Archive - 2011

The Battlefield Heroes have a new way for the Royals and Nationals to duke it out that will have everyone more on the run than ever.  The game mode Capture The Flag is being added to the play-for-free game so that, for the first time in the history of Battlefield Heroes, their objectives will be on the move.  Previous matches have always been for set locations, whether it is four capture points or just one it has always been capture locations where this one is picking up a flag while under attack by defenders and trying to run it through the city streets back to your base to officially capture it.  If the flag carrier is killed or drops the flag, there is a time limit in which it can be picked back up but you can bet it will be guarded while you try.

World of Warcraft players will immediately think of one of it’s battlegrounds and the similarities in the Capture The Flag mode but the fact that it has flag runners trying to capture the flag and the flag can’t be captured without your team’s flag being in your base is about where the similarities end.  For one thing, class skills that might aid the flag carrier aren’t negated nor are any purchasable equipment (much of which can be be rented using in-game money as well).  So, the right combination of weapons and strategy can both give the runner a fighting chance by using shields and health and speedy feet and yet he might get stopped cold by a sniper over half a map away with the right vantage point.

Terrain also poses a challenge as well as an opportunity.  There are so many different directions you can run through a city map, for example, that setting up an ambush on the carrier can be a challenge and if flag defenders try to defend at the capture point they are right in the middle of the enemy base and re-spawn point.  High ground can help the snipers but there are only so many open spots on a city map for example, places where the buildings aren’t providing cover.  The lone gunmen may find these maps particularly challenging because they are designed to be a team effort of offense and defense.

I got a chance to try out the mode with the testers before it released and found myself using different items and ideas each run as I tried to make my way through the game with people who really knew both the map and the mode well already and it was a blast!  Even though I was a lower level than most of them I used the items I had picked for the character and my own knowledge of the map from years of playing it and sometimes even held my own.  I would also like to just quickly acknowledge that the testing and managing team for this game are a really fun group of people and if you ever get a chance to play them in a match jump at it.  Not only are the good at the game, they are great people to talk to.

Last Call:

Some people may bring up that this kind of game mode exists in WoW but they would be comparing apples to oranges.  The gameplay is so different as well as the maps that the similarities end at the fact that it is a capture the flag mode.  This will be a huge difference for the Heroes who are used to capturing stationary locations and haven’t had a mode where the requirement is to get an item from this point to the other while keeping the enemy from doing the same.  It should bring out teamwork and comradery, something that isn’t missing from the usual game modes, but will definitely show themselves in this one.  You can bet I will be there with my Santa hero, giving the bad boys and girls lead instead of coal.