Pre-release Excitement
I was eagerly awaiting this game for months. When the first details came out about how the game was built on the foundations of fun and accessibility, i can say i was more than pleased (seeing as my computer is not exactly amazing). DICE made the game out to be a godsend to all those people who were sick of the serious and competitive edge found in most war games. They had competitions for BETA keys that loads of people were desperate to win. We had all this build up of excitement, fun and difference. Well, now it's out, i'm not so eager.

High Hopes
One of the primary features i was looking forward to was the fact that you could customise your characters look, an idea found in most MMORPGs, but usually, not war games. Videos came out of the countless hats, coats, belts, pants, shoes and many other items that you could take into the battlefield. I had suspicions at this stage, as the game was said to be free, but thinking about all the work that had gone into it made you ponder; "Surely this isn't going to be the first game that's actually built for the customer, without any thought of income". Sadly, my suspicions turned out to be true.

Lies and Broken Promises
It's ok saying a games foundations is about fun, and more importantly, accessibility. Well what i didn't find very accessible was the fact that the items of clothing that made us drool the month before, cost real money. Of course, they made some gimicky points called Battle Funds that you have to buy. Don't get me wrong, you can buy 3 very plain shirts with Valour Points, which you can gain for capturing flags and causing damage to vehicles and infantry. Even worse is that with the 'Valour' clothes, you can only unlock them for 7 days or 1 month, at which point they're taken off you again. The 'Battle Fund' clothing you can buy for 1 month or permanently.

What they didn't tell you...
I had a play around with the character maker, making my 'ideal' outfit, which included a Coat, a Hat, a Scarf, some Pants, some shoes and a Bullet Belt. I worked out it would cost about 2500 Battle Funds. Do you know how much them clothes would cost to keep permanently? All 6 items on 1 character (yes when you buy clothes, it's only for the one character you've made). £18.00. A whole £18.00 to get 6 items of clothing that don't exist. Now if that's what you call accessible, call me crazy.

In all, you can have 4 characters. Pimp all of them out with some clothes, that's going to cost you £72. Now i'm sorry, but that is absolutely appalling. And that's not even a character with all the slots filled either!

£72, and this is what you pay for...
I've already had problems on the game. When trying to connect to servers, it will freeze for no reason. Once in game, occasionally i get a graphical glitch that sends out loads of lines from people (you can actually see the graphical skeletons). And it's not like DICE weren't given enough time. For a game that was delayed for more than a year, it's terrible. Some more figures for you to chew on. On the website forums, under suggestions that you would like to see for the game, their are about 10,000 posts (most of them are probably suggesting that DICE actually make the game completely free, as promised). Compare that to the 26,000 posts of technical issues. Ok, this is a new game, and it's going to have kinks, but again, they had an extra year on this game. What were DICE doing, setting up bank accounts ready for the money to roll in?!

The Game Itself
So, let me tell you more about the game itself. There are two factions, The Royals (the British) and The Nationals (the Germans). Within each army, you can choose to be a Soilder, Gunner or Commando. A Soilder is the basic backbone of the army, and can unlock features such as blazing bullets, which will set your enemies on fire when they hit them. A Gunner has a shotgun and a machine gun. They're the ones who take the most pounding, or in gaming terms, the 'tanker'. The commando is just your sniper of the game. They can become invisible and can also poison their knife. There are many abilities that can be bought, and don't worry you don't have to pay real money for them, and they're permanent. You use hero points, which are gained from levelling and getting achievements done (or missions).

Missions are certain goals that can be achieved (kill 10 infantry, capture 5 bases etc.) You can put up to 3 mission in your characters slots, and they're the missions that will be active when you go into a game. You unlock more missions as you level. You get rewarded Valour points (yes for that terrible clothing that you can buy for a week). Valour points can also be used to 'rent' weapons (i say 'rent' as the whole 'buy for a week' or 'buy for a month' thing applies to weaponry aswell). There are all but about 3 weapons you can choose from, all with different ranges and damage. They say variety is the spice of life, but obviously not gaming...

Ponder all you like, it's all about the Money
You may be thinking "Why don't DICE make all clothing permanent, or give you weapons forever". Well, i've worked out that they have made the Dante's Circle of Gaming. Let me explain. What DICE want from us, the consumers, is either our time, or our money. You will get some obsessives out their, who need to have all the best stuff. As soon as you buy something, it usually means your hooked on it. When you've got all the great clothes, you want to be the best player with the best weapons and the best clothing. The reason stuff is temporary, unless you pay alot to keep it permanently, is so you'll keep coming back so you can unlock the temporary stuff again, or rather so you'll keep paying for the same items continuously, and of course you'll want to, because your hooked. It's a very sly and devious move, but it does work for some people.

Conclusion
Thankfully, i'm not one of these people who is ok with broken promises. For a game that was based on accessibility, i feel more denied than a gay person at a straight bar. I will not be enticed with these screenshots of people sitting on the wings of a plane that is upside down, making it look fun and friendly, when deep down, it's just another game company milking it's addicted cows of customers for all the money and time they can spare.

As this game is free, some may say i can't complain, but you know what, it's my right as a customer of the game.
Game Rating:2/10