E3 2006 Battlefield 2142 Impressions

No matter what your final opinion is on the game's themselves, no one can dispute that the three games in Digital Illusions' multiplayer Battlefield series have been a huge success with millions of copies sold and tens of thousands of players online at any one time. Now DICE and their new owner/publisher Electronic Arts are planning to release Battlefield 2142 this fall and at E3 2006 we got hands-on to play a build of the game.

Yep, the Battlefield series is heading for the future in its next installment but based on our playtime with the build the future isn't going to be much different than the present; infrantry classes still has bullet based automatic weapons and flying machines. The art style is very industrial and looks much like the future depicted in movies like Aliens; In other words, don't expect the basic look and feel of the Battlefield series to change drastically. Whether you feel this is a good or bad thing is up to you.

There will be some differences in Battlefield 2142. You have access to new vehicles like the hover tank which as its name suggests glides around above the ground which could actually make tank battles more fun. And of course you have the mini-mechs that have been the centerpiece of the screenshots released from the game.

The biggest change for Battlefield 2142 is the new Titan mode which DICE and EA hopes players will gravitate to like they have with the Conquest mode in previous games in the series. The Titan itself is a huge flying fortress that each side in the match has access to. The goal is to destroy the other team's Titan and to do that you have to get through the ship's tough shields. While you can do it the old fashioned way by having each team member shoot at the shields with their various weapons and vehicles, the ideal and shorter way to accomplish this is to capture missile silos that are scattered around the map and then fire those missles at the enemy's Titan. Once the shields are down your team uses "assault pods" to fly up to the enemy ship where they then go inside to destroy four control points inside and finally you can destroy the Titan's nuclear reactor. Oh, did we mention that you have to parachute off the enemy Titan before the ship goes nuclear? The Titan mode feels a lot like the Assault mode in the original Unreal Tournament and it will be curious to see if players will enjoy it.

Battlefield 2142 uses the Battlefield 2 engine and as such there isn't a lot of improvements graphically between the two games. However, the two games do have a different way of handling player classes. You have four classes to choose from but you can vary your weapons loadout in a ton of different ways and different load outs affect how fast or slow your player will be in the game. It should make players think harder about what they can and can't supply themselves with in the game.

Battlefield 2142 may be an evolution rather than an all new look at the franchise but it looks like there will be more than enough new things in the gameplay to keep fans busy. And hey, you get to drive a two legged mech around so that's something. Look for Battlefield 2142 to be released this fall and we hope to get more info on the game in the coming months.