Where Eagles Dare
Time then, to sum up the Battlefield 2 experience. Let’s start off with the negatives as some of these can be pretty off putting. Biggest of all is the system requirements to get a decent frame rate. It seems a terrible shame that a game such as this is so resource hungry, but it is. If you’re running a borderline machine you’ll have a tough time running it. The official minimum specs are a P4 1,7 GHz and 126Mb video card or similar, but I’d say that the recommended specs of a 2.5 GHz CPU and 256 Mb card are more accurate for a minimum spec machine. Sure, it might run on a 1.7 GHz rig, but only with slideshow style framerates. If you’ve been putting off that upgrade for a while now’s the time to get it or you’ll only become frustrated with stuttering gameplay when the screen gets busy.
Some of the maps are a little unbalanced and lack the focus needed for a satisfying online game. Although the whole game is really one big conquest mode, some of the maps feel more like Unreal Tournaments 2004’s Assault games where you just run from one objective to the other, repulsing one attack after another as the timer ticks down. The lack of the large maps in the single player bot games is a drawback too as practising off-line and learning the maps is important, though not essential, to having a good online experience.
Also, and this is no fault of EA’s, the online experience can, at times, be incredibly frustrating. If you’re unlucky enough to land on a server where everyone plays as if it’s every man for himself, you’ll miss out on a huge part of the game. With many servers running with no forced balancing between teams, it’s all too easy to find yourself outnumbered by the other side and ending up becoming cannon fodder all the time. And if no-one is squading up and the commander’s pants, then you might as well go somewhere else as you’ll not have a good game.
On the upside, EA have done their best to combat this with the ranking system allowing the higher scoring players to take the top job. The voting system for kicking players only goes so far and even a good commander can get voted off by a bunch of idiots who seem to revel in disrupting play. However, find a server where they play the game properly and it soon turns to 4am and you’ll wonder where the time has gone… the ‘one more go’ aspect of a well played match is incredibly strong.
Graphically, BF 2 blows all the right whistles and rings all the right bells and if you’ve got the ommph to run it with everything turned on then you won’t regret that overdraft for the expensive kit in your rig. Similarly, BF 2 makes the best use of a built-in comms system seen in a game yet with the auto channel switching giving a real sense of the chain of command. A well structured squad backed up by a competent commander can win a map almost on their own and the sense of teamplay and satisfaction is brilliant.
So overall, Battlefield 2 is a worthy purchase for anyone looking for a team orientated shooter to give them some relief from the frantic nature of Counter Strike or the out and out fragging of HL2. If you’ve already got an established team in something like CS, then it’s worth you all getting hold of BF 2 as well. You may well find it to be a more rewarding experience as tactics and control take a front seat to reaction times and map knowledge, opening the game up for many disillusioned with CS’s servers full of abusive finger twitchers. Though not really having that many hidden depths, the sheer amount of what you can do and what can be done when played properly make Battlefield 2 a must buy.
Pros
Excellent team based play
Superb commander mode (when played properly)
Brilliant voice comms system
Large, detailed maps
Lovely graphics and effects
Lots of modern warfare toys to play with
Great ranking system weeds out the muppets
Support classes more attractive to play
Cons
Seriously resource hungry
Some maps feel unbalanced and a bit, well, pointless
Poor human players can ruin the game
Very fiddly to set up controls
Online registration laborious
A seriously good game, but dogged by a laggy interface and online play at the mercy of muppets. Well worth buying if you’ve got a clan to play with.
