Battlefield 4 senior animator Ryan Duffin has revealed something quite interesting coming to the first-person shooter in the next expansion, Dragon’s Teeth. The content will introduce two-handed ballistic shields for the first time in the franchise’s history.
Polygon has reported that during a GDC session, Duffin explained how DICE began playing with the idea of ballistic shields for the players, allowing for movable cover they could shoot from behind. The studio eventually decided on creating two-handed shields, as to not overpower them. This means shield users will be unable to shoot from behind the cover. However, they can bash enemies away if they are close enough.
There was a lot of resistance at first,” Duffin added,
“but the more we assessed it, the more we realized it was a better feature. It turns out that stopping bullets in a first-person shooter is a ton of fun. We’re confident that it will create a new dynamic for the game.”
According to Duffin, DICE has tried to implement ballistic shields into Battlefield games previously. However, the animation restraints would not allow it. He continued:
“We didn’t have enough memory. It added about a megabyte, but a megabyte on a 2006 console is a lot, so it didn’t work out.”
Battlefield 4: Dragon’s Teeth will be out within the coming months on all systems.