Battlefield 2 released in June to a mostly warm reception from the community. The game immediately shot to the top of the sales charts as gamers packed in for some damn good fun with their buddies and new gamer friends. Teamwork is the new king of the castle in the realm of Battlefield and the series has only gained from it. While the game certainly could use a bit of help in the patching department to clear up crashes, bugs, server searching and so on, it's still hard to deny the game's addictive pace.
Even before the game shot out of stores and into homes across the world, it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that there would be a series of expansions to increase the content and hopefully increase the fun. The question was more about what DICE and EA would choose to focus on in each of the add-ons. After talking to representatives of DICE Canada and EA on the phone, it's clear that the first expansion will focus the experience more into areas that will beg players to get out of their tanks and live the glory of squad-based infantry combat. Battlefield 2: Special Forces, as the name implies, pits two of six new Special Forces groups against each other (not the three army battle we thought might be added) in more concentrated environments than we've seen in the parent Battlefield 2 game.
Lead Designer at DICE Canada Armando (AJ) Marini, Producer David Yee at EA, PR Representative Steve Groll at EA, and Max Belanger (silent but deadly, we understand) Producer at DICE Canada were kind enough to jump on the phone and let us in on the first details of the first expansion due out later this year. Read on, check the screens, and come back tomorrow for some impressions after getting a look at the game at EA's Hot Summer Nights event.
IGNPC: So I guess we should just start off with the big one. What is Special Forces?
AJ Marini: Well, what we did was take out experience with Battlefield 2 and set it into a different environment. How do we change the game without changing the game that much. We don't want to change the fundamentals of Conquest, but we really wanted it to feel like something different. So we started brainstorming and this idea of Special Operations kept coming up, so we ran with that idea.
The idea of Special Forces is the idea of night vision and all the other neat little things that they can do put into the Battlefield environment. So where Battlefield 2 is a playground for your regular grunt soldier, you put Special Forces in there and they can do all of these wonderful things that have the player feel like a super soldier now.
The battlefield environment is still Battlefield gameplay, but everyone feels a bit more powerful. They have toys and abilities that they wouldn't normally have in the regular Battlefield.
Even before the game shot out of stores and into homes across the world, it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that there would be a series of expansions to increase the content and hopefully increase the fun. The question was more about what DICE and EA would choose to focus on in each of the add-ons. After talking to representatives of DICE Canada and EA on the phone, it's clear that the first expansion will focus the experience more into areas that will beg players to get out of their tanks and live the glory of squad-based infantry combat. Battlefield 2: Special Forces, as the name implies, pits two of six new Special Forces groups against each other (not the three army battle we thought might be added) in more concentrated environments than we've seen in the parent Battlefield 2 game.
Lead Designer at DICE Canada Armando (AJ) Marini, Producer David Yee at EA, PR Representative Steve Groll at EA, and Max Belanger (silent but deadly, we understand) Producer at DICE Canada were kind enough to jump on the phone and let us in on the first details of the first expansion due out later this year. Read on, check the screens, and come back tomorrow for some impressions after getting a look at the game at EA's Hot Summer Nights event.
IGNPC: So I guess we should just start off with the big one. What is Special Forces?
AJ Marini: Well, what we did was take out experience with Battlefield 2 and set it into a different environment. How do we change the game without changing the game that much. We don't want to change the fundamentals of Conquest, but we really wanted it to feel like something different. So we started brainstorming and this idea of Special Operations kept coming up, so we ran with that idea.
The idea of Special Forces is the idea of night vision and all the other neat little things that they can do put into the Battlefield environment. So where Battlefield 2 is a playground for your regular grunt soldier, you put Special Forces in there and they can do all of these wonderful things that have the player feel like a super soldier now.
The battlefield environment is still Battlefield gameplay, but everyone feels a bit more powerful. They have toys and abilities that they wouldn't normally have in the regular Battlefield.
