Review: Battlefield 2
Scored Battlefield 2, by EA Games last night. It's a first person shooter, meant for online group play with squad and team tactics. I played offline, by myself last night. Now, reviewing a primarily online team game after only playing it solo is kind of like reviewing a sports car after driving around in first gear.
Manual
Regardless, we'll start with the manual, cause that's what I always see first (as of late, I ignore the box, since I'm to the point of only buying video games on recommendation from friends). The manual sucks. There's a brief keyboard chart, then a lot of minimal entries about things that are pretty self explanatory. The important bits, though, get the same minimal coverage. For instance, Commo Rose, which is a hotkey set-up to issue pre-programmed messages to your squad tells you how to bring up the Rose, then gives an example of showing enemies on radar to your squad with the "spotted" command. I missed that option entirely, because the entry was so damn minimal it LOOKED unimportant. Normally, I don't have that problem, reading the manual cover to cover, but MOST people skim for the important bits. A manual should make the important bits look important.
In Game Tutorial
In game tutorial? While I was running around, a voice would come to me saying things like "The radar installment next to you belongs to your enemy. By destroying it, you will hamper his ability to target your team with artillery strikes." Ok. How do I destroy it. I didn't try anti-tank missiles, but I know the M-16 grenade launcher and hand grenades are ineffective at this. Better try C-4 next time. Really, though, what limited in game tips there are come across as unobtrusive and probably handy for anyone that read even less of the manual than I did.
Graphics
Graphics are solid. A-. Vehicles look great, as does most of the setting. Even modern video capabilities, though, still limit the amount of detail you can get into a low poly human if you're not going for a cartoon or artificial look. But, I'm a freakin animator about 3 weeks out of the year, so I'm notoriously critical of this aspect of any game or movie. Take the trailer for King Kong. I spent twenty minutes at work picking apart the lighting in the T-Rex vs Kong scene to a lady that had no clue what I was talking about. And that scene's great! But I digress. A- is a great fucking score for a first person shooter that plays this fast, because you don't have time to consider the inherent beauty of the nice water render. By the way, the water does look pretty damn good. Too clear in my book. However, it's out of place. Almost realistic water (cept too clear) in the middle of an obviously computer generated, low poly, almost stock looking shader ground...
Game Play
Here's where the validity of my opinion weakens, as noted above. First, if you don't like first person shooters, fear not, there are alternate camera angles. Hard as fuck to shoot with them, but I only tried the alternate angles while driving. Might be easier to shoot if you're not sitting in the back of a Humvee whipping nuts across a beachhead into an airport occupied by desert forces. I've also only tried the assault troops (infantry), anti-tank trooper, and sniper. I LOVE the sniper, but I've got to rethink the tactics on him.
My biggest problem adjusting to the game has been the fragility of the troops. Much more realistic than Star Wars Battlefront. In that game, a twitchy gamer can take a storm trooper and hold a base all by his lonesome, mostly because of the radar. You don't get radar in BF2, unless a team member uses the "spotted" command above. So, while I can easily get to a command point and whack all of the defenders, I only successfully captured one command point by myself. All other times, a truck of enemies would drive up the front door, and while I was gleefully blasting away with my M-16, an enemy would take me out from a side door, window, or alternate access point, usually with a well placed grenade.
Obviously, if I just learned of the Commo Rose this morning, I might have to take a look at being Squad Leader. Last night, I just joined a squad. That's the way to go. I died 500% less as a squad member. Why? Again, one man is not an army in BF2. Being in a squad meant I got communication in my head set. While it was never as clear as "Sniper to your Right, Red2!" it did help me find people to kill, and more importantly, it gave me squad objectives. Without those, I tend to just run around randomly stirring up nests of enemies. lol.
Bottom line, the game plays fast and hard.
Options
One thing I don't like is the battle set up. There doesn't seem to be any variants, so you're always just playing capture the flag. I didn't see a way to set up a series of maps, so the same map just kept repeating. It's about 3-5 clicks and 1 or 2 minutes to load a new map. I love random map selectors. After you pick a map, you pick a side. Can't change that either. The game stats lead me to believe that each map was the best of three, then a new map, but that didn't happen. These may be options online, but offline play should be as user friendly as online play. You'll get a bigger audience that way.
Another option I'd like to have is a walkthrough level. Maybe a walkthrough level that starts a series of progressive missions with some underlying goal, ie capture this airfield from terrorists, then raid a series of weapons depots, eventually culminating in finding their HQ and capturing/killing their leader. The maps are there. The enemies are there. It doesn't seem like much extra programming to put together a little offline story that just plays the maps in a certain order....
But overall, great game. I doubt I'll do an online review, but I am looking forward to grabbing a game or two with some friends that play the game. My only beefs are the manual (which I usually have a beef with) and the emphasis on online gaming. Seriously, Star Wars Battlefronts and probably Battlefronts II are both targeted toward online gaming, but I love me some SWBF and have NEVER played it online or with more than two people. I need to get a modem for my PS2.... Or just wait and get a PS3. Actually, I'll prolly get the new Nintendo, because than I can DL all my favorite old games for cheap. But that's a review for another day.
