2010 was a big year for the multiplayer first-person shooter genre. And if you’re like me, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 probably remained the top game on your Steam playlist for the year. I’m pretty sure the developers of BattleBit Remastered were with me. When you combine Bad Company 2’s focus on class balance, open-ended and devastating map design, and fun-filled squad-based shootouts into a Minecraft-like world made entirely out of blocks, you get this crazy game. It’s still in early access and could certainly need some tweaking. But if you’re into a taste of multiplayer chaos where everything explodes like you’re in the middle of a Transformers movie, 127 vs 127 player skirmishes at massive scale will easily satisfy your desire to return to those glory days. Not to mention there are no micropayments and no struggle to get the coolest gear.
To be clear, this isn’t really a remaster of an existing game, it’s more of a joke about how many times the developers have redone it. Technically, there is no single-player his campaign that serves as an introduction to the blocky world. All classes can play with his kits, guns and attachments at will, except for the shooting range. The mode seems well-designed in that it provides a comprehensive overview of how BattleBit works, but I’m glad it’s entirely optional if you want to skip directly to the combat fray. I didn’t waste much time there before jumping into a proper online matchup.
Anyway, Battlebit’s most well-known main mode, Conquest, pits two factions into a literal tug-of-war over dozens of control points that can be captured scattered across a vast battlefield. Battlefield-style gaming wouldn’t be possible without it, and it works as before.
There are several other modes straight out of the Battlefield playbook, such as Rush and Frontlines. That said, it doesn’t seem like there’s a simple deathmatch mode without all the strategy elements, but being able to choose between 32v32, 64v64, or absolutely insane 127v127 player skirmishes is pretty cool, depending on how much you like intimate battles.
Things got really heated when I got into a match with all 254 players. Each of the 19 maps is geographically diverse, but the graphics are simple so you can do more at once without running into performance issues. And that’s great because each building is made of destructible blocks, vehicles are plentiful, and kits of any class have access to a fairly large amount of C4 as an early loadout option. A typical Battlebit match will feature many tense, tactical shootouts with more explosions than the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With literally hundreds of players trying to do it, this level of unsettling chaos is escalating up to the Nth order, and whether it’s getting into the right squad to mop up or the battle going horribly wrong, it can be a pure pleasure to sit back and laugh at it all. Thanks to Night Mode and maps like Tensatown that span cities, skirmishes across these massive terrains can lead to some really interesting wars that you’ve never seen in a game that prioritizes beautiful graphics.
At its core, BattleBit Remastered is a rigorously designed first-person shooter, and the “shooting” part of it is done right, so it all works really well. There is a wide range of primary and secondary weapons with customizable loadouts, such as the L86A1 Light Machine Gun and MP 443 Pistol, which are relatively easy to progress and unlock attachments for. It also sounds good, offers realistic handling and provides punchy feedback. Long-range weapons like DMRs and sniper rifles are easy and fun to use, especially since it’s easier to zero the scope and less difficult to deal with bullet drops.
It may look blocky, but it sounds great, has realistic controls, and delivers punchy feedback. The only thing I felt was definitely missing in the early access version is shotguns of all sorts, but I think they’ll be added later. Each class also has projectiles such as grenades and flares, and in classic Battlefield fashion, each unique class kit item, such as the Scout’s MDX-201, which can be used to emulate scoped glare and distract distant enemies, provides significant tactical advantages that add depth to character customization.
There is also the ability to customize your appearance for stat bonuses such as extra ammo and better damage mitigation. This is the result of switching individual armor pieces, helmets, belts, etc. BattleBit’s character models look terrible no matter what they’re equipped with, but the fact that you gradually earn pieces of armor by completing objectives was nice, and it’s nice to have this extra layer of customization in the first place.
Getting around on foot is pretty easy, but it’s not perfect when you actually do it. Crouching, crawling, and jumping over objects all feel natural, but I’m not a fan of the blazing speed. All soldiers on the map can sprint indefinitely, but some weapons, such as SMGs, allow them to sprint at speeds comparable to combatants in Quake III Arena. This makes large maps easier to work with, but can feel unnatural in some cases. Also, there is no melee key except for the assault class sledgehammer. This only works if there is a destructible surface nearby. This basically means there is no proper melee combat at all.
