We Were Soldiers
Precedent requires that I give you a brief overview of what the Battlefield series is all about, so those of you with no clue read on, you others can skip down a paragraph and we’ll meet you there, ok? Right, the idea behind the Battlefield games is simple. Each of the large maps has several key points which you have to take and hold for a short time until they become yours. Once you’ve done that you can then use those as a respawn point should you die and so you gradually move the front forward, taking points off the enemy until you eventually overrun his base and win the map. To help you in this you’re provided with all sorts of vehicles from jeeps to tanks to planes and, depending on the map, boats too. There’s lots of different classes of soldier, so a medic can heal, an engineer can place mines and repair vehicles and so on. The idea is for team play to win the day. You can go solo but you’ll just die often and perhaps even lose the map… remember, team work is the key. Ok? Right, let’s get on with the review then.
We all here? Right, Battlefield 2 has been touted as being a totally new game from the ground up, but have Electronic Arts stuck to the ideas that made the first game so successful and fun to play? Well, it’s still a first person shooter. It’s still got loads of vehicles you can jump in either on your own or with a load of mates. It’s still all about taking and holding points on the map. It’s still the fun over simulation gameplay of the first game. In fact, EA have been very sensible and made sure that although there’s masses here that’s new, such as the engine, weapons, settings and all that, even though all that stuff is new, the core gameplay is exactly the same… fun and more fun.
Now don’t let the fact that the core gameplay is the same, this is a very, very good thing. Why fix something that ain’t broke, eh? EA have done the right thing here and left all that made the previous Battlefield games so good, they’ve worked on the bits that weren’t so good and then brought the whole thing bang up to date with a superb new engine, new weapons, new vehicles and new environments. You’re left to battle it out over hugely detailed maps that are themselves huge as well. Once you’re in the game I guarantee you’ll spend the first ten minutes just running around marvelling at the area you’ve been given to play in. And the map design has been very cleverly thought out in most maps to promote some excellent games that force a team to work together or lose the map…. excellent stuff.
