Graphics

Base of the skull?

Aside from the fact that this game can bring a system to its knees and then plant a bullet in its side, weapon and vehicle graphics look good. The weapon fire seems to have class to it; missiles and other projectiles have a good amount of eye candy while still maintaining playability. More specifically, the effects were pleasing but not overly large, so as not to obstruct your field of vision. The same could not be said about explosions though.

Fireflies?

The eerie green beam

Melt the little plastic legs

Most of the structures, including trees, can be destroyed after some effort. Trees can either fall to the ground or catch on fire. The problem is that whenever the trees are on fire, or structures are obliterated, they have a very artificial looking destruction sequence. Occasionally debris appears to fly outward, but most often the trees and structures seem to crumble to the ground with a little fire on top. It's not satisfying by any means at all. When I blow up half a bridge I want to see smoke and dust. I want to see explosions. What I don't want to see is Lego like carnage. The patch, from what I hear, added more explosions; but the trees and structures still have an unsatisfying demise.

My friend the turret

Man, I can't get over those trees

Home on the range

Levels in this game will remind people of Tribes in terms of the look of the terrain and their vastness. BZ2 adds much more variety in terms of terrain and objects, although the levels did run the usual gambit of snow, desert and jungle. The jungles impressed me the most, as the dense foliage turned out surprisingly well. Heavily wooded areas maintained their graphical quality even at close quarters. Most impressive were the detailed city settings commonly seen in multiplayer deathmatch. This feature was quite a blessing to the game, as most outdoor games neglect to break from the monotony of endless green fields. BZII, on the other hand, manages to allow a nice mix of trees and buildings.

Vehicle detail

The vehicles in the game look impressive enough, albeit not too original. Some look like blatant rip-offs. Take for instance the repair vehicle on the ISDF side. It is reminiscent of the scanner that was used at the beginning of the movie Alien. It even has the same green scanning beam that the vehicle in Alien had. Aside from lack of originality in some instances, the tanks and bikes exhibit some nice detail and animation. The hover vehicles all have visibly active wings and engines when moving. When vehicles are damaged, they spew smoke and fire, but that is about the extent of visible damage.