Daivd Yee: The two big areas of equipment are night vision, which transcends to commander mode as well, and then the other section is mobility based features is a zipline, grappling hook.
IGNPC: Does the inclusion of night vision mean the majority of these maps are going to be set at night?
AJ: It's a pretty balanced set-up right now, but obviously, with the night vision it would kind of be a fault if we didn't have the night maps to go with it.
Yee: I think something important to note about the night vision also is that for every tactic in Battlefield 2 there's a counter. The night vision for us is not an all powerful thing. Night vision is useful in dark areas, but we're taking a lot of time to make sure that looking at a bright area is a very disadvantageous thing.
IGNPC: Your eyes get totally screwed up.
Yee: Yes, totally screwed up. The new flash-bang is also a counter to the night vision. With the day maps we also are going to try to include a mixture of areas that are dark so that the night vision is still useful. It's not just about night vision in night missions, but about night vision in dark and light areas.
AJ: We're playing on the light and the dark. If you're going into somewhere in the middle of the night, you're going to go into some areas that are there aren't any street lights and there aren't any lights on the buildings, and those areas are going to be very dark. But if you go into a parking lot of something, there's plenty of lights there to see very well so in those areas it's really not going to be to your advantage to wear night vision in there. Also it helps to balance things out with hiding in dark corners as hiding from night vision is going to be pretty tough.
IGNPC: You said that night vision was also going to be in commander mode, are there going to be any more additions in that part of the game?
AJ: No.
IGNPC: Are you planning any big changes to the classes or will they also pretty much remain the same aside from some new equipment?
AJ: We've decided to leave the classes alone, but your going to find that what we've added does change things up a bit. It's something we joke about now when we talk about making the player feel like a super soldier. We'll go ahead and test Special Forces and then go back and play BF2 for our own enjoyment and we're suddenly saying "damn I don't have that!" or "damn I can't do this!" and we miss those abilities that are in Special Forces.
Although we haven't really tweaked the classes at all, by adding in the new elements like the grappling hook and zip line that David mentioned, now the classes that carry these items play a little differently. They have a bit more versatility to them. So now you really want to have these guys as part of your squad. And the squad becomes more powerful as a whole now.
Yee: There's some additional equipment that makes those support classes a bit different. There's the flash-bang and the tear gas grenades. Those two really do change the way the game plays when it comes to infantry.
AJ: Absolutely. You don't have to take the tried and true routes that most infantry have to travel along. Or even one that seemed more planned. For instance, in a city map you might find a building with a ladder. Well, it doesn't take very long for players to figure out that the building with the ladder gets used by snipers pretty often, so it's easy to find where to check. Now, with the grappling hook, you can climb up on any building you so choose. Actually, any static object in the world. All the sudden, you can attack from any direction. The zip-line will allow you to get down from that position, so you can have a guy with the grappling hook and a guy with a zip line in your squad. You can pretty much move anywhere.
Yee: The cool thing about the zip-line, too, is that it's not just a sneakier methods of attack, but you can really get around the map quickly with these things. In Battlefield, if you're at a point and there's no vehicles, you'll be hoofin' it the whole way. With these zip-lines and the way the maps are designed, you can really get across a map quickly. It's a high-intensity gameplay.
Steve Groll: All the kits complement each other just like the members of a squad would in a special forces group as well.
IGNPC: Just to clarify, each of these things like the zip-line goes to one of the particular classes, like the zip-line goes to the support class while the grappling hook goes to the sniper or something?
AJ: The final layout isn't set right now -- we're still balancing that out. But we're taking classes that have less features with them and pumping those guys up with these added abilities.
IGNPC: Are maps still going to allow up to 64 players with this new style of play?
AJ: Absolutely.
IGNPC: Is it just going to be Conquest again, or are there any more modes involved?
Yee: It is still Conquest as a game mode. However, the maps are focused much more around infantry combat. So they're much more intense, and the firefights will focus on the soldiers.
