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Battlefield 2 Demo Review June 12, 2005 Jakub Wojnarowicz |
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Summary: The Battlefield 2 demo is out and you're not sure if you should download all 560MB of it for just one map! Then again, Wake Island was just one map too and it was worth it. Jakub played the demo... a lot... and more... and then some... and has come back with his impressions of the game, good and bad, and comments on the vehicles, and units, and of course his favorite subject: snipers!
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
The Battlefield 2 demo was released in almost the opposite way from the Battlefield 1942 demo. BF1942 was a relatively unknown game with only the hype of the singleplayer demo to promote it, when the multiplayer version was released during QuakeCon and took the event - and attending media - by storm. The hype built from the ground-up, EA was pitching sources everywhere, and we didn't have to slog through 5 splash screens before playing the game - just 2.
Battlefield 2, on the other hand, was hyped up from the top down. The Next Big Thing, the True Battlefield Sequel from DICE, and Only Available At GameSpot were the slogans, images and concepts that assaulted us. Well, it was exclusive to GameSpot for about 30 minutes, it is the true sequel from DICE, but the jury hasn't yet returned a verdict whether or not it's really the Next Big Thing.
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Familiar DICE
First, let's get the bad out of the way:
The most obvious reminder that this is a DICE game are the strange bugs and even stranger interface. Who presses 'j' to talk? How come going prone is a toggle but the crouch key must be held down? Why must keys be unbound before they can be re-bound as something else? Why does the game tell me that the left Alt key is bound when it isn't? Someone explain to me why I must select a kit, select a spawn point and choose "done", rather than simply selecting a kit and double-clicking a spawn point, or picking the spawn point and double-clicking the kit? Didn't our favorite Swedish shooter developers get the memo about the interface last time around? Bueller? Lumberg? Anyone?
All these mysteries and more shall not be solved in this demo, nor are we told why there are so many unskippable splash screens before the game even loads. Both NVIDIA and ATI owners have experienced graphical glitches, bugs, and even hang-ups. The ForceWare drivers with the demo tend to solve most of the NVIDIA bugs, but ATI users are told to try Catalyst 5.6s, and failing that, reverting to Catalyst 5.1. This is rather worrisome for a game that's 2 weeks from release.
And yet...
Despite all these unnecessary hassles, the demo does deliver where it's important - gameplay. Though hampered by hard-coded 12-minute rounds, there is no doubt that Gulf of Oman, the map that ships with the demo, gives a good, solid feel for the game. It likely won't be the instant classic that Wake Island was in Battlefield 1942, but it contains hefty numbers of air and ground vehicles as well as infantry play. There is no major naval action, though there are some small boats to shuttle players in from the American carrier. There is a 16- and 32-player version of the map. The 16-player mode is hardly ever seen, though it's the only one available for singleplayer.
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Anyone doubting that Battlefield 2 deserves the Battlefield name should set those doubts aside immediately. Judging by the demo, BF2 is as close to Battlefield 1942 as a game could be and still call itself a distinct sequel. It's improved in some evolutionary ways, perhaps even revolutionary, but without breaking the core concept.
SIDEBAR: Most players seem to like playing as the US more than the MEC. Wonder why. This can suck on servers without auto-balancing.
| Gameplay, map | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
Gameplay
Damage and combat are simplistic for the most part. All units have hitpoints and weak areas, some even have immunities. Hitting a tank from the front does less damage than from the side, and that in turn is less damaging than a rear shot. However, no amount of pistol or rifle ammunition is going to blow an AFV up. Similar rules go for infantry and, presumably, aircraft.
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There are various infantry weapons which have varying degrees of recoil, dispersion and damage. All characters will have a pistol and knife, and complement this with a light machine gun, submachine gun, one of a variety of assault rifles, or a shotgun. Then there are the special weapons each class enjoys. These can be satchel charges for the Special Forces class, through a rifle-mounted grenade launcher for the Assault class, healing utilities on a Medic, repair kits and mines for the Engineer, and semi-guided rocket launchers for Anti-Tank infantry. Support troops replenish the ammunition of their friends and I'm sure Snipers do something special too, but we all know anyone playing a Sniper is special anyway.
Actually, to be fair, the Sniper class is actually balanced in the demo. The sniper rifle lacks the more realistic balancing options like gun sway or having its accuracy affected by wind, but it doesn't do much more damage than a regular assault rifle, while at a considerably slower rate of fire. This, along with the presence of vehicles against which the Sniper is generally helpless, keeps the numbers of the pest class at a reasonable level.
