"Blitzkrieg" or Helping Dice Figure Out What Made Bad Company Amazing (PART II - BATTLEFIELD)

Strike

Derek was just a young college student. Who the hell puts college students in the seat of a tank commander? Why me? Why now? Those were the thoughts rumbling through Derek's brain as he saw tangos running out of the alleys, spotting from the rooftops and peeking out of the windows. He was in unison with his gunner, the combined booming of 120mm main gun and the near constant rattling of the heavy machine gun wreacked havoc in the city of Karkand.

But could they keep it up? One rocket, fired from TOW or RPG, slammed right into the front of the turret, confusing him with the noise of slightly damaging impact and the smokey veil around his optics.

He then heard the soothing sound of LAV's round whizzing right passed the tank, eliminating a few of the enemies and letting him move up and hide in the alleyway.

It was a grave mistake.

Another rocket slammed into the top of his turret.

And then a C4 flew somewhere from beyond his sight and stuck onto the grill above the engine, blowing him to shitsu, leaving no survivors. Just a scorched, metal coffin tightly clasping two corpses inside.

Derek was dead.

And then he turned off that fucking game cause it was bullshit and fuck goddamit it's 2 am and he has morning classes.

WOW, that was almost like, serious and shit

If this short piece resonates with you, BF player, read no further, because I will only write about the thing that we know to the core - what is the essence of Battlefield series.

If you were never stuck in a tank, trying to fight for your life as the whole enemy team is trying to end your killstreak, if you never soared above the map in your plane, hawk-like, showing no mercy to other planes and ground targets alike, if you never crawled hundreds of meters, out of ammo, suppressed by all the fire and fury full scale war can bring down on your sorry ass...

Then this is for you.

Cornerstone

September 10th, 2002 marks the beginning of our epic saga with release of Battlefield 1942 for PC. It was met with consistent praise from gamers and reviewers alike. Game offered vast, open maps, vehicles to get around them and 64 player servers to populate all this deceptively empty space with Allied and Axis soldiers, further divided into 5 classes, and pit them against each other in the game mode of conquest where the team, not the individual, wins...

You mixed those things properly and you get the unique combination that, at the time, was the best attempt at creating a playable image of the World War II combat as it was in real life. Storming of Omaha Beach, fighting over Pegasus Bridge or dogfighting over Wake Island - everything felt like you were there but without dying.

Goooooooooood Morning VI-ETNAAM!

After Battlefield 1942 came Vietnam, game that did the asymmetrical warfare right. In BF1942, although weapons and vehicles looked different, they performed pretty much the same way, but in BFV, DICE had to understand and implement the way inferior Vietcong and NVA had battled the power of combined US Army, Marines, Navy, Airforce. It was accomplished by making heavy machinery available to Americans only, but equipping Vietnamese with mobile spawnpoints and great anti-vehicle capabilities. This way the conflict felt realistic but the gameplay didn't suffer.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

DICE then took us to alternative reality modern times with Battelfield 2 (2005). In this entry, recognized by many as the crown jewel of BF series, players were pitted against each other in a total East-West war. 

In the blue corner, weighing in at whatever combined weight of all McDonalds franchises in the first world is, we have United States and Europe(an Union)! In the red corner, weighing in at one bag of sand, one bowl of rice and a glass of vodka, please welcome China, Russia and Middle Eastern Coalition!

Battlefield 2 gave us commanders, squads, rewards like badges and medals, new classes, new modes and, obviously, the whole modern shebang - vehicles, weapons (some of them found on the battlefield as pick-ups), maps, equipment... It's really hard to put into words how ingenious DICE was when creating this game that is still going strong after 13(!) years after release. 

In my opinion is the most important change in BF2 is the introduction of squads. It really took the teamplay to new levels when players were rewarded for cooperating with 3 other friendlies, each complementing others with their chosen class or position in vehicle.

And then we had Battlefield 2142 (2006) which was placed in the future. Mechs, gargantuan flying ships called Titans, futuristic setting, equipment and machinery were successful at creating the world of total war for survival. 

As a game in itself it was simply a-maz-ing and fresh, but, in my opinion, it was a modernized and reskined BF2, lacking in any new improvement that would define the series.

Well... I guess not entirely. BF2142 took the classes the number of classes to 4 and it stayed that way since with changes to kits and names, but the 4-way split is present still, after 12 years in action.

Another thing would be dog tags (taken from players by melee kills) which isn't a big gameplay thing, but still a staple in BF series since.

The Step Into The Unknown

In the next post, I will tell you how DICE and EA shafted PC players, how turn to singleplayer came out on top and finally exactly what we love Bad Company for.