Battlefield 2

"The Battle Of Your Life"

Battlefield 2 is a modern first person shooter with a massive multi-player online component. Although the game does have a single-player component with it, the multi-player is really where the game shines. This game takes place in the modern era with three sides to play: USA, MEC, and China. Although each of the sides has the basic same classes, there are subtle differences within each that make it wiser to choose a different class with each different side. Each side has the exact same type of vehicles but like with the classes the vehicles do vary enough that it can make a little bit of a difference when fighting. Small things such as missile placement and speed will be noticeable between the three different sides. One of the improvements to this series is a set of awards. Badges, Ribbons, and Medals are all awards you can get for doing certain things in the game. They range from the easy and mundane to the ridiculous and hardcore. For the player who wants to strive for the awards it can be a blessing in disguise, because some awards can be very hard to get and time consuming.

Like mentioned before Battlefield 2 does have a single-player component to it, but this single-player is different from those who have come before it. No longer will the AI just stand in front of you as you fill them full of lead. Instead on the most basic level the AI will provide somewhat of a challenge and will know exactly how to take you and from where. Now we are not talking about the most advanced AI in the world but for the most part it does make it harder than most other shooters.

The gameplay is by far the most impressive thing about the game. Online is where it really shines, where you can wage war against other opponents and have up to 64 players one server. It can be fun to have that many on a server but it can make the game go much faster even with the higher amount of tickets. Each side has seven different classes with each having strengths and weaknesses. If you are going to play online it is best to be able to test them all out so when you are waging war you can decide the best one for you or your situation. For the most part the basic combat between players will be fair but when it comes down to vehicles, the game can get quite brutal. If there is someone on the other team that is destroying your side with a certain vehicle it can be quite hard to kill them before your team has taken the brunt of the damage. In this version of the Battlefield genre, vehicles rule. If you can exploit the strength of a certain vehicle and practice with it you can begin to make people on the other side not even come near you or run away if they can. Online you can use a headset to communicate with others but for the most part you will be the only one in the game with a headset to communicate, so you can help others but they can't help you in the same manner.

The graphics in the game are very good but not outstanding. They do have some nice explosion effects that make it seem really cool. When vehicles are destroyed they do leave behind skeletons of their formers selves that can kill you if you are not careful. These are certainly not the best graphics that are out there, because they seem to be about the same as Halo 2 and that game out almost nine months before Battlefield 2, but some things can be very hard to improve upon. The graphics in the game are certainly not mediocre also; they are just not the best of the best, but certainly not something to not buy the game about.

The sound in the game is actually quite neat and helpful at times. If there are bullets buzzing nearby you can definitely hear them and it is really nice that when there is a missile lock on you that the game gives not only a visual signal but an audio signal. It may not seem like much but having that little bit of audio to break up the rest of the sounds does make you think. The basic music that plays while loading is rather nice, but does repeat itself quite frequently. Each side, by default, is set to speak in their native language. It is a really nice touch but can be very detrimental especially if you have to look every time at the text and not hear it. You can set it up to have English, no matter what which is what a lot of people are doing. All in all the sound of the game makes it one of the best out there.

The value of the game can be something that is to be argued. For 40-50 dollars you can get a really good game that you can play upwards of 600 hours that some people have played online, but for the casual gamer this game can be very frustrating and you can give up after 20-50 hours depending on your desire and patience. For the online gamer this game is a steal even for 40-50 dollars because the time you can play it, but for the casual gamer it can be a hard decision to make.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/05