Battlefield Heroes finally goes live

By Robert Purchese Published 25 June, 2009

Web-based and free! Tally ho!

EA has finally launched Battlefield Heroes, the free-to-play, ad-supported, cartoon online shooter.

The charismatic creation missed a 2008 launch, but has been out in open beta form for some time.

DICE designed Battlefield Heroes to be accessible to anyone, opting for cartoon visuals that can scale well on most old hardware. The game client is small and runs through the EA online website, where adverts fund the operation.

Furthermore, DICE decided to use an MMO-style hotbar of abilities to slow combat down a little, adding levels for us to chip away at over time.

Nevertheless, the Battlefield flavour remains, albeit in pantomime fashion, as moustached veterans clamber aboard biplane wings and pummel or pounce on enemies from there. Decking your hero out using a wardrobe fit for theatre is very entertaining.

Battlefield Heroes is clearly worth a look.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Widge #1 3 years ago

    Reminds me of Warhawk, I might check.

  • mingster #2 3 years ago

    cool will try it out this evening

  • Optyk #3 3 years ago

    Free apart from paying for weapons, items etc...

    I'd rather pay for a full game and have free weapons.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 16:52

  • dsmx #4 3 years ago

    weapons are free you can get better ones simply by playing the game which awards you vp, vp is used to buy weapons, emotes, costumes.

  • chessboxer #5 3 years ago

    I've played this a few times and it's ok, although I do prefer Quake Live.

    It would be awesome if Epic did a browser version of UT99 with a selection of the best official and user created maps.

  • chessboxer #6 3 years ago

    I've played this a few times and it's ok, although I do prefer Quake Live.

    It would be awesome if Epic did a browser version of UT99 with a selection of the best official and user created maps.

  • Artemus #7 3 years ago

    It's ok, but gets boring fairly quickly. The lack of map variety doesn't help.

  • CableNut #8 3 years ago

    There is a new map in testing called coastal clash :)

  • Chufty #9 3 years ago

    BFH is actually pretty good for a laugh. I'm glad they finally implemented a friends list, days before launch - it was fairly stupid without it.

    +1 for the browser-based UT99 idea.

  • Velios #10 3 years ago

    Looking forward to playing this tonight! Seems like a great way of making games and the feel good factor around it's "freeness" is great PR for EA

  • Simian #11 3 years ago

    Been playing the beta previously - quite fun, though it's a wee bit shallow after a while.

    Definitely worth a blast with mates, as you don't need a great gfx card, plus its free, so you can't go wrong.

  • Gartt #12 3 years ago

    meh, it seems like a pretty sizeable download to me.

  • gaselite #13 3 years ago

    Oh christ. My life is over. Right in the middle of exams. Bollocks.

  • konnsky #14 3 years ago

    i'm downloading the installer right now..

  • Miths #15 3 years ago

    I'm off to a good start - "An error occured: Could not find build". And it sounds like I'm not the only one with this problem.
    I'm gonna give it a try in Firefox instead and see if that works.

    Edit: Exactly the same error message as in IE when the downloader starts the download/install process.

    Edit, again: Finally downloading now after registering an account (which I didn't see mentioned anywhere as a requirement before hitting the big, flashing Play Now button) and a few rounds of clearing my browser cache (I kept getting logged out on the download page).
    ... And now it's up and running.
    Edited by 2 at 25/06/09 @ 21:55

  • ChrisOTR #16 3 years ago

    I get:

    Access Denied
    The server returned a 403 response.

    You can't access this page from your country.

    I'm in Hong Kong... But - errr... Why not? Given that I walked past a massive cybercafe on the way home with a Battlefield 2142 poster in the window, this is not going to please the fans over here... But maybe it's just some kind of teething problem that only I'm experiencing... Who knows.
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/09 @ 10:38

  • sneetch #17 3 years ago

    @ChrisOTR
    I get:

    Access Denied
    The server returned a 403 response.

    You can't access this page from your country.

    I'm in Hong Kong... But - errr... Why not? Given that I walked past a massive cybercafe on the way home with a Battlefield 2142 poster in the window, this is not going to please the fans over here... But maybe it's just some kind of teething problem that only I'm experiencing... Who knows.

