"A huge dissappointment."

War games happen to be one of my favorite genres of games. Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Joint Operations, and Battlefield 1942 are some of my favorites(just to name a few). So obviously I was very excited when Battlefield 2 was released. I went out to my nearest Best Buy and bought a copy. I went back home and immediately noticed one thing. The game is in a large oversized PS2 container. It may look cool, but it's not handy for storage. But anyway, I install it and start playing.

Short game summary:

BF2 is a modern day war game with 3 armies, the American army, the MEC(Middle-Eastern Coalition), and the Chinese Army. The game is mainly intended for online play, but there is single-player(it's not very good). You fight in battlefields and capture "control points". If your team has more control points than the enemy, the enemy will began to lose tickets. Tickets are basically your reinforcement pool. Each time someone dies, their team loses a ticket. Who ever loses their tickets first or has the most tickets when the timer expires wins the round. Since the only mode is Conquest(no CTF, no TKOTH, no Objective mode), it becomes quite repetitive and boring.

Graphics - 9/10

The graphics in a BF2 are very nice. Player models/textures are very detailed and look great. Weapons and vehicles are very detailed and good looking. And the water is probably the best looking water I've ever seen. Because of this, Battlefield 2 has some of the steepest system requirements I have ever seen. This means you're going to have to spend $1000-$3000 upgrading your system to play it.

Sound - 9/10

There's not much to say about sound. The weapons sound good, the explosions sound real, and voices are good. Also, smaller sounds like footsteps and vehicle noises are good.

Controls - 7/10

The controls are basically the same as BF1942, except F1-F6 change vehicle positions, Q brings up a thing where you click on what voice command to say. The only reason I gave it a 7 is because it can be difficult to click on the right voice command quickly, and you can sometimes click the wrong one.

Gameplay - 3/10

This is where the game crashes and burns. My number one complaint is realism. I know what you're thinking: "U n00b! Teh BF serees is nto suppozed to b relistic!!" However, BF2 is SO unrealistic, it really negatively affects the gameplay. BF1942 had much more realism than this. For example, you can shoot someone in the face 5 times with a M16A2(while prone), and they can pull out their pistol and shoot you once in the leg(while standing) and you will die(you had full health). I am completely serious. There are many other small querks in the department of unrealism, but I won't go into them. Another thing: The game claims to have more than 30 vehicles. Indeed it does, but you won't notice this. The American tank is the same as the MEC tank is the same as the Chinese tank. This repeats for all the vehicles. There are really no advantages/disadvantages to the vehicles, which makes the gameplay bland. There is also balance problems kit-wise and vehicles wise. The Special-Ops class tends to be the most powerful, even though their weapon is a carbine rifle. Also, why does it take more than one shot from a tank to destroy a jeep? I have no idea. There are also a few glitches and bugs in the game, but those will (hopefully) be released in later patches. Now yes, there are some good things to the gameplay. The biggest new feature is ranking. As you progress through the game, your stats are tallies and you proceed through the ranks of the army. That way, people will know if you are good or not. Also, depending on your performance in combat, you can earn medals, ribbons, and weapon upgrades. The new squad options and commander options are cool and add more team work to the game. Also, mods will be released later(and that's the only reason I haven't sold this game).

Online Play - n/a

I did not give this section a rating because it is basically a continuation of the gameplay section, just focused on online play.
Anyway, the online filter seems to be messed up. Example, if you click on the box "Non-Full Servers Only", servers that are full will still show up. A lot of the ranked servers(see "Gameplay for more on ranked servers") have a good amount of lag, even on a gaming rig like mine. Also, the online loading times can take a while if you don't have enough RAM or if you just changed your graphics settings.

Replayability - 8/10

Since there are no single-player missions and no two online games are the same, this game has a lot of replayability. Yet the lack of different game modes make this game old and bland after a while.

Final Summary 4/10

This game was a huge letdown and I am very dissappointed. However, if you are into and arcade style war game with little realism, then by all means buy this game. If you are more into games with some realism(like me), go for America's Army, Joint Operations, MoH, or Call of Duty. Thanks for reading this review.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/05