Battlefield Heroes Closed Beta Impressions

In a surprising move, Electronic Arts are on the forefront of developers trialling Free-to-play games, Battlefield Heroes is their attempt to convert the hugely popular Battlefield series into something that is both accessible and can be played as little or as much as desired.

The setting is a slightly fictionalised version of World War Two as players join either the Royals' or Nationals' team and are allotted up to four heroes to play with. The basic class structure of recent games' are retained so the choice of Gunner (Heavy weapons), Soldier (Medic and all rounder) and Commando (Sniper and Stealth) are available.

To avoid any confusion for readers we'll clarify the difference between the three types of points/money and their applications. Hero Points are doled out every two levels attained, and their function is to provide the heroes with new abilities such as Grenade Spam, Poisoned Knives, Shields, and more. Handily Hero Points can be reset at any time so you're free to experiment with your play style. This is perhaps a wise decision as unlike the franchise standard, players cannot change class mid battle.

Valor Points will be the primary currency for most players and these are earned by playing the game, with bonuses doled out for teamwork (healing allies, locking down flags and so forth). These are redeemable against new weapons (lasting for either seven days or a month), a small selection of clothing and the Bandage (heals the player and counters poison and fire damage) and Wrench Widgets. The weapons  tend to fall into three categories: short, medium and long range; with ammunition, damage and rate of fire adjusted accordingly. Some classes have access to unique weapons (Commando Knives, Gunner Tank busters, etc) but the pistol seems a fairly useless weapon as your two primary weapon selection can include two machine guns.

Finally BattleFunds, these are purchased using real money (prices have yet to be finalised) and are primarily used for aesthetic individuality so if you fancy a parrot on your avatar or performing a Peter Crouch style Robot Dance Emote then you can buy these. Most of these have no real advantage upon enemies (aside from some shock at seeing a Mime artist wearing a kilt) but two may cause some player indignation. The XP Boost (allowing players to level up faster and consequently unlock more abilities) and Valor Point Boost will give paying players a slight advantage. But before panic at the spectre of paying players being given unfair advantages sets in, it should be noted that both Widgets still require playtime and are not passive upgrades.

Once a hero is selected players select abilities (via the use of Hero Points), a weapons load out (bought using Valor Points), outfit (purchasable using BattleFunds) and Widgets and Emotes (some are obtained using Valor Points whilst others require BattleFunds). Then it's straight into the action where combatants duke it out in one of three maps: Victory Village, Buccaneer Bay and Seaside Skirmish.

The basic objective for each map is to kill the enemy, whilst holding as many of the (typically four) flags. In contrast to the Battlefield norm, flags do not give increased reinforcements but instead act as a kill multiplier so if a team hold three flags then each kill obtained by that team will reduce the enemy numbers threefold. As players gain levels sub missions open up which task the player with Achievement style tasks which result in a reward of Valor Points. These start out as simple kill/damage accumulation tasks but rise to skilled challenges such as killing a certain number of enemies, using a specific weapon or vehicle, in a round.

Aside from an excess of alliteration in the titling of the maps, they're actually fairly well balanced. Buccaneer Bay and Seaside Skirmish are vehicle focused maps with tanks, Jeeps and planes on offer to tinker with. Controlling vehicles will feel slightly simplified for series veterans but it's a welcome move for newcomers as planes in particular had a steep learning curve. However one problem that seems strange is that there is no mechanic skill for any of the classes, players can spend Valor Points on a wrench (in the Widget's section) but this is only usable if you are the driver of the vehicle and there is a significant cool down period for each repair.

There are issues: the map roster needs expanding, a few features have yet to be fully implemented (Servers are limited and the favourite server system is useless) and there needs to be server or player side numerical team balancing but these are just niggles. On the whole Battlefield Heroes is great fun and promises to be a commercial success too.