IGNPC: What types of maps are we looking at for the expansion? Are we looking at more of the urban maps, or wide open areas?
AJ: Yeah, it's a mix. We looked at where a special force would be inserted and where a Special Forces operation would take place and build the maps around that. So we have a couple of maps in urban environments, a map built around an airport, and another that's built around a missile launch facility. You know, specific locations.
Rather than going with what we have now, which is a play on grand battles, we're focusing on a specific location and making that location the battleground.
IGNPC: What I gather from what you're saying, as far as the maps being more infantry-based, is that they're going to be a tad bit smaller, even with 64 players?
AJ: They're not the same epic scale. Definitely they're geared down to foot level mobility.
SG: I think the action will be a bit more concentrated. That might be a better way of saying it rather than smaller.
Yee: Smaller is a deceptive word. We paid a lot more attention on this one to cover objects, and that's what's you'll see in the level design.
IGNPC: Have you decided on how many maps will be included with the package?
AJ: We're looking at 7-8 right now.
AJ: Absolutely.
IGNPC: Is it just going to be Conquest again, or are there any more modes involved?
Yee: It is still Conquest as a game mode. However, the maps are focused much more around infantry combat. So they're much more intense, and the firefights will focus on the soldiers.
IGNPC: What types of maps are we looking at for the expansion? Are we looking at more of the urban maps, or wide open areas?
AJ: Yeah, it's a mix. We looked at where a special force would be inserted and where a Special Forces operation would take place and build the maps around that. So we have a couple of maps in urban environments, a map built around an airport, and another that's built around a missile launch facility. You know, specific locations.
Rather than going with what we have now, which is a play on grand battles, we're focusing on a specific location and making that location the battleground.
IGNPC: What I gather from what you're saying, as far as the maps being more infantry-based, is that they're going to be a tad bit smaller, even with 64 players?
AJ: They're not the same epic scale. Definitely they're geared down to foot level mobility.
SG: I think the action will be a bit more concentrated. That might be a better way of saying it rather than smaller.
Yee: Smaller is a deceptive word. We paid a lot more attention on this one to cover objects, and that's what's you'll see in the level design.
IGNPC: Have you decided on how many maps will be included with the package?
AJ: We're looking at 7-8 right now.
Yee: So the new bread and butter features for the expansion pack are six new armies, ten new vehicles, and twelve new base weapons.
IGNPC: Are the new vehicles going to be a little less armored, given the nature of the battles?
AJ: One of the things that we found early on in research is that Special Forces don't have a lot of vehicles support with them. So there won't be things like aircraft carriers and so on. What we looked at more was not so much equipping them with vehicles that made them feel like a grand army but more the vehicles that would be appropriate for the location and the operation they'll be going through.
IGNPC: What are the new armies included in the expansion?
Yee: Well, there's the Navy Seals, British SAS, Russian Spetznaz, MEC Special Forces and two insurgent groups, one of which is based on the MEC and one which will have Russian roots.
IGNPC: What's with the equipment for each? New stuff or repurposed stuff?
AJ: The insurgents will be based mostly around the Russian weapons since that's more accurate. The Americans we're adding a new FNScar which is the new special forces assault rifle. And the SAS have a full complement of weapons too.
IGNPC: Are there going to be any new features server- or browser-side for people to look forward to, like a better server admin interface or search functions?
Yee: The focus on this expansion is really on the Special Forces. We also have the live team which is still handling Battlefield 2 support, which is looking at fixing a lot of those other problems.
IGNPC: So hopefully a lot of that stuff will be taken care of before this expansion comes out.
Yee: Hopefully.
IGNPC: This is due in November?
SG: Fall of 2005.
IGNPC: Anything else you guys wanted to add?
AJ: Just that it's looking really great at night, I think that the feel of combat and these intense firefights in the night areas and dark areas is looking really good. It really does give you a Special Forces experience in the Battlefield world.
IGNPC: Right on, thanks guys, I'll look forward to seeing it soon!
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