If there’s anyone that follows my very boring and awkward twitter, then you’ll be aware that for 2 and a half weeks I was without internet at my new digs. To keep me sane I had a blackberry phone with limited internet, two bottles of port, copies of PCG and the complete collection of Sharpe. In PCG 206 they had an interesting run down of what they consider the best 50 mods, none of which I could then play as a) I couldn’t get online to play them and b) Even if I already had them steam did that bastard thing of no longer wanting to start in offline mode. I wrote to Gabe and he said he was boycotting my PC apparently.

After watching twenty-two and a half hours of Sean Bean (as Sharpe) running around shooting French people with single shot rifles I quite fancied a pop at it myself. With this in mind I saw sliding in at number 19 on the aforementioned PCG mod list a musket and sword mod for Half Life 2 called Battlegrounds. With my internet finally back on I decided to download and try this mod (after 5 bottles of port and a depressingly long stare at my post box wondering if Darkest of Days would ever arrive) to sate that musket itch.

The first thing to strike you is that this isn’t a very pretty or elegant mod; like me when I’ve just woken up and having my mandatory scratch. At times the interface and graphics can feel so ugly and repellant that even the Elephant Man asks them to wear a paper bag over their head. Really, I could go on and on and make strange analogies and metaphors about this mod in a critical fashion. I can say trying to land a hit with a sword is like trying to score in a convent; both fruitless and frustrating, plus likely to to end up with your own castration. Or that switching between weapons occasionally can cause more bugs than an ants nest fed on crushed up viagra. But then I’m scared of putting people off even giving this mod a shot, which I think would be a bit of a shame when underneath such hiccups there’s an actually interesting game concept that isn’t done all too often.

The basic premise is English versus American soldiers with periodic 1770 equipment. Each side has a choice of 4 classes with differing weaponry that affects their role on the battlefield. Both forces have a basic Linesman, who has an average rifle with a seven second reload and a bayonet on the end, as well as an officer who wields a pistol and a sword. Ontop of this each side has an equivalent marksman with a more accurate long range rifle but slower reload, plus a fourth class who is hard to summarise. For the Americans it is the Militia, who have a rifle that falls between the linesman and marksman’s rifle in terms of accuracy. For the English you get to enjoy scalping and crying over flytipping as a Native American with an axe and rifle that I have no idea how it’s different. All of these guns fire one shot, are about as accurate as a no armed javelin thrower and take an age to reload. As you reload you also cannot do anything else apart from move slowly, so no switching to melee if you misjudged the time to do so.

The action revolves around 3 game modes, with little nuanced changes turning some into entirely different ones in their own right. The basics are Capture the Flag, Capture the Points and Sudden Death. None of these work quite the way you’re used to in every other multiplayer shooter, due mainly to how much your weapons force you to alter tactics. In Counter-Strike or Call of Duty if you ran head first at 3 or 4 foes across long range with no cover you’d be dead before you could say “lol fag”. Sometimes the same can be true here, but due to how wildly innacurate the guns are there’s always a chance they may all miss. Nothing else is really as tense as having to assault a fortified position, with 5 of you charging towards a bristling array of rifles. A sudden eruption of smoke and whistling bullets and there’s 3 of you charging whilst the defenders prepare to fire a second volley. You manage to catch them before they finish doing so and unload your own shots, killing some before flailing with melee and finishing the rest (after one case of friendly stab).

Now, close combat. This constitutes a fair chunk of Battlegrounds and can also be its biggest failing. It feels great when you procced to cut down 4 people in a row in a mad charge, or tense when circling a foe lunging in and out barely missing one another. Times where it falls flat is when you depress the trigger just before the foe reaches you and the gun is in mid-discharge just to get bayoneted in the head. The hit detection feels a little flaky, and though on the Q&A it says the hit is administered as soon as the fire button is pressed as opposed to when the animation hits I don’t think this is quite the case. The officer feels fairly outclassed as a melee fighter sometimes, as his pistol is weak and shortranged and the linesman’s bayonet is as deadly as his sword (here’s a tip : aim for the head with close combat weapons). Things like better hit detection and probably an extra pistol for the officer I feel would sort out these niggling issues.

The Battlegrounds Community is an interesting one, as it is fascinating what they do but also the seriousness can put even the most grind heavy WoW Guild to shame. There’s a Battlegrounds phenomena called “Line Battles”, which is basically people strictly adhering to tactics developed at the time for such weapons. The officer class suddenly becomes more than a melee charger, as whoever plays them takes over and starts issuing orders by the mic. These games are played on private servers with sudden death rules, often involving two lines of players on each side marching up in formation obeying the command of their officers. So you’ll have the front rank ready, aim, then fire before crouching as they reload and the second rank ready, aim and fire by which time the first rank is ready to stand and fire again.

While comendable, there is a vast amount of snobbery in these clans. Hardly anywhere will you really find a relaxed camdre of gamers to join and muck about with. Instead most clans will call themselves things like the “22nd Regiment of Foot” or “The 51st Grenadiers”, and it was a while before I could find a more easy going clan to ask to view a line battle. One group even went so far as to ask me to submit an essay detailing my passion for the time period and the game, as well as why they should pick me. Now I can understand this process to cut out griefers, but I think it was pretty clear that I wasn’t wanting to join to go and play Aqua’s Barbie Girl down my mic and shoot my own team.

I like Battlegrounds, I really do. It still feels too buggy to be praised fully, and there’s alot people will find offputting. However, unlike other HL:2 mods I’ve tried like “The Hidden” I think I’ll keep coming back to dip my toe into Battlegrounds. Which reminds me, does anyone even play Counter Strike or Day of Defeat anymore?

Related:

Tf2 Classless Update

The Opening Levels of a Game

Mmph muhhh muhh mph