Article courtest of Pantheon Gaming
It may seem excessive to be speaking of another title us South African’s may be getting our hands on, but with such supply, quality is crucial for developers, and EA’s Battlefield Heroes, a cartoon-style third-person action shooter may just be what we have been craving for so long.
Right on the heels of the launch of next year’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and fighting against what most would call the most highly anticipated title of our generation, Infinity Wards Modern Warfare 2, it seems that we are overrun with choices, especially when we have seen a number of other genre releases which we can get our hands on.
DICE (developers of both Battlefield’s) have taken ideas from a variety of sources and compacted them into a package of mayhem and absolute fun. Such is the free-to-play model which they have adopted, just like Quake Live, as well at basing game mechanics on previous Battlefield titles, making this a solid release with positive attributes from a range of genres.
Battlefield Heroes also possesses a system where gamers can purchase unique items and styles for their characters, allowing for the title to remain active, and giving gamers a chance to personalize their own Heroes.
The title aims to gather players of all skill levels with its goal of placing less emphasis on strategy and more on actual skills, with less demand on PC requirements. Hardcore gamers will initially frown upon this, but with Heroes being more of a game to play on the side, as well as a matchmaking system which places gamers of equal skill in the same servers, the end result is more enjoyable than one might think.
Players are initially asked to choose between two factions, the Royal Army (Allies) and the National Army (‘Germans’), and are then directed to class selection screen where they can choose between the three standardized classes in the game, the Soldier, Gunner and the Commando. The process is not complete however as players must then customize their Heroes features such as skin tone, hair colour and so on. Purchasing the games ‘BattleFunds’ will allow gamers to further customize their characters with new outfits, emotes and special widgets.
The game mode for Heroes is very similiar to previous Battlefield titles. Each team will initially receive 50 points and a single captured flag (area) on the map. Players, or Heroes as they would like to say, will then have to go kill the enemy and capture further area’s on the map, subsequently reducing the opposing teams tickets until they reach zero.
Spawn times have been reduced from the standard 15 seconds of Battlefield titles, now down to 5 seconds allowing for gamers to remain in the action more. An achievement system is also found within the game, and allows for players to complete missions in order to gain badges and valor points.
To mark its place as a true Battlefield game, several vehicles have been included, all patterned on vehicles used in World War II. These include two “light” tanks in the style of the M4 Sherman and the Panzer III/IV, where besides the driver, an additional player can sit in the turret. Two “transport” vehicles, mainly used to get around the maps are the Willys Jeep and the Kubelwagen, each able to carry two passengers.
Last but not least, two aircraft, the Spitfire and Messerschmitt BF 109 encapsulate the feel and direction of Battlefield Heroes. Besides the pilot, two players can position themselves on either of the planes wings, allowing for them to utilize their own weapons while flying around the map taking down enemy troops, vehicles and other aircraft. This allows for complete chaos and action-packed gameplay as gamers can cause maximum destruction.
Alastair “Lag_beast” Bouman of CounterStrike: Source fame, has taken the initiative and is trying to bring Battlefield Heroes to local gamers. After testing the game on international servers, Bouman stated that the lag was bearable and he could still enjoy all the game had to offer.
He has now however taken things one step further, just like local gamers did for both Heroes of Newerth and QuakeLive, by reaching out to local game hosting providers such as ISGaming, iGame and Vodacom Gaming, to see whether they will be interested in hosting a local lag-free server.
Certain providers have shown their interest already, and communications between the developers of Heroes and our hosting providers has begun. We can only hope that the process will be as successful as HoN and QL was before.
Bouman is appealing to as many South Africans to download the game and try it out on the international servers. A large player base will hopefully show server providers that there is a lot of support for the game locally.
For more information about the game and to download it (400mb), head over to the Battlefield Heroes website here. To discuss the title and see developments in the local scene, then check out #Battlefieldheroes on the IRC server Shadowfire.
Pantheon gaming is hopeful that it will be possible to acquire a local server in the near future, and that players, both with Battlefield experience and without, will come together to enjoy this extremely amusing and enjoyable title.
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