Battlefield Heroes Beta: Battlefield Lite

As I mentioned in my last post, The Battlefield Heroes Beta can be easily obtained through Fileplanet, and now having played it I'll share some impressions. I've only gotten four or five hours to play with it, but I only started playing at 10:00pm, so the fact that I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning is a testament to how addictive it can be.

Upon signing up for the game, I was asked to create a character and assign that character to either the Royals (Allies) or the Nationals (Germans). I also had to decide whether I wanted him to be a gunner, soldier or commando. I chose the Nationals because I like the scowl permanently painted on their faces and the soldier class because it looked the most well rounded. Characters are permanently linked to the chosen team and class but will gain experience which grants new levels and new abilities. If you've played Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2 or any RPG ever, this system is extremely familiar. At first the options for my character seemed terribly limited, but once I started gaining abilities like flaming bullets, blasting strike and my personal favorite, grenade spamming, I found that this game is a bit deeper that it seems on the surface. Up to four characters are allowed on each account, so should I want to try playing on the Royal Army I can simply create another character.










Once I was satisfied with my Teutonic warrior I was anxious to dive straight into a match, foregoing the optional tutorial mission, but I found that there aren't any server lists or matchmaking options. This game, (at least in the beta form), runs entirely on one-button matchmaking. I clicked a big yellow "PLAY NOW" button and the game found a match and plunked me straight into the fight. This system seems to work fairly well as there is only one gametype and only a few maps in the rotation. Once in the match, I noticed that B:H diverges from previous Battlefield games in a few subtle ways. For one thing, the ability to choose any friendly occupied spawnpoint is gone. Players are spawned at the point that the game determines is nearest to the action. This may sound frustrating but it seems to work alright, especially since the maps in B:H aren't remotely as colossal as those in previous Battlefields. Another change is the switch to third person point of view. This change isn't as striking as you might realize, in fact I played through three full-length matches before it dawned on me that I was using the third person camera to peak around corners.

A change that isn't quite so subtle is the art style. The developers forewent super high-poly models, self-shadowing, advanced physics and all the other "good stuff" we're familiar with seeing in most modern shooters and instead adopted a whimsical pastel-colored Saturday morning cartoon art style. Gone are gritty, war-torn battlefields and in their place are saccharine but charming playgrounds that would be ideal for playing army-men. I could talk about the look of the game for hours and how much I love it, but instead just take a look at the screenshots and keep in mind that this game can run on a single-core 1Ghz processor with 512Mb of RAM. I even tried the game on my three-year-old Dell laptop and I never saw a drop in framerate.

















When it comes to gameplay, Battlefield Heroes is exactly what you would expect. If you've ever played a first or third-person shooter before, you can expect to jump right in and instantly be at home. The learning curve is virtually flat for anyone who plays PC games and not very steep for anyone else. The controls are intuitive and objectives are clearly marked. The only issue I had was one inherited from previous Battlefield games and that was vehicle controls. The vehicle controls in B:H are virtually identical to the rest of the series, which means that for those who aren't already familiar the cars, tanks and especially planes will take a lot of practice to control with precision. This design decision is a necessity though; if flight controls were too arcade-like, the airplanes would completely own the map.

My only worry is that Battlefield Heroes could become too boring too fast unless the final version adds more variety. While the maps look fantastic they are all too similar visually. As levels for Quake were all saturated with the color brown, levels in the Battlefield Heroes Beta are all saturated with green and yellow. The addition of maps set at night, in the desert, in the snow or just about anything to change up the scenery would be a welcome addition. Still, for a beta of a free-to-play game that could easily be sold for $30-50, it's hard to complain.

Is the New Space Invaders Extreme? (yes)

In the world of video games, the word "extreme" has become synonymous with crap. For whatever reason, the world of low-budget games has decided that adding the word extreme will make a bad game more appealing. To an extent, they're on to something, as I've seen many a foolish consumer at Wal-Mart duped into buying total crap like Extreme Bullrider or Extreme Watersports. I always wondered if the sort of people who buy those games are actually capable of installing or playing them on a PC, (a difficult proposition for some less than technically-savvy people). Of course, the Wal-Mart crowd is very different from us hardcore gamers that most game development companies care about and we know that a game needs more than a cheesy title to be worth our hard-earned cash.

All that being said, I might have finally gotten my hands on a game where the word extreme is justified. A couple weeks ago I ordered a Japanese copy of Space Invaders Extreme, (which I will sometimes refer to as SIE), for my Nintendo DS and I have to say I'm impressed. If you played the mediocre Space Invaders Revolution that came out a few years ago, put that out of your head completely and and prepare yourself for a game that paradoxically feels familiar and new all at once.

My first impression once I started playing was that SIE is a combination of the classic Space invaders and the techno-psychedelic rail shooter, Rez. As in Rez, when you fire your weapon or strike an enemy ship, notes are added into the arcade-inspired trance music. That in itself was a cool addition but I figured that was probably as far as Taito was willing to go for yet another arcade remake. It seems for the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders they wanted to do more.

As I worked further into the level progression of whatever mode I was playing I discovered more and more additions that add depth to the game. The enemies are more colorful and vibrant and there are trippy, pulsating backgrounds that add to the sense of movement and overall style. Powerups are now available if you manage to destroy four or more of the same color enemy ship in a row, (which is called chaining, reminiscent of Ikaruga), and the color of the enemies determines the powerup. Examples of such powerups are a spread shot, a shield and a super-powerful laser that is visually and functionally similar to Iron Man's colossal death laser in Marvel vs. Capcom. Also the enemy types are much more varied than in the past. The traditional enemy ships and flying saucers still make up the bulk of the enemies for you to destroy, but you'll also face off against giant versions of the enemy ships, ships with shields that must be broken through, ships that when destroyed break into more ships, ships that explode and damage everything around them and several others that I don't want to spoil including boss battles.

Unfortunately, I did not think to import a paddle along with the game. A "paddle" that plugs into the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS and affords a more arcade-style control option is available in japan. From what I've heard the paddle works extremely well but that isn't something I can attest to. It won't be released in the U.S. though so if you want to use the paddle you'll have to import one, though I can say the game plays fine with a D-pad as well.

Since I don't speak or read Japanese I can't comment on the different game modes or options, though there are options for local and Wi-Fi multiplayer. SIE has been out in Japan since February and is scheduled to release in the U.S. on June 17 at a price of $19.99. From what I've played it's a great fusion of classic Space Invaders gameplay and modern shoot 'em up goodness that truly deserves the title of "extreme," though I'll have to wait till I have the U.S. version in my hands to see.