    I have to think that's unintentional and in error as Hong Kong (and China) is a selectable option when registering for an account and seems to me that they'd want you to be able to download the client if they let you register.

    Very weird.

  • Totoriko #18 3 years ago

    Unable to connect

  • ChrisOTR #19 3 years ago

    Huh! Weird. Thanks for the tip. I'll investigate more later.

  • Sycopat #20 3 years ago

    This game is a load of fun so far. The paid options are nice, but not at all necessary.

  • WJF #21 3 years ago

    I really couldn't get on with this game.

    1. The mouse controls are loose on foot and too slow in vehicles. Speeding up the sensitivity just caused a massive gap between vertical and horizontal movement, which had to be manually adjusted, which you can only test by entering then exiting a game.

    2. The starter weapons are so bad, it really doesn't matter how good you are. Once I managed to get a short-term pass for a new weapon my k/d ratio jumped from 1-6 to 11-1.

    3. Good commandos are far too overpowered. They can just snipe you from across the map and are invisible. Grr.

    4. Scoring is broken. It really doesn't matter if you hold a flag or not, you can win with 0 quite easily, much to the other team's annoyance.

    5. On a similar note, it's far too easy to base camp for an indefinite period. Nothing more 'fun' then spawning against three tanks.

    The perks are good, the cartoon visuals are decent and the community by and large are friendly (very friendly for an FPS), but that was during the closed phase, so it might change a bit over the next few weeks...

    It's ok for a quick blast though, and it's free! If you're a big FPS gamer though, Quake Live is the better option, sadly (sadly, because it's packed with homophobic 12 year olds swearing and accusing everyone who beats them of cheating...and the skill match is slightly broken meaning you'll often find yourself paired with a superhuman player who hits the kill count in 5 mins)
    Edited by 2 at 26/06/09 @ 13:21

  • fieryjam #22 3 years ago

    emmm are you sure its out now?

    I can't find the option to download the client anywhere

  • Sycopat #23 3 years ago

    there are different websites:

    http://www.battlefi eldheroes.com is the one you want, not http://www.battlef ield-heroes.com

  • Miths #24 3 years ago

    Nevermind - I think I might need my eyes checked as I completely missed the answer in the post above mine :)
    Edited by 1 at 26/06/09 @ 22:43

  • ChrisOTR #25 3 years ago

    Further to my earlier post, it seems lots of people from Hong Kong have been unable to play Battlefield Heroes, as they're blocking HK IPs or something... And no there is no Internet censorship in Hong Kong, only mainland China, so please don't suggest that. Anyway, it might be possible to overcome it, but I don't really want to play Battlefield Heroes that much so I guess I'll give up. Seems a strange decision on the part of the devs/"publishers" though.

    If you want to read more about this issue just Google "Battlefield Heroes Hong Kong"
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/09 @ 06:16

  • zakrocz #26 3 years ago

    I'm a huge fan of the Battlefield series but sadly this game has absolutely nothing in common with previous Battlefield games. Played it for a couple of hours and decided it's one for the casual crowd.

    Hurry up EA/DICE/MS with BF1943

  • gaselite #27 3 years ago

    I'm a long time bf player, this is smashing fun, the playful essence of bf42 distilled into a free online game, cleverly designed and with great visuals. Very much a fan. The price is right. The options that you can pay for are not especially obtrusive. I wouldn't consider paying for them until I realised just how often I was going to play this game though.

    2. The starter weapons are so bad, it really doesn't matter how good you are. Once I managed to get a short-term pass for a new weapon my k/d ratio jumped from 1-6 to 11-1.

    Can't say I've had that problem. I haven't played much and when I did play it was pretty shortly after it was released, for a few hours total so far I suppose, and I was regularly getting into the top 3 points wise, with pretty good k/ds on the default weapons. Not trying to lord it over you with my 'skillz' or any of that bullshit but I just think that's an unfair representation that might put some beginners off the game.
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/09 @ 13:58

  • konnsky #28 3 years ago

    I've played it for two days and have to say I'm rather dissapointed.

    WJF pretty much summed up my experience of the game in his post.

    That's why I don't think I'm gonna continue playing it..