14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is really pushing its agenda of "innovation over quantity" that John Riccitiello has been promoting since he became Chief Executive Officer. Phenomic, one of the newer Electronic Arts studios, is developing Battleforge, a real time strategy title that will feature exclusively online play and will be based on a deck of cards.
There's a lot of newness in this title. Real time strategies are usually designed with a single player campaign in mind, or at least with a sort of sandbox functionality that can be played online, like Sins of a Solar Empire or World in Conflict. Battleforge rejects any offline play and puts a big emphasis on online play. A few single player missions do exist, but the game makes you play online so that every action that the player executes can be logged in and rewards can be offered when appropriate.
The core game mechanic is based around cards. You get a deck of 20 cards at the beginning of the game, which will define your first games. Each time you play a game, you use the cards to introduce new units, new spells and new techs on the battlefields. As you introduce new elements, you then get to control them in real time to defeat an enemy as in a regular RTS. Every battle, based on the way you play, the number of wins and other statistics, can get you a new card or another form of reward. The developers also plan to continue introducing new stuff into the game, with maps and new cards, as well as expansions if the game is successful.
The game does not feature any base building or any tech upgrading, as it is based entirely on cards rather than units. Most of the battles will be player vs. player, but also cooperative, with more than two players joining in most matches to make for a more epic experience.
Phenomic says that the game was in development for around a year and a half and that plans are to release it before the end of 2008.