Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

"Laggy online and a mildly boring single player game hold this title back from "must own" status"

I do believe that this will be my final review of a 360 game that I have no interest in. I didn't play the original and frankly I'm not the biggest fan of the FPS genre but I do enjoy a couple entries, Halo 1 and G.R.A.W being a few of those. At the time of this review I know I don't have a review of G.R.A.W. but that's because I haven't completed it yet and I actually own it. That being said I rented Battlefield 2 for free the other day and while it isn't a terrible game, it isn't exactly a must play title either.

The story is your same tired war plot. You can easily skip it and still know what is going on. Uninspired but it does work.

Graphic wise I think Battlefield 2 is somewhere close what next gen should be. That is until you play on LIVE and then you'll know what perfect Dark 0 should have looked like. Nicely detailed environments and enemies look fine. I did have issues with the red and blue over the enemies or partners kind of blurring into other stuff. The game doesn't look bad at all and looks very nicely actually. It's just a smidge less than what next gen should look like.

This game has amazing sound. The shouts, the explosions and the guns sound freaking amazing. The music is nicely done and fits the stages well. Mic support during LIVE seems to work well rather nicely.

The control took me a little while to get the hang of. I can't figure out how to use specific skills during LIVE play but everything else was easy. L trigger is duck, L nub is jump, R trigger is shoot and X lets you swap characters during the single player mode. I may have mixed something up but I think that sounds right and it's very easy to get the hang of. It did take me a few tries to figure out how to switch weapons.

Battlefield 2 throws you right in the middle of a battle. You get an objective and you just need to do it. Protect something, kill everything, it's all good and easy enough to follow. The problem is that the enemies look the same as the good guys and I had a terrible time trying to figure out who was who. Not even just people but the tanks and everything all looked the same. That's just bad programming.

The levels are nicely done but I have to be honest that after playing G.R.A.W. this game feels so limited. It is cool to swap characters all around and feels more like soul stealing. It is neat and makes the game a bit easier because if you die you just hop into another body. I also had problems when I had to go to a specific spot and not being able to see the light green spot on the screen.

The game offers 20 missions and some of the most absurdly hard to get achievements I've seen yet. Kill 10 people with a specific weapon without dying in an online mode. That's a bit much when there is something like 25 people running around on a map. As for the LIVE aspect of it all I really like the stats it keeps and it's very easy to just hop into a game or start one. I only played capture the flag and I really suck at it. This is one of the more fun LIVE experiences though so if that's your cup of tea this game just may be worth it. Be warned, the load times are really bad.

I know it may seem like this game is terrible but it isn't. It just isn't the best it could be and feels lacking in many areas. LIVE is fun though and easy to join. Single player is long enough and the achievements really require some skill. A rental maybe but I really can't recommend this as a buy. The game also has no new content besides pictures and themes on the market place.

Story - 6/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 10/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 6/10
Replay value - 8/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/06