Why am I eager to play Battlefield: Heroes, even though it looks like a redheaded stepchild frankenmonster built from leftover bits of Battlefield and Team Fortress 2? For one, this trailer suggests that I might be able to sit on the wing of a plane and fire a mini-gun at other planes while another player handles the stick. Also, it’s free.
Yep, EA’s upcoming wargame, which bears a really terribly uncanny and obvious similarity to Valve’s wargame*, will be a free download. The trailer even tacitly acknowledges that PC gamers will torrent a game if they can, but that it won’t be necessary this time, and I like that sort of corporate awareness. Is this part of the ‘new EA’ we keep hearing about?
Also, there’s a Risk-like persistent mini/meta game built in that tracks wins and losses across a map of Europe, so your Royal or National Army forces (read: English or Nazi) won’t just fight individual battles, they’ll contribute to an overall war. That’s a possibly neat touch. Finally, there’s a character customization system, which presumably gives us a veneer of choice while dodging the large-calibre bullet that is the superbly designed and balanced set of archetypes Valve created for TF2.
Still, it’s free, so I’ll play it. See the trailer below, or go to Gametrailers for a slightly HD version.
*Yes, the one EA helped publish, but that everyone knows is all Valve.
5 comments
Free? What? How can they do this?
It's free because they charge you micropayments for upgrades to your character. So the initial download and character creation are on the house, but if you want your guy to get newer/better stuff you gotta cough up for it.
It should be noted that the items and things you buy do not make you more powerful. EA has stated they don't want people to be able to just buy their way to victory, you have to earn and unlock better weapons.
well, it looks fun…but why knock off TF2?
If you believe the developers (and honestly, given the length of a typical video game's preproduction period, it's not hard to believe), the game's art style was already locked down before TF2's final look was introduced. Besides, while they're both cartoonish, this game seems to draw far more of an influence from old propaganda posters.
Also, in addition to the micro-transactions, I believe they'll be running a heavy amount of advertising on the game's community website, which they expect players to check in on frequently.
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