Our day with BF2 #1

BF2 @ FighterOfFoo

I better start by mentioning that I only had time to play about one and a half hour of BF2 this Thursday and therefore you may find my considerations and opinions less qualified than the ones of the three other guys. However, that won’t stop me from giving you my first hand impression of this game that I personally look forward to with great expectations. I have chosen to split up our opinions into 5 main groups to get some clarity on it all:

The Gameplay, The classes (Assault, medic, antitank etc.), The vehicles (including tanks) and planes/choppers, The sound, The graphics. We all round off with a final conclusion on the game and its potential.

Gameplay

Gulf Of Oman

The gameplay is probably the most important element of any game because if the game isn’t entertaining and a bit challenging then few would want to throw their hard earned money at it. Of course, BF2 didn’t disappoint me when it comes to gameplay.

However, it has to be mentioned that we did only play the map Gulf Of Oman so it’s hard to give a full conclusion in this area. Characteristic for this map though were that all capturable bases generally were placed quite close to each other which resulted in fast paced, intense and action filled gameplay. The distance between the bases was one of the main reasons why an old BF1942 geek like myself wasn't as fond of BFV. It has to be fast paced and action filled if you ask me.

Of course the new sprinting feature has an influence here as instead of just walking/jogging you are now able to hold down the sprint button for a period of time before your character gets tired and you have to settle with jogging mode until he gets his breath back.

But almost every base has one or more vehicles you can use for transportation as well, so the distance between the bases is no biggy. If you compare the jogging pace (when you press forward button – by default W) in BF2 with BF1942 and BFV then I would say your character is a bit slower, but as compensation you have your sprinting feature so it’s not really a problem at all. Also the map we tried had a very open landscape and not like BFV where I felt it was all jungle war and sneaky, sneaky tactics. I liked that a lot as well.

The control of your character has an influence as well when talking gameplay. It’s definitely an area where I believe there are small, but important differences from BF1942 to BFV and it probably doesn’t surprise you that I prefer BF1942 in this regard. I was positively surprised when I first took the job of being infantry in Battlefield 2. Your character doesn’t move like a space hopper in heat, but more steady like you know it from BF1942. Of course everything jumps a bit more when you are sprinting, but as you cannot fire your weapon at all when doing this, it doesn’t really matter. There might be a slight combination of BF1942 and Vietnam on this area as well, but I can only say that when talking infantry control, I felt a lot more home in BF2 than I do in BFV for sure.

Then there is a lot of different new features that also affect the gameplay a lot. The Commander role apparently was beyond my BF2 skills as I wasn't lucky enough to get selected for this. So unfortunately I have to pass on this one. However, the squad function seemed like a really cool feature as you were able to give your squad members orders to e.g. attack a specific base and a lot of other things that I unfortunately didn’t get to use. But the feature can only be of improvement for the organizing ability in a team – especially when playing on public servers. I also got to test the VOIP (Voice over IP) feature which enables you to communicate with the members of your squad. The sound is really good and maybe even better than programs like Teamspeak and Ventrilo. It will no doubt be an invaluable tool in the communication with your squad members and with great possibilities of improving the quality of public play significantly.

The classes (assault, medic, antitank etc.)

I didn’t get to try all the classes properly, but instead I got friendly with the assault, medic and antitank classes. The assault class doesn’t have many of secrets compared to what we know from BF1942 and BFV. You are able to feel that he is a bit slower than the other classes because of his extra body armour, but when you are in close combat his weapon is really effective.

Of course we played on US servers with ping 100 so we didn’t hit a whole lot, but the worries that some has about having to use a whole clip to get a kill didn’t come true. It’s all about aim and movement like we know it from BF1942/BFV. The class I played the most was without a doubt the medic class. Not as much because he had a powerful weapon or anything, but one, of course, had an ambition of getting a defibrillator kill.

The medic’s machine gun is, however, quite effective in close combat though it naturally spreads a bit more than the one of the assault class. I read somewhere that the medic can’t heal himself, but that wasn’t the case in the version we played. You could just throw a med-pack on the ground, walk over to it and get healed. It isn’t as easy and quickly as we know it from the medic class in BF1942 (and on some maps in BFV?), but still pretty effective. So whether or not the medic class will be the preferred attacking class, as the case is with BF1942 today, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

My first impression of the antitank class tells me that it seems very strong indeed. The reason I believe so is that he now has a machine gun of his own so he is able to defend himself when facing other infantry like e.g. assaults and medics. But of course your main weapon is the rocket launcher and it really is a beauty. It’s very effective as the rocket is really fast and accurate. I could imagine this class becoming very popular if the machine gun just shows to be a somewhat decent weapon in close combat. Hell – one would choose it anyway just to hear that sweet sound when firing a rocket.

The vehicles (including tanks) and planes/choppers

I better start with admitting that I never really seemed to master the art of flying whether we are talking planes or choppers. I think my mouse had some reverse setting thingy, but I dunno. At least I’d like to think it had because despite a couple of tries I wasn’t really capable of keeping the aircrafts airborne over a longer period of time.

Instead I kept my two feet on the ground and tried to support my team by tearing along from base to base in the funny and fast paced buggies (jeeps in go-cart size). They are really good for transportation from A to B, but can also be transformed into an effective attacking weapon if you got a team mate standing at the MG in the top of the vehicle.
The tanks reminds me a lot of how we know them from the popular BF1942 mod, Desert Combat. They seem a bit slower when moving around, but the general feeling is the same.

The sound

The sound effects were awesome and luckily sounded a lot better than what we have experienced on the several gameplay videos we’ve seen. It would have been cool if the game had an era when talking music, like we experienced with Battlefield: Vietnam, but hey – no one stops you from making your own with Winamp hammering in the background while playing.

The Graphics

This element was the only thing where I felt just a tiny bit of disappointment while playing. There’s no doubt that all the screenshots and gameplay videos have helped build up some huge expectations on this area so you are bound to crave some revolutionary graphics.

However, the main problem was that the machines at the Boomtown Café, Axeltorv, where only able to run with medium settings and the resolution 800x600. So I blame the machines and not the game itself for my tiny disappointment. But to say the graphics were bad would be an outrage. I really loved all the details on the soldiers’ uniforms and the vehicles and a ton of other things. I’m sure the graphics won’t disappoint us when the lads at DICE have finished tweaking the game and we are able to run it with high settings and a decent resolution.

Final conclusion

For a Battlefield geek like myself there is no doubt that Battlefield 2 is the game of the year in my world 2005. That was a fact before Thuesday 7 April and it still is today after having gotten a sneak-peek of the game. The game has the potential of becoming a major force in the online gaming community with all its new features that more than anything else urges and enhances the possibilities for more teamplay.

That it more or less seems like they have tried to combine the strengths of both BF1942 and BFV in one game, doesn’t exactly make the market and hereby the potential any less. It really seems like EA and DICE have listened to the wishes of the community and created a game that’s a worthy sequel for Battlefield 1942. If they just keep on supporting the community after the release, I really believe that EA/DICE is brooding a golden egg at the moment.

The 3 other guys’ reviews will follow later on.