Battlefield 2 (PC)
Developed by: D.I.C.E.
Published by: EA

Despite my misgivings about PC games, every now and then there is a game good enough that I will suffer through all the technical headaches just so I can play it. It’s hard to say exactly what makes Battlefield 2 worthy of such efforts, but it is. While at first it appears to be just another first-person shooter, it quickly becomes more than that when you jump into battle against other human opponents. The one thing that always stood out about its predecessors, Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam was the Conquest game mode with its focus on teamwork to capture outposts and take control of a map, and of course, the vehicles. These elements return, but with some small but important changes to enhance the gameplay even further.

First of all, the game takes place in the near future, pitting the U.S. army versus the Chinese Republic and the Middle East Coalition. (While we are told this is a fictional future, you can’t help but feel a little bit chilled by the fact that these may indeed be the next major military clashes.) Each army has access to an awesome arsenal of modern warfare with advanced vehicles and weaponry.

The biggest addition to the game is the new squad system. You can choose to join a squad within your team, which puts you in direct voice contact (assuming you have a microphone) with the other members, and shows you their locations on the map. Each squad has a designated leader, who can attempt to strategize by giving orders to the members about which point to attack, defend, etc. Perhaps the coolest thing about being in a squad that if you die, you can respawn alongside your squad leader, putting you right back in the thick of the action. Taking the leadership role a step further, each team can also have a commander. The commander can do cool things like scan for enemy locations, drop supplies to friendly troops, and rain artillery strikes down on certain areas of the map. These changes add a whole new dimension to the game, the only problem is that joining a squad is optional, and if some players aren’t using them then your team might be at a disadvantage. On the other hand, if you don’t want to worry about the extra micro-management, you don’t have to.

Once again you have your choice of soldier classes every time you enter (and re-enter) a game. There are 7 options this time around, from Medic to Engineer to Sniper to Anti-Tank. Each class has its own assortment of weapons and abilities, along with respective strengths and weaknesses. This is one area where strategy comes into play, and your team role and gameplay experience will change vastly based on the soldier class you choose. Medics, for example, can revive fallen comrades using shock paddles (and also kill opposing soldiers with them too). Engineers can repair vehicles and other equipment, while Special Forces are the only soldier type with access to C