartoonish flair, and I expect a sequel for consoles and possibly even an in-store sequel. I highly suggest this game to anyone willing to play it, whether new to the Battlefield genre or a hard-core Project Reality player.
NOTE: you must require Pixel Shader 2 to play it. To see if you have any, use the "Run" function in your computer. Type "dxdiag," go to the "Display" tab, and look to see if AGP Texture Acceleration is available.