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Battlefield Play4Free Review for PC

Battlefield Play4Free Review for PC

War At No Cost?

With the economy struggling and full-featured games costing $60, a free version of 2005’s Battlefield 2, with the character progression system from Battlefield Heroes and a touch of Bad Company 2 worked in, sounds like a pretty good deal. But is it worth spending time away from the rest of your PC library?

Yes and no. Yes because at first, it’s one of the smoothest and most accessible online multiplayer FPS experiences you’ll find. No because in terms of gameplay, it’s nothing special in such a crowded shooter market, and a variety of frustrating aspects come forward once you spend some time with it.

Battlefield Play4Free Screenshot

Let’s focus on the good first. For people who get frustrated when it takes forever to start a game, Battlefield Play4Free is a godsend. It’s still in open beta, but we never waited more than a minute or so to start playing, and once you play the first game of your session, the next one starts pretty much instantaneously. If all you want is to run around and shoot other people before they shoot you, this game provides a perfect opportunity.

In addition, Play4Free isn’t half-bad on a technical level; in fact, for a free game, it strikes the perfect balance between the demands it makes on your computer and the quality of the visuals. Play4Free actually features some subtle improvements over Battlefield 2, while being slightly less taxing on your system. It looks a little dated, and it supports only thirty-two players at a time instead of sixty-four, but these compromises let the game run very, very smoothly, even on older machines. Also, if you want a game that will use every ounce of processing power on a brand-new $2,000 PC, you should pay for it. The sound is well-done as well, with realistic effects and heavy music to accentuate the action.

Battlefield Play4Free Screenshot

The spawning system does a good job of keeping you close to the fight without rewarding spawn-camping. Battlefield 2’s squads and commanders are gone, so you’ll simply be dumped somewhere on the map whenever you die. We found that it never took more than a few seconds to start shooting again, and while some early previews reported spawn-camping problems, we didn’t encounter it.

The leveling and progression setup from Battlefield Heroes provides a little bit of depth to the gameplay; as your character develops, you receive currency that buys you temporary improvements. You also pick a character class for each character: medic, assault, recon, or engineer. This allows you to explore different combat styles, though longtime Battlefield fans are miffed that you can no longer choose a new class each time you die, in order to respond to changing conditions.

Battlefield Play4Free Screenshot

The bad news is while all of that is a good start, it’s not enough to hold people’s attention, given all the FPS competition out there. What’s worse, the more you play this game, the less impressive it becomes.

There’s only one gameplay mode, a sort of capture the flag/king of the hill hybrid that encourages teams to hold certain areas for as long as possible. When you get killed and respawn, you run toward the nearest flag that needs defending or capturing. Then you twitch and shoot the enemy guys until one of them gets you and you respawn again. You die quickly enough that unless you see the enemy before he starts firing, you don’t have much of a chance, especially if you haven’t leveled up much or bought better weaponry. There’s no regenerating health, no unusual weapons or abilities — no nothing, really. It’s just you, a gun, and some other players, running around and getting shot in a few admittedly well-designed levels. Periodically, someone shakes things up by hopping into a vehicle (which include tanks and helicopters) or finding a really good sniping spot.

Battlefield Play4Free Screenshot

In other words, it’s the same thing you’ll find in every other first-person shooter, right down to the WASD controls, except that there’s no campaign and you can’t choose between different modes of play. Not every game will do for the genre what Halo or Modern Warfare did — or even what Battlefield 2 did six years ago — but most at least try to make some adjustments to the established formula. Even Blacklight: Tango Down, another recent, cheap, multiplayer-focused FPS that depicts modern war, gave you a special visor that let you see where everyone was hiding.

As you put in hours, not only does the gameplay repetition start to take its toll, but you realize that EA wouldn’t have invested in Play4Free if it didn’t plan to make money off of it. How do you profit from a free game? They’re called “micropayments” — in order to get the best upgrades for your character and keep them, you can’t use the currency you get in the game. (Well, unless you plan on grinding for hours: the currency lets you “rent” upgrades, which you can keep doing if you keep earning enough points.)

If you want to identify enemies from farther away, shoot with more precision and power, or control certain vehicles—which as you might imagine are valuable skills—you have to spend real money on upgrades. A basic upgrade set will run you $10 or so for every character you create, and new characters cost $2 to start. Considering that Battlefield 2 can be found for less than $10, the true financial advantage of Play4Free is that it lets you try the game before buying, not that it actually saves you money if you play it for any length of time or with any degree of seriousness.

Battlefield Play4Free is a decent download for people who are new to the FPS genre. At no cost, and with very low system requirements, it allows them to see if they enjoy multiplayer shooting. It’s also not a bad way to kill an hour or two if you’re bored. Beyond the first few hours, however, the gameplay becomes monotonous and you realize that the only way to succeed is to purchase upgrades. We weren’t fans of Blacklight: Tango Down—we gave it a 2.8/5—but if you’re looking for a cheap modern shooter that’s worth your time, that’s probably a better way to go.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.3 Graphics
They look dated, but this reduces the system requirements and makes the game run smoothly. 4.1 Control
You know how to walk with WASD and shoot with the mouse, right? 4.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Great sound effects and heavy music to complement the action. 2.3 Play Value
After the first few hours, “free” becomes an illusion and the gameplay gets monotonous. 2.5 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Thirty-two players.
  • Updated PC engine with HD console quality graphics, high resolution artwork, and post-processing effects.
  • The weapons, equipment, factions, and classes of Battlefield Bad Company 2.
  • Maps are updates of classic BF2 maps like Strike at Karkand.
  • Vehicles are familiar BF2 classics (Yes, that includes helicopters and jets!)
  • The leveling, abilities, and deep visual and gameplay customization of Battlefield Heroes.
  • Free to play, quick to download, and low system specs like Battlefield Heroes.

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