But despite its blocky graphics, fast-paced action, and a few missing features in between, BattleBit has most of the elements of a proper Battlefield game, especially squad-centric team play based on six-class mechanics. (Yes, I went to Battlefield 2042!) For example, a squad needs both medics and supports alike to hold its position long enough to withstand an onslaught of enemies. Squads full of assaults are just picked.
Everyone has a purpose. Engineers get powerful ranged explosives to take out enemy vehicles, Assaulters get more ammo and better mobility, Medics get faster resurrection abilities and the only tool that can heal anyone to full health. Support can drop ammo crates using LMGs, recon can use sniper rifles and deploy tactical field gear such as respawn points, and squad leaders can’t do much right now, but are probably the newest class to be able to use binoculars to make calls for airstrikes in a later update.
I spent most of my 10 hours playing as a Medic, and it was a lot of fun watching my ranks climb as the bonuses poured in as I revived downed teammates and healed wounds. I like the fact that I can drag teammates and downed enemies around. This comes in handy during tense firefights.
armored chores
However, as I said before, some mechanics have not yet been fully enhanced. For example, I don’t like how ammo crates dropped by support classes don’t automatically replenish ammo and require extra finishing to work. I also hate how long it takes the Medic to revive a downed teammate despite the class-wide boost. I prefer a much shorter post-death timer that can be instantly revived by a battlefield medic, but BattleBit allows you to sit there for 30 seconds or so after dying before returning to the respawn screen unless you intentionally hold down the space bar after dying. In the meantime, it can be dragged around, revived at a snail’s pace, or dead again. If the fight went sideways, this could go on in circles, leaving a medium taste in the mouth. To respawn or not. That’s the question.
Spotting, which fixes enemy positions and makes them visible to everyone on your team, is usually easy to do in Battlefield 2042. Unfortunately, BattleBit Remastered makes it even more difficult, as you basically can’t spot someone from a distance, and you have to mash the center mouse button on him to minimize the effect. The occasional spotting of an enemy helicopter doesn’t give you any bonuses, which is disappointing and unrewarding.
Vehicles are also an important part of Battlefield-style shooters. Because vehicles have long set the series apart from Call of Duty. However, the vehicle has problems in BattleBit due to its poor physics and unstable handling. Interacting with the vehicle before starting the engine can be cumbersome and clumsy, as switching between seats or even just getting into the vehicle takes a few seconds on the timer. Even getting into a moving tank is unnecessarily inconvenient, and for no apparent reason. Helicopters also have much shorter spawn timers than tanks for some reason, but they don’t have parachutes. That means you have to sit there and wait until the helicopter pilot deploys the rappelling line and is close enough to the ground that you can safely escape. The Humvee’s on-board gun also felt underpowered and proved basically useless when it couldn’t even kill a lone soldier at spitting distance.
I’m not sure where it’s a deliberate design choice and where it’s incomplete, but at the moment it feels like the best way to enjoy vehicles in BattleBit Remastered is to crash them into buildings or watch them explode from a distance.
At the very least, it’s all held together by a strong and approachable multiplayer feature. The interface is very clean and clear, with all the important contextual information such as controls, ammo count, minimap, chat, squad details, hit markers, etc. appearing exactly where I would expect them to. In theory there is also a built-in clan system and Discord and Twitch integrations, but external integrations didn’t seem to work for me. It’s also great to be able to easily integrate a Steam Party into your squad when joining a match. We will also do our best to keep you and your friends together even when the auto-balancing system forces people to change their positions.
The main menu is a little bland for a multiplayer-only shooter. Also, the lack of welcoming music and sounds can quickly overwhelm the user. But don’t let the minimalist approach fool you. Once you get in there and start tweaking, BattleBit offers an amazing depth of customization options in graphics, controls and gameplay. I record gameplay footage on my ultrawide monitor, so I was particularly pleased with the ability to shrink the screen down to his standard 1440p without having to play and record in a window. Problems usually occur when recording with a mouse and keyboard.
However, most new players won’t need to customize the default settings too much, other than playing around with graphics options. Aside from the non-flipped helicopter controls, everything else was set up properly for my needs and took less than 10 seconds to figure it out and fix. As a result, it took me very little time to set up BattleBit from initial installation and transition to a proper match. Within minutes, I was blowing things up, capturing targets, and having a wild old time.
