Ingelheim, Germany – 26th of May, 2009
Today German studio EA Phenomic announced that their recently released RTS BattleForge would now be free to play. The developer, best known for the Spellforce series, released their card-based real time strategy game in March 2009. In general, the game was received rather well by critics, mainly for its innovative ability to allow players to create their own armies from scratch. Also, as the game lacks any extensive base-building, the combat tends to be somewhat higher paced than more conventional RTS games.
While the booster packs containing additional cards are still roughly $2.50 for 8 cards, the free to play version includes 32 basic cards which is enough to create two complete decks. While new cards can not be received during the single player missions, it is possible to receive upgrades for cards that are already in your possession, effectively making the deck more sophisticated. New cards can only be acquired through the micro-transaction system.
The game has several game modes, including a classical PvP mode and a cooperative PvE mode, which pits multiple human players against computer controlled opponents.
Battleforge can be downloaded for free from the game’s official website, which can be found here.