I've always enjoyed the first Battlefield installments. I can't forget the millions upon millions of times my friend and I played the fantastic map Coral Sea from 1942. Nor can I forget the time when my two friends and I played Battlefield Vietnam for a good six hours straight into the wee hours of the morning. The Battlefield games are great in the sense that there's so many things to do in one single game with so many "Hell yeah!" moments per match that it leaves you with a very satisfying experience.
Now the reason I've never bought one is quite a mystery to me. Usually, I just played it over my friends’ houses because they had better computers and better internet connections (I was stuck with 56K for a long time…sniff…) But now I think I’m ready. With my recent graphics card upgrade, and a cable line running right through my room, I’m ready to tackle to the upcoming installment of the series, Battlefield 2.
Good things
What comes with the box...
Battlefield 2 comes in CD or DVD form, but people nowadays should definitely upgrade to a DVD drive. It just makes life easier. Although Battlefield 2 doesn't take up that much space on your hard drive, having all of it on one DVD as opposed to two to three CDs makes life a tad easier. Plus, game companies are leaning towards the single DVD option to make shipping and production costs less expensive. Plus, DVD players are dirt cheap.
Anyway, besides the disc(s), there's a manual that gives you a good bulk of information about the game, including controls. The only thing I didn't like about the stuff inside is all the included advertisement for other products. Alright, I can excuse the advertisement for the Battlefield 2 Z-Board plate, but I think it's overkill to have ads for Alienware computers, Nvidia graphics cards, and Audigy soundboards. Whatever.
Requirements!
I'm going to list the minimum requirements only:
OS: Windows XP (32-bit)
CPU: 1.7 GHz Intel Celeron D/Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP/Siempron or greater
RAM:
512 Ram
Disc drive: Depends on what version you got (obviously you need a CD-ROM for the CDS, DVD-ROM for the DVDs...)
Hard Drive: 2.3 GB or more free space
Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible.
Card must have 128 MB or more memory.
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Yeah...Battlefield 2 is a tad beefy on the hardware requirements. I'll talk more about this later.
What's new?!?
Open yer eyes!
The first question you’re going to ask is “What’s new?” Well, just open your eyes and you’ll see the first changed thing. Yes, I’m talking about the graphics, and they are most wonderful indeed. Detailed character models, great looking vehicles and terrain, and once you take a look at the water, your eyes will bleed trying to think back to the brown and crappy textured water that infested Battlefield Vietnam (Battlefield 1942’s water was even worse, except that it was blue). So yes, for an online game, these are some of the best graphics you’re going to get.
And naturally, you’re going to need a fairly decent computer to get those graphics churning. Unfortunately, my computer’s specs aren’t so hot besides my
X800 Pro. I’ve got a Pentium 4 1.8, which is a whooping .1 GHz above the minimum requirement (and that usually spells for disaster). I’ve also got 768 RAM, which is alright, but it could be better.
Anyway, I turned everything up to 1024 X 768 with most settings set to medium. When I started up my first map, I was horrified to find myself in lag city. Luckily, I would soon learn that it really wasn’t my computer and it was just the server. From then, games started running fine, and I’m averaging a 70 ping right now which isn’t half that bad, considering my processor speed.
Okay, seriously, enough with the graphics
Alright, the graphics are great. That’s the first improvement. Notice how I said “improvement” because I believe that all the new things in the game are great additions and actually improve game play, and aren’t just simply “add ons.” The next big improvement would be squads.
Battlefield 2 is an online game that takes team work as serious matter, yet makes it so easy to cooperate as a team that even a total n00b can figure it out (sorry, couldn’t resist). When you first jump into the game and choose what side you’re on, a map and a tab with all the available kits will pop up. Right next to the kits tab is the squads tab. From there, a list will pop up with all the current squads (Alpha, Delta, Charlie, etc) with numbers indicating how many people are in that squad. Some squads will be locked (indicated with a pad lock next to the squad number), but most are open for you to click the “Apply” button and join.
But what’s so great about a squad? Well, whenever you pull out a map, every single one of your squad members will appear in green, making it easier for you to locate a friend. And from there, you guys can organize an effort and go accomplish tasks. The person who’s in charge of the whole operation is the squad leader. The role of the squad leader is a fun one, whereas you can give orders for you men to attack or stay in certain places. If you join a squad with
active squad leaders (some squad leaders don’t do jack), then its amazing what you and your buddies can accomplish. It really makes you feel more connected to the people you’re playing with and it makes the game a much more interactive one.
That said, you can create your own squad if you want, which is just as easy as joining an existing one (finding people to join is a little harder, though). Or maybe you’ll want to apply for the commander position of your team. “Commander?” you might ask. “Who be dat?”
The commander is the head chief of your team. Your team can live without one, but there are considerable advantages to having a commander in place. Indicated as a star icon on the map, the commander can do various things. As long as your team possesses a base with a satellites and artillery (it’s usually your starting base or your main base), your commander can send out radar scans of choice parts on the map, showing every enemy it its scan. Even cooler, the commander can send in supply drops. And the best is the artillery shots; the commander can pick an enemy base or anywhere else on the map and release an onslaught of raining hell from the sky. I’ve seen artillery strikes kill seven or eight people at a time. And they are deadly; if you don’t head for the hills, your body will be flown into the air and smashed against the hillside, rag doll physics and all (gotta love the rag doll physics).
Because of the amount of teamwork that can occur in every single match, everything is much more coordinated and easily carried out, making matches a lot more organized and fun. I mean, you can still choose the path of a lone wolf and still have a great time. But being in a squad makes it easier to carry out things and accomplish objectives. Hey, whatever floats your boat.
Stats?
Battlefield 2 also adds in a nice feature as well: ranking. When you log into your account, all you need to do is click on the BFHQ tab and it brings up your name and stats about your combat experiences. Everything is listed here: accuracy, most played maps, team work tally, wins and loses, etcetera.
Additionally, if you get a certain amount of points (indicated by your Global Score), you actually move up in rank. When this happens, you get a new icon next to your name when you play. Besides bragging rights, rank helps you out when you apply for commander positions, whereas you get prime pickings. I’m only a Private First Class (the second lowest class in the game), so I still have quite a bit of rank to go through, so higher ranks might grant you more privileges.
In order to get ranked, however, you must play on a ranked server. In the server list, ranked serves are ones with barrettes next to their names (it’s easier just to filter ranked servers to see all of them). From there, whatever you do, between capturing bases to running people over will be logged into your stats. The stats for me take a few hours to update, though, but I’ve talked to several people and they say that they have the same problem.
Kits
There are seven kits all together to use when you want to play. They pop up in a tab on the left side of the screen when you start the game, when you press enter, or when you die. All you need to is pick the one of preference. Some make reappearances from older Battlefield games but there are some new ones. I’ll list all of the classes and tell a bit about them:
Special Forces: Special forces is an interesting kit, where you’re armed with a powerful machine gun with a nice laser scope (excellent for picking off people from far away). Additionally, you get C4 and remote, which comes in handy for blowing things up.
Sniper: Obviously, the main weapon here is the sniper rifle. You also get some mines and a cool camouflage suit
Assault: This is the main kit if you’re out to solely plug people with bullets. You get a strong machine gun with a grenade launcher as well. Nuff said.
Support: This is another interesting kit. You get a powerful machine gun but the perk about this kit is that you can restock friendly people or vehicles with ammo. Doing so will earn you teamwork points, which increases your score in the server.
Engineer: The engineer gets a shotgun which is really only good at short range. The best part is the ability to fix vehicles on the go. You also get mines.
Medic: Easily my favorite kit. You get a standard machine gun, nothing special, but then you have the med kit and the shock paddles. The med kit can be used to heal yourself or others, and you can actually throw these kits to heal people in your proximity. Then there’s the shock paddles which bring dead people on your team back to life. Indicated by a little lightning bolt inside a red circle on your map, all you need to do is whip out your shock paddles and revive the person back to health. The shock paddles can also be used to kill people!
Anti-Tank: This is another obvious kit. You get a huge fricken bazooka and a machine gun and that’s all you really need to see chunks of metal go flying.
Maps
There are 12 maps in total and I’ve played through every single one and haven’t found a dog in the pack. There are some that are better than others, but a lot of it is based on your preference. Mainly, do you like close range or long range combat?
If you like short range, or city fighting, then I’d recommend Mashtuur City or the wonderful Strike at Karkland. Mashtuur involves the USA and the MEC (Middle Eastern Collation) struggling over several key outposts in the middle of a Middle Eastern city. When the artillery starts firing, things can get really hectic.
Then there’s the other map, Strike at Karkland. This is probably my favorite map because everything is so close knitted that it causes some intense claustrophobic fights. MEC controls nearly all the bases and USA has to make its way through into the middle of the city. Tanks and other forms of Armor are very beneficial here, so if you’re going on foot, stick to the alleys or the rooftops. Yes, a lot of the buildings can be climbed which is a fantastic feature. Anyway, Karkland is a great map (it’s also huge) and expect to undergo intense shootouts in the course of one match.
Battlefield doesn’t slouch in the huge open levels either. As matter of fact, the open levels comprise most of the maps in the game. These levels are great because you can take to the air either in a jet or helicopter and rain missiles on your opponents. Or you can go base hopping with a squad of tanks. Or you can sneak around in a boat. Any option is great fun.
Probably my favorite open level map would be Kubra Dam, which features a huge under construction dam as the center piece of the map with lots of outposts surrounding the outskirts. This map is HUGE, and going by foot takes an eternity. But its fun nevertheless, due to the abundance of planes and vehicles, the ten or so bases, and the numerous numbers of spots to snipe people out. Another huge level is the Daqing Oilfields. Here, the Chinese, the third class in Battlefield 2, battle out against the USA in control of the bases surrounding an enormous oil plant. This level is immense as well, but there are plenty of vehicles to travel around in.
There’s more, but you really have to try them all out to see what fits your bill. Trust me, you’ll find a map that you’ll keep on playing over and over again. You just need to find what you really like and experiment. But the best part is that every map is fun and provides an exhilarating experience each time I play.
Not so Good things
Probably the worst part about Battlefield 2 is the system requirements. They’re fairly steep, and since it’s an online game, you’re going to need some decent hardware to get this game going. If you got a graphics card that barely surpasses the requirement, then you’re probably going to have a rough time unless you turn all the graphical settings down to their bare minimums (and trust me, it looks like crap).
Although my processor beats the requirement by only .1 GHz, I still have a solid experience most of the time and that can be traced to my X800. So if you want to upgrade anything first, definitely upgrade your graphics board. That said, having a faster processor certainly does have it advantages. Oh, and I’d pay money to see someone attempt to run this game on a 56K. I don’t even think it’s possible.
Next problem would be the lag. While there’s a problem with lag in some of the servers, the biggest problem is actually with the menu screens. Constantly the menu screens freeze on me when I refresh or even scroll through them, and once I had to restart my entire computer because it just locked up. Basically put, Battlefield 2 is a HUGE game, and takes up an enormous amount of resources when you play. If you have any extra programs open that aren’t really to keep your computer running, I would suggest closing them to have the best experience. And when lag does occur in a server, the experience can be unbearable, yet fortunately that’s only for a few of them.
As far as balancing goes, each side is well balanced. I don’t believe any side has a huge advantage over the other (unlike in Battlefield Vietnam where you used to be able to snipe people with an M60). But then there’s the sniper rifle, and for some reason the sniper rifle blows. This goes for every single version for each team. It’s just so woefully underpowered and I can’t really seem to explain why. Seriously, after shooting someone five times while aiming for the head, I would expect that certain someone to die. Unfortunately it takes several shots to kill someone, while in the previous games it took one to the head and that person was dead. I hope a patch comes out to fix this.
The Verdict
Battlefield 2 is an extraordinary game. There are so many great moments and so many things that can be done in one single match that it makes for a furiously addicting online shooter. The best part is that teamwork is encouraged and makes the game easier to play when you’re doing things together as a squad. The only real negative part about the game is the requirements, the lag that can be found, and the underpowered sniper rifles. If you’re got a mid range system, Battlefield 2 should run fine. If not, then you’re going to have to upgrade for the best performance.
In the end, this game rocks. This is some of the best online gaming I’ve ever played and this is only the beginning, for EA is certain to release more maps and whatnot in the near future. Oh, and my name is MistaDobalina (it's the name of a Del Tha Funkee Homosapien song, in case you were wondering), and maybe you’ll find me in a game sometime (amongst the hundreds of servers).
Go and get this game.
