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Freedom

Free.

You might think free is the best thing in the world. But really, when people offer you things for free, do you really want them? Like the time when Homer picked up the trampoline from Krusty, who got the better end of the deal? Didn’t uncle Jack come out on parole once for six days before being arrested again, but managed to tell you to never take your buddy’s advice and give the ‘free sample’ a quick shot in the arm? In fact, wasn’t that whole communism idea based on ‘free’? From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Basically, if you can do something, you bust your ass off doing it for free, so the bum around the corner who won’t do anything, gets as much as he needs for free. Let’s face it, free sucks. I present to you the last of my evidence: fat-free and sugar-free (more like flavor-free.)

Calling artillery

Target acquired

Dropping the bombs

Mods aren’t free – you pay for the game in the first place. So Enemy Territory – which is a free stand-alone expansion pack (read: free game), by all rights should suck on a Romero-ian scale. So why are my Battlefield 1942 discs scattered around the room, collecting dust whenever I’m not stepping on them?

Owned

Enemy Territory’s feature list seems a little on the short side when you read it. That there are six maps seems to be a huge knock against the game, until you play them. The maps are huge, have a lot of detail and multiple stages. A tank must be escorted and fixed along the way to a fuel depot. It and its companions will face artillery barrages and airstrikes called by the enemy team. Panzerfausts will knock the tank out of action while MG42 wielding soldiers cut down any engineers trying to repair the tank. An Allied covert ops agent breaks the stalemate at the chokepoint by stealing the uniform off a dead Kraut and wreaking havoc behind enemy lines. With the machine gunner, panzerfausts and artillery out of action, the tank can move up to the next choke, and so on.

The screencap is messing with the models

Airstrike marker

Set us up the bomb

Similarly, the idea of putting classes into a first-person shooter doesn’t seem that impressive – the concept is at least half a decade old. The trick to balancing classes is not to make them equally capable, but equally desirable. In a straight-out firefight a medic is no more and no less powerful than a soldier, covert ops agent or engineer. They can all use the Thompson or MP40 without penalty or advantage. Of course, the classes have unique abilities that make them necessary to the team. Medics heal the injured and revive the near-dead. Soldiers can use heavy weapons like MG42s, panzerfausts, flamethrowers and mortars.

Skills are more difficult to balance. There is a fine line between rewarding players who’ve played longer during the campaign, and punishing those who didn’t join at the start. ET has a bit more breathing room than MMOs because the skills are reset after every campaign, and uses it to great advantage. The skills make a significant difference but aren’t going to break the balance of the game. More important than the level of the skill is the ability of the player to use them.