''Battlefield Play4Free'' was a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Easy Studios and

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Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

. Based on the ''

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troop ...

'' series, the game featured a modern warfare battlefield setting. ''Play4Free'' is built on a modified version of '' Battlefield 2''s game engine, with improvements such as high resolution artwork and post-processing effects. The game was also less demanding on computer specifications, similar to '' Battlefield Heroes''. The game was available to players for free online, under

' free-to-play model called Play4Free. Play4Free uses a similar micropayment store system similar to that in ''Battlefield Heroes''. ''Battlefield Play4Free'' was announced on 5 November 2010. The game's open beta testing phase began on 4 April. Closed beta codes originally started being distributed via email on 30 November 2010. The game was released as an open beta on 4 April 2011. ''Battlefield Play4Free'', along with other EA free-to-play titles '' Battlefield Heroes'', '' Need for Speed: World'', and '' FIFA World'', went offline on 14 July 2015.

Gameplay

''Battlefield Play4Free'' featured content from both '' Battlefield 2'' and '' Battlefield: Bad Company 2''. Battlefield included two gameplay modes, Assault and Rush. The game had a leveling system, in-game shop, and gameplay customization similar to that of ''Battlefield Heroes''. ''Battlefield Play4Free'' featured sixteen vehicles, eight maps from ''Battlefield 2'' and supported up to 32-player servers for online battles. Players were randomly chosen to play as soldiers from either the Russian Ground Forces or the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

Classes

''Battlefield Play4Free'' featured a class system, which was similar to the class systems of previous ''Battlefield'' games. The player could choose between Assault,

Medic A medic is a person trained to provide medical care, encompassing a wide range of individuals involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of health conditions. The term can refer to fully qualified medical practitioners, such as physic ...

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, and Recon. The Assault class was armed with an

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

and an "Ammo Box," which could be used to resupply the player and teammates with more ammunition. Medics had a

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridge (firearms), cartridges of the same caliber as the othe ...

and were able to heal themselves and other players with a "Medic Box" as well as being able to revive other players with a defibrillator. Engineer class soldiers were equipped with an RPG-7, a

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

, and a repair tool that could be used to fix teammates' vehicles. Lastly, the Recon class utilized a

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...

, motion sensor, and M18 Claymore mines. The four classes also had the ability to wield a shotgun and a tracer dart gun, which was not class-specific. This class system has been used in '' Battlefield: Bad Company 2''.

Updates

Easy Studios, the developer of ''Battlefield Play4Free'', regularly performed updates to the game. The first major update took place on 29 January 2011, when Easy Studios launched Oman. Then, the developers released Sharqi Peninsula on 4 April 2011, the same day that the game went to open beta. On 9 June 2011, Basra, the fourth map, was released. Later, Dragon Valley was released on 10 August 2011. Besides new maps, Easy Studios added various game elements such as motion blur due to the new, modified Refractor game engine. On 25 October 2011, "Tier 3" training was released to include an array of new skill options for all four classes. On 1 December 2011, weapon customization was added to ''Battlefield Play4Free'', thus allowing players to specifically customize their weapons with attachments such as holographic sights, different barrels, assorted stocks, and different types of magazines. Nineteen days later, on 20 December 2011, Easy Studios released the sixth map, Dalian, which was remade from ''Battlefield 2''. Also, in the same update, Easy Studios replaced all "Legacy" weapons with reclassified weapons, which are denoted as "+3." On 23 October 2012, Easy Studios Released "Rush" game mode. This mode places players in one of two roles: either an attack or defense. The game plays out across multiple stages where destroyable MCOM stations are the focal point. There are two MCOMs at each stage, labeled A and B, both of which must be destroyed in order for the attackers to continue forward. The game ends when either all of the MCOMs are destroyed or the attackers are eliminated by means of depletion of their tickets. This game mode was first used in '' Battlefield: Bad Company''. The expanded Sharqi Peninsula map was the first map to get the rush treatment. Karkand rush and Dalian rush were also added. In October 2013, the devs at Easy Studios began an effort to balance the vast number of weapons in the game, several of which were felt to be unbalanced or "overpowered" when compared to other weapons within each respective class as well as on the whole. As of November 2013, the re-balancing had been mostly completed and implemented.

Reception

The game received a score of 68/100 from 11 reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Closure

On 15 April 2015, Easy Studios announced that on 14 July 2015 they would be closing ''Battlefield Play4Free'' and turning off services for the game. '' Battlefield Heroes'', '' Need for Speed: World'', and '' FIFA World'' were due to be closed on the same day.

References

External links

* {{Play4Free 2011 video games Products and services discontinued in 2015 * 10 Electronic Arts games First-person shooters Free-to-play video games Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games Multiplayer online games Inactive multiplayer online games Multiplayer video games Video games about the United States Marine Corps Video games developed in Sweden Inactive massively multiplayer online games Windows games Windows-only games