THE GOOD:- Incredible graphics, for those with the power to run them to their full potential.
- Addictive online multiplayer mode with lots of expansive, realistic maps.
- Weapons and classes are accurately and well designed. The system works.
- The tactical teamwork aspect (eg. Squads, Commanders, etc.), promoting interaction between team members.
- Accurately portrayed vehicles of all types which are incredibly fun to drive.
- A well thought out and competitive ranking system, with medals, badges and ribbons for special achievements (BFHQ), as well as unlockable weapons.
THE BAD:
- The most frustrating game on the face of the earth. This is mainly unavoidable because of this online aspect, but many vehicles are overpowered, making for incredibly chaotic and frustrating gameplay; more so than most other games of this type. Especially if you're infantry.
- The people who play. Again, unavoidable, but competition for vehicles and teamkilling only adds to the frustration. Often, the teamwork and strategy aspect is ignored by most players as they try to rack up their own points with complete disregard for everyone else.
- The constant bugs. Updates rarely come, and most cause more problems than they solve, most of which aren't rectified until a number of months afterward. For example, the game used to crash for no apparent reason at the end of a map load during the 1.3 patch - a problem that was apparently ignored for several months.
- You'll need an insanely powerful machine to run it properly. Those lacking in this department, like myself, will be at a great disadvantage. Faster broadband is also a must.
- The ranking system actually makes it easier for the better players by giving them better weapons than the newcomers.
- Damage is often incredibly unrealistic. Headshots are dodgey.
- The single player mode is simply the online mode with bots. There's no story, which would have been a nice touch.
SUMMARY:
Battlefield 2... Incredibly addictive, but highly likely to spell the end for your computer if there's a blunt object to hand.
Basically, you are plunged straight into the action of a full scale modern war zone as either a USMC (Marine Corps), Chinese People's Liberation Army, or MEC (Middle Eastern Coalition) soldier of specific class, which you yourself can choose each time you die and at the start of the map. Each class has different abilities; for example, medics can heal and revive injured allies, Special Forces can destroy tanks with C4, and Engineers can repair broken machinery and plant anti-tank mines, etc.
Each team also has a commander, who can order air strikes, UAV (map enhancement that shows enemy positions), Vehicle drops and Supply drops for the rest of the team. There are also several Squads allowed, each with their own Leader with a direct link to the Commander, able to request such things as Supply drops or Artillery, etc. They can also request Squad action by designating targets on the interactive map interface, which is easy to use and impressively efficient. Taking advantage of the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) feature with a headset can be highly rewarding, and makes for some epic combat.
The object of the game is to capture and hold as many "flags" (or bases) as possible. Once a flag is owned by a team, it becomes a spawn point for them. Generally, there will be one "uncappable" flag (ie. one that the other team can't take) for each team, though this is not always the case. Each team also starts with a set number of "Tickets", which go down slowly if they have very few flags, and go down by 1 every time a soldier from that team is killed and respawns. Once the tickets of one team reach 0, the game ends, and the other team wins.
This is all well and good, on paper. But it's the human aspect that brings it down, in more than one way:
The people that play the game are mostly concerned only with their own ranks. This is understandable and not at all uncommon in online games of this genre, but in BF2 I find it to be an extreme cause of frustration. People will teamkill just to hop in the jet, regardless of whether or not they can fly it properly. People will punish for teamkills (wherein points are deducted from the killer), regardless of whether or not it was purposeful. And more.
Also, the game is prone to glitching. During the time of the 1.3 patch, it was near enough unplayable: liable to freeze and crash for no reason during map loading, among other things. It often took several attempts and at least half an hour to actually start playing. These problems are rarely fixed quickly, and when they are, new ones often arise from the (massive file-size) updates.
But regardless of this, it still manages to be an addictive and satisfying game. The maps are expansive, brilliantly designed and generally even-sided; the player models, movement and controls are good; the sounds are realistic (if not a little dominant, making other voice programs difficult to hear); and the gameplay and battle systems are well thought out and executed. It's a damn good game - that can't be denied.
So is it worth buying? Well, yes. Providing you're not easily annoyed, and have a damn good machine to run it on.
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