Battlefield is hardly the first large-scale first-person shooter. Many others have come before it, and other contemporary shooters like MAG aim to innovate in this niche of the multiplayer FPS market. However, Battlefield is the best known thanks to a combination of accessibility, great visuals, and heavy focus on combined arms gameplay as opposed to just vehicles or just infantry. This is not solely the domain of Battlefield, though, and the influence of games that came before DICE's eminent series are blatantly obvious.

The easiest comparison to Battlefield is Tribes. Tribes is a futuristic multiplayer first-person shooter that takes place on huge maps with a large number of players. Players get jetpacks, which allow them to move quickly over the terrain, and vehicles such as the Scout (a rocket-toting hovercraft with surprisingly good capability for destruction) are also a vital aspect of the game. However, Tribes is primarily an aerial-combat game, as opposed to Battlefield's ground combat, and the weapons are far more outlandish and specific-use than Battlefield's rather standard real-life firearms. The most iconic of this is the spinfusor, which launches a glowing blue explosive disc that travels impossibly fast. There's also a greater focus on base defense, with deployable turrets and sensors essential to the success of your team. Still, the influence is apparent, and Dynamix's masterpiece is undeniably incredible. Thankfully, the two original Tribes games (Tribes and Tribes 2) are available for free to any gamer that wants to experience some multiplayer classics, and you can get both right here on Big Download.

Another classic of the multiplayer arena that has had a direct influence on Battlefield is the early Delta Force games by NovaLogic. While they are not the most popular today, these games set the bar for scale when originally released, with maps that dwarfed even the massive maps of Tribes. Player count for multiplayer reached as high as 50 in the best installment of the series (Land Warrior) and the sheer scale of the maps meant that being observant was the only way to stay alive. After all, getting sniped from a mile away can be rather frustrating, especially if you never saw the guy and he keeps doing it to you. Delta Force also influenced the more realistic approach that Battlefield took, and may have been one of the minor inspirations behind Battlefield 2.

While there have been other games that have left their mark on the Battlefield franchise, none have had quite the effect as the Desert Combat mod for the original Battlefield 1942. Pitting players in a modern day war environment (specifically, the First Gulf War), the mod was so polished and well-executed that the mod team was brought on for the next installment in the franchise: Battlefield 2. Much like how the Counter-strike team ended up working at Valve to create an enduring and popular multiplayer shooter, the folks behind the Desert Combat mod ended up working at DICE to bring their vision of modern combat to life. DICE later shut the studio down, and the team went on to form Kaos Studios, the THQ-owned developers behind Battlefield competitor Frontlines: Fuels of War. However, despite their removal from working on the Battlefield series, their mark is still felt upon the series.

Finally, Bad Company 2 is a sequel, so that means it must have a game that came before it. That game is Bad Company, and it was (unfortunately) a console-exclusive. It followed the exploits of a rather unconvential half-squad of degenerates as they chased after gold paid to Russian mercenaries, making it the first Battlefield game with a real campaign. However, Bad Company introduced several new features that Bad Company 2 makes good use of. The removal of "bleeding out", destructible terrain and structures, simplification of the classes, density of map design, and the Rush gameplay mode are all key components of Bad Company that have seen a return in Bad Company 2. In addition, DICE has added a modular ranking system that acts much like the badges of Battlefield 2, giving you new gear for classes you play quite a bit.