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In fact, if anything, there are too many vehicles in the game. One of the key criticisms one could level at Battlefield 1942 was that its infantry-on-infantry combat lacked spice compared to Medal of Honor or the later Call of Duty. Battlefield 2 does a much better job at this and despite shortcomings which we'll cover in a second, actually makes for a very decent infantry game. At times, it's almost a shame that vehicles are in at all, with the variety of infantry weapons, the tons of cover in the game and the new and improved movement feel.
SIDEBAR: I sound kind of harsh on the first page. Well... yeah, DICE deserves it. They should have learned.
| Combat | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
The key to success in the game is to organize into squads. If someone invites you, go for it. There's no hassle to them and while you get orders, those are more like objectives than actual orders. As much fun as it may be lonewolfing, a capable squad is far more effective and satisfying. Also, squads are vital to capturing and holding flag points.
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Vehicles are more plentiful than in Battlefield 1942, but seemingly more vulnerable. The infantry combat capabilities of the Anti-tank class are not far removed from others, and the bounty of cover and air support makes even the armored vehicles risky propositions. Views are now restricted to first-person only and this gets quite claustrophobic, especially in armor, though the aircraft are begging for TrackIR support. Ground vehicles control just as easily as in BF1942, as do fighters, but helicopters can be tricky. We'd recommend a solid joystick for the helos.
The addition of semi-guided - or more accurately, poorly guided - missiles makes hunting down tanks and aircraft as infantry easier. The rocket-toting Anti-tank kit isn't particularly adept at hitting aircraft unless they're staying still, but there are several SAM launchers available. Missiles track to a limited degree where the player points them, but after a while they're liable to lose lock. The important thing is to bring up the sights with the right mouse button and holding the button down the whole time, before and after firing. APCs on both sides also have rockets, which provides the bulk of their anti-tank capability.
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Fighters... well, they're pretty boring actually. The American Joint Strike Fighter and the Middle East Coalition's Sukhoi mostly just fly around chasing each other with missiles and guns. Their primary job seems to be air superiority, keeping the helicopters at bay, rather than actual ground support. The helos are where the action is at, with the MEC's Russian design spamming rockets and the Americans having several to choose from. American choppers can fire TV-guided rockets, machine guns, and drop infantry. Capturing flags with helicopters seems rather rare now, since that requires hovering, which is liable to make you a victim for rocket infantry or jets right quick.
SIDEBAR: I like the US Special Ops class the most. The rifle's the next-best-thing to a sniper rifle with all the advantages of any assault rifle, while it has satchel charges which are solid against tanks and infantry alike.
| Commander mode & Conclusion | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
Depending on the number of players in the game, a commander might be best off constantly in commander view rather than actively fighting. If you've ever played Microsoft's old MMO, Allegiance, you've got a pretty good idea how important solid leadership is. Commanders also have to communicate to their team in ways other than mere orders and objectives, they also need to inform them when artillery needs repairs or what kind of kits are best suited to a squad. The built-in voice comms are limited to those only in your squad, which is OK sometimes and it isn't at others. It'd be better if there was a key for global chat, with squad chat being default, but this is acceptable.
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Conclusion
Quite honestly, this is a very thorough demo that gives a really solid taste of what the final game will probably be like. It's a huge download, and to make things worse it's a one-way ticket to the "4AM crap I go to work in 3 hours" redeye, but it's absolutely worth it. Despite the hassles for computer users who will doubtless have to fiddle with different driver versions to get the game working, once it is running smoothly, the past troubles are soon forgotten. At least, they will be once you venture into your \\Program Files\\EA GAMES\\Battlefield 2 Demo\\mods\\bf2\\Movies folder and delete all files except menu.bik, menu_loggedin.bik and noise.bik. Funny how much the removal of non-skippable splash screens makes the loading time so much quicker and more enjoyable, isn't it, EA?
Judging by the demo, Battlefield 2 looks like a true successor to Battlefield 1942. It has the same core gameplay, fixes up most of what was wrong with the original, and adds new features that really help flesh things out. The ultimate success of commander mode depends on who you're going to be playing with, but we have hope - it isn't that complicated a concept. Mostly the challenge lies in convincing people that being in a squad is more fun than lonewolfing.
Worth the download? Definitely. Just make sure to have at least 1GB of RAM.
SIDEBAR: How odd that while the three sides are China, the US and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition, the MEC uses Russian tanks, Russian aircraft, Russian infantry weapons and Russian helicopters. It's like Russia isn't cool enough for games any more, but their equipment still is.
| Gallery | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |