Battlefield 3: Combining Assault and medic classes ‘seemed natural’ to EA
The online multiplayer class system, which has formed the backbone of the Battlefield franchise for all these years, has been revamped for the latest offering from Electronic Arts: Battlefield 3.
As previously mentioned on DICE’s own Battleblog, and covered by Bettor.com as well (click
http://www.senore.com/Battlefield-3-Multiplayer-classes-Snipers-get-a-more-active-part,-Medic-merged-with-Assault-a82392 for the full story), the latest installment in the Battlefield franchise is looking to return to the core Battlefield formula in an attempt to deliver the hardcore experience the game was known for.
While the Bad Company titles toyed around with a single player campaign, the games made a name for themselves, on their first venture onto consoles, for their brilliant multiplayer.
EA seemed to have gotten the message as they seem to have reduced the number of extras and add-ons and are focusing on bringing a more streamlined and compact experience.
It seems when DICE want to trim the fat, then nothing can stand in their way as they axed the Medic class and merged it with the Assault class in the Battlefield 3.
Lars Gustavsson, the lead multiplayer designer at DICE explained (read 'the most important person at DICE'), "Our main thinking with the medic class is that we want more people in the game, playing, than sat in the spawn menu. So, the more chances we give
team mates to help with things like revives, the better.”
Obviously Gustavsson deserves his role as what he said could not have been truer; waiting for a teammate to revive players in the game was like trying to catch Santa Claus in summer: not just unlikely but impossible.
Bad Company 2 seemed to be a bit of an experiment in terms of testing out ideas for multiplayer and it seems to have paid off as the data collected from the game was one of the reasons behind the change in class systems.
Apparently Gustavsson, and DICE, believed that the greatest needs for Medics were at the front line. Thus, combing Medics with the Assault class helped cater to that need, or as Gustavsson so aptly put it, "We constantly evaluate where people are on the
battlefield - and as we saw it in Bad Company 2, Medics were rarely equipped to be on the real frontline. It was the Assault class that people took to the front, so it seemed natural to combine the two."
The move does make sense as the two classes became increasingly similar to each in Battlefield Bad Company 2; the next logical step seemed to be combing them.
However, DICE and EA also explained that the Medic ability in the Assault class was optional, as the developers did not want to force the responsibility onto the players, leaving players with the choice of whether they wanted to save lives or take them.
Tags: