The first server I connected to was a simple 32-player battle on a Conquest Assault map. As it was loading, my mind was elsewhere, wandering into other FPSes, pondering if this one would be just as generic as all of the rest. After the game loaded, I picked the Chinese and joined Bravo squad, and my look on the Battlefield franchise changed...forever. I decided to play as a Medic and chose to spawn at my Squad leader (A neat feature) And I was immediatly sucked into an unholy firefight between us and and a squad of Enemies inside a Construction site. Me and Five other squadmembers were pinned down behind a building, shots were firing everywhere, I was confused and amazed at the same time. Everytime you would try and look around the corner, shots would tatter your bearly visible head, and turn the concrete building into Swiss cheese. Tank shots were blasting the structures behind us, and bullets were kicking up dirt at our feet. We were completley stuck. At the last moment, when I thought all hope was lost, the Squad leader orders the squad to try and charge to the other side of the building, there we could set up a flanking attack. All six of us blitzed. dodging grenades and hopping over machinegun fire. We all made it to the other side alive. After I was finished patching up my bruised team, it hit me: A squad of human players just obeyed a Squad leader's command, nearly instantly! They were all there! They all did what they were asked. I was so floored that I had to sit back in my chair and double-check that I wasn't playing with Super-intelligent A.I. Nope, no way. These were humans. The Developers at DICE/EA are geniuses, the way they made rabid quake-playing, plane camping Battlefield players into hardcore team-playing marines is beyond me. And it wasn't just that server, almost every game you connect to will have an organized squad, and even if that isn't your playing style, you can still be a Lone Wolf with no penalties or punishments, but I reccomend trying a good squad, because that's what this game is all about.
As you have probably guessed, Battlefield 2's main focus is on Teamplay. They have worked their magic to create being an Infantryman fun in a Battlefield game. For instance, The medic, one of the most dreaded classes in gaming, has become one of the best. DICE has dumped the old method of healing people used in previous BF games, walking up to someone and clicking on them is old news. The new method that DICE has employed lets you heal multiple personal at one time. Simply walk up to a group of soldiers with your medkit out, and it will start healing them, simple as that. If you want to heal one person, you can throw a medkit at a soldier, which will fully recover their health in about 3 seconds. Another new ability for the Battlefield medic is to "Revive" People with a Defibulator, they work this feature in really well, as it keeps squad from dying quickly during a firefight and splitting apart. A great new nod towads Teamplay is, now, you have to rely completly on Teammates for Ammo/health/repairs. The support class (Which is equipped with a light machinegun) Is responsable for your force's ammo supply, the Engineer for repairs, etc. But if none of those are available, the Commander can drop a Supply box for you and your squad. No more randomly scattered Ammo and Health boxes to camp on! Do you really think you could stop at a health box during a firefight anyway? This new feature works like magic and it really makes you appreciate the fella standing next to you. Need ammo? Ask for it with a pop-up voice macro menu. Once you've said you need ammo, you'll appear as a blinking name with an ammo icon to support players, you will also see who's support on your map, so you can run to that buddy with an ammo pack. It's the same with medics or engineers. This feature works so perfectly that you constantly see a squad of mixed support roles, ready to aid eachother in any way possible. It enhances teamplay by a truckload and is most likley going to be the new benchmark of Large-scale FPSes.
A great new feature is the addition of "Commander mode" One member of each army can try and apply for Commander, with the new Ranking and Stats system EA/DICE has employed, the highest rank will get the job. Once you are a Commander, you can bring up a menu that gives you access to all of your abilities. Giving squads orders is simple; click on the squad in your Commander's menu, right click on the map, and choose an order for them.You also have the ability to call down Artillery strikes, scan an area with a U.A.V (Unmanned Areal Vehicle), drop Supplies, or scan the entire map for Enemies, which would only be visible by you. But wait! Teamplay comes in again! All of your abilites are vunerable to Special Ops teams, it only takes a few sticks of C.4 to lose that precious Artillery or UAV Scan, you'll have to order one of your trusty Engineers to fix it for you. And if you get an idiot commander, you can vote to "Mutinise" (Kick) Him from his post. If you get a good commander, it can provide alot more strategy, and fun, for you and your army.
Not only does Battlefield 2 have ground-pulverizing Teamplay, it also has bleeding-edge graphics and Attention to Detail. If you have the power to pump up the graphics to their highest settings, it's one of the best looking games on the PC platform. But you need a monster computer to do it. I have a Radeon 9800 PRO with a Gig of RAM, and everything on high slows it to a crawl, so I have to put all settings on Medium with 800x600 resoloution to keep my computer from melting. But if you are rich, and you can afford a Super computer (Radeon X850/Gforce 6800, 2gigs RAM, 3gig processer at least) Then feel free to pump up those graphics and you'll have one of the best-looking games ever made. Soldier's guns cast a shadow over their clothes and equipment, water looks so amazing it makes real water look fake. Cmon, you've all seen the screenshots, you know what I'm talking about! Another thing DICE has nearly-perfected is attention to detail. If you look at a tank, you can see machinegun ammo and sleeping bags strapped to the back of the turret. The wires on the tank move as you rotate the turret, and the tank treads now react perfectly to the speed the tank is going, something the older Battlefields games didn't accomplish. Also, Soldiers now look like real soldiers, not wound-up kids high on Pixie sticks like before. They've got that hunched over, ready-to-kick-some-butt look. They are also incredibly detailed, right down to their blood type on their helmets. Animations are also top-notch. A spriting soldier's gear flaps around, and they convert from standing, proning, and crouching near-flawlessly. Way too many things to get into in this category, so I'll let you find the rest.
Battlefield 2 can be safley secure with one word: Amazing. I've had so much fun over the past few days, it's made me forget about the games I used to enjoy. Back away, Half-Life 2. Move over, Planetside. Battlefield 2 now controls my Summer gaming time. Ooof course, no game is perfect. As amazing as this game is, it still has it's flaws. Let me start with biggest: The interface. I'm a little surprised by this one, the one issue the DICE has gotten the most heat from in previous BF games is still back...and crappy. It first hits you when you try and find a server. First, most players arrage their servers by ping, with the best ping at the top. When you get a ping of "0" It generally means that the selected server is not responding. Well, instead of making the automatic ping for non-responsive servers "999" like most FPSes, DICE, in all of their wisdom, decided to make it Zero, so all of the non-responsive servers show up at the top of all of the list when you sort by ping. And good luck scrolling down, because the reflexes for the mouse and scroller are so chalky, it nearly locks up the game just trying to scroll down or up. I tried to scroll all the way down the list once, and my game locked up for 3 minutes. And once you find a server, click to join, and if it's full it'll slam you with a pop-up, "SERVER IS FULL PLEASE TRY ANOTHER" Now, normally an interface would highlight your last selection so that you could try and Re-join or join a low-pinged server next to it, but in the background, before you can click "OK" On the popup that appears infront of you, it refreshes all of the servers! Most of the time it isn't even organized the way you want it, so you lose your server...arrgh!
It doesn't stop there, try changing your controls, your mouse movement, preferably...you'll get hit with another popup that disables everything and centers your mouse: "CONFLICT DETECTED IN COMMON CONTROLS!" When infact there is no conflict, so I guess there's some invisible setting that I can't see. Even when I unbind everything, I get the same error. So it's not my fault, DICE!
I also have a slight problem with Artillery. Sure, it provides some Band of brothers-like action with the shellshock, but imagine this: You've got a squad with you (Still amazes me) And you're moving on a base, everyone is doing what you've told them to do. You get to the base, expecting an intense exchange of mean bullets between your squad and the enemy...then artillery blows your entire team away without contest. Okay, okay. It's what happens in War, I accept that, but in a game I'd like not to be blown away instantly with no time to run. Right now, the wait between artillery strikes is about 30/45 seconds. That's way too short, it either needs to be leghtened a substansial amount, or Artillery needs to be a server-side option to enable/disable, then I'll be happy.
These small flaws bearly scratch the gameplay that DICE has created. I've been having loads of fun with me and my Squad, and I've only been playing for 6 days. I haven't gotten bored once in a Battlefield match, thanks to the game's teamplay, feel, and awesome maps! Seriously, they're some of the best work I've seen when it comes to map making. Not to worry! It's not an endless battle for the same ho-hum town plastered onto a chunk of land over and over again. Every map, every battle location, has amazing personality. It's like your fighting in a completley different map every hotspot. Thanks to DICE's attention to detail, no two maps are the same. From a run-down, swampy set of Chinese huts, to a rolling valley dotted with rivers and hills. They're all different, and I love each and every one of them. Trust me, folks. The Battlefield you knew before is dead. New teamplay mechanics, mind-blowing graphics, crazy battles, and amazing maps make this one the best Battlefield game yet.
FINAL VERDICT:
95%
HIGHS: Astounding gameplay, great maps, Very immersive.
LOWS: Buggy interface, need a monster rig for high settings, some balance issues.
BOTTOM LINE: Battlefield 2 not only surpasses it's older brother's gameplay, it beats all other FPSes while doing it, one of the best Multiplayer FPSes out there.
-Tradecog