Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Review
| Developer: DICE | Publisher: Electronic Arts |
| Release Date: October 25, 2005 | Also On: PS2 and Xbox |
Xbox owners were quite disappointed when Battlefield 1942 was cancelled.
Well, with Battlefield 2 released on the PC, it gave a new sign of hope for a Battlefield game on the consoles. A few months later, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is released. To the surprise of many however, this is
not a port of the popular PC game, but a completely original game for the PS2 and Xbox. With the PC version being so great, how does the console version compare to it?
While not as eye catching as the PC, Battlefield 2 still looks pretty good. The frame rate is solid and doesn’t chug despite all the action happening on-screen. Environments are well-designed with a lot of destructible parts everywhere. Vehicles are detailed and fully destructible as well. Explosions are excellent, which is a good thing, because you will be seeing a lot of them throughout the campaign. You are fighting a lot of clones, however, which does hurt a bit. It’s even difficult to tell apart from friend and foe. If it weren’t for the indicator over your army’s head, I’d shoot anything that moved.
Crank up the volume on your system because Battlefield 2 sounds fantastic. Voice acting may not be that great, but everything else is just dandy. The battle which unfolds around you becomes quite immersive with the sounds of war being so clear. You can hear gunfire off in the distance and basically feel the whip of a bullet past your head. The engines of vehicles roar to life as you jump in and try to meet your objectives. The music is nothing to be thrilled about, just your basic
military soundtrack.
Here is where Battlefield 2 differs from the other military shooters. The arcadey style and points system is unique and rewards you for doing well on a mission. Basically, the more points you score, the higher your
rank gets. The rankings go by the same ranks they do in the military. While it’s realistic, it is quite difficult to reach the top of the ladder. You can typically run and gun for most parts, but teamwork is necessary to win a mission. That is where the hot swapping technique comes in.
If you are about to die with the solider you’re controlling, switch off to another character since dying while controlling someone deducts points off your score. If you are pinned down and see someone in a better vantage point, you can instantly switch to them on the fly and continue the action. All you need to do is look at another soldier so his indicator goes white. Then, you press a single button and you switch off into another soldier. This, along with the run-and-gun style gameplay makes a fun shooter for most people (except Kyle, who sucks).
The best part of Battlefield 2 is the multiplayer that supports up to 24 players online. It does lack support for split screen and LAN play though which greatly hurts offline play. There are only two modes, CTF and Conquest, but Conquest is what you will mostly play. Here, you will need to hold points on the map and wait for your opponent’s score to drop to zero. The more points on the map you hold, the faster the points for your opponent fall. But there is just so much you can do with the multiplayer despite the lack of modes.
There are 5 different soldier classes to choose from whom each have different weapons and uses that can make or break a game. All 30 of the game’s vehicles are scattered throughout the 13 maps. You can issue artillery and mortar strikes on areas to rid yourself of enemy forces in an attempt to take over that area. There are stinger missiles available on the map to take down the flying vehicles overhead. The best part about flying is that you can jump out of the vehicle and open up a parachute to make it to the ground in one piece. The online rankings are basically the same as the offline rankings as you will try to move your way up the military ladder. You can’t find this in any Halo game.
If you have online capabilities, then Battlefield 2 is an absolute MUST have. While there is a decent length campaign with mini-games, it won’t keep you too interested for long. The multiplayer is all that makes it worth a purchase. If you don’t plan to go online with this title, then you really shouldn’t bother, unless it is just a rental.
| Graphics: | 9 |
| Sound: | 8 |
| Gameplay: | 8.5 |
| Creativity: | 7.5 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 7 |
| Final: | 8 |
| Written by Shawn | Review Guide |