Manual
Regardless, we'll start with the manual, cause that's what I always see first (as of late, I ignore the box, since I'm to the point of only buying video games on recommendation from friends). The manual sucks. There's a brief keyboard chart, then a lot of minimal entries about things that are pretty self explanatory. The important bits, though, get the same minimal coverage. For instance, Commo Rose, which is a hotkey set-up to issue pre-programmed messages to your squad tells you how to bring up the Rose, then gives an example of showing enemies on radar to your squad with the "spotted" command. I missed that option entirely, because the entry was so damn minimal it LOOKED unimportant. Normally, I don't have that problem, reading the manual cover to cover, but MOST people skim for the important bits. A manual should make the important bits look important.
In Game Tutorial
In game tutorial? While I was running around, a voice would come to me saying things like "The radar installment next to you belongs to your enemy. By destroying it, you will hamper his ability to target your team with artillery strikes." Ok. How do I destroy it. I didn't try anti-tank missiles, but I know the M-16 grenade launcher and hand grenades are ineffective at this. Better try C-4 next time. Really, though, what limited in game tips there are come across as unobtrusive and probably handy for anyone that read even less of the manual than I did.
Graphics
Graphics are solid. A-. Vehicles look great, as does most of the setting. Even modern video capabilities, though, still limit the amount of detail you can get into a low poly human if you're not going for a cartoon or artificial look. But, I'm a freakin animator about 3 weeks out of the year, so I'm notoriously critical of this aspect of any game or movie. Take the trailer for King Kong. I spent twenty minutes at work picking apart the lighting in the T-Rex vs Kong scene to a lady that had no clue what I was talking about. And that scene's great! But I digress. A- is a great fucking score for a first person shooter that plays this fast, because you don't have time to consider the inherent beauty of the nice water render. By the way, the water does look pretty damn good. Too clear in my book. However, it's out of place. Almost realistic water (cept too clear) in the middle of an obviously computer generated, low poly, almost stock looking shader ground...
Game Play
Here's where the validity of my opinion weakens, as noted above. First, if you don't like first person shooters, fear not, there are alternate camera angles. Hard as fuck to shoot with them, but I only tried the alternate angles while driving. Might be easier to shoot if you're not sitting in the back of a Humvee whipping nuts across a beachhead into an airport occupied by desert forces. I've also only tried the assault troops (infantry), anti-tank trooper, and sniper. I LOVE the sniper, but I've got to rethink the tactics on him.
My biggest problem adjusting to the game has been the fragility of the troops. Much more realistic than Star Wars Battlefront. In that game, a twitchy gamer can take a storm trooper and hold a base all by his lonesome, mostly because of the radar. You don't get radar in BF2, unless a team member uses the "spotted" command above. So, while I can easily get to a command point and whack all of the defenders, I only successfully captured one command point by myself. All other times, a truck of enemies would drive up the front door, and while I was gleefully blasting away with my M-16, an enemy would take me out from a side door, window, or alternate access point, usually with a well placed grenade.
Obviously, if I just learned of the Commo Rose this morning, I might have to take a look at being Squad Leader. Last night, I just joined a squad. That's the way to go. I died 500% less as a squad member. Why? Again, one man is not an army in BF2. Being in a squad meant I got communication in my head set. While it was never as clear as "Sniper to your Right, Red2!" it did help me find people to kill, and more importantly, it gave me squad objectives. Without those, I tend to just run around randomly stirring up nests of enemies. lol.
Bottom line, the game plays fast and hard.
Options
One thing I don't like is the battle set up. There doesn't seem to be any variants, so you're always just playing capture the flag. I didn't see a way to set up a series of maps, so the same map just kept repeating. It's about 3-5 clicks and 1 or 2 minutes to load a new map. I love random map selectors. After you pick a map, you pick a side. Can't change that either. The game stats lead me to believe that each map was the best of three, then a new map, but that didn't happen. These may be options online, but offline play should be as user friendly as online play. You'll get a bigger audience that way.
Another option I'd like to have is a walkthrough level. Maybe a walkthrough level that starts a series of progressive missions with some underlying goal, ie capture this airfield from terrorists, then raid a series of weapons depots, eventually culminating in finding their HQ and capturing/killing their leader. The maps are there. The enemies are there. It doesn't seem like much extra programming to put together a little offline story that just plays the maps in a certain order....
But overall, great game. I doubt I'll do an online review, but I am looking forward to grabbing a game or two with some friends that play the game. My only beefs are the manual (which I usually have a beef with) and the emphasis on online gaming. Seriously, Star Wars Battlefronts and probably Battlefronts II are both targeted toward online gaming, but I love me some SWBF and have NEVER played it online or with more than two people. I need to get a modem for my PS2.... Or just wait and get a PS3. Actually, I'll prolly get the new Nintendo, because than I can DL all my favorite old games for cheap. But that's a review for another day.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 6:07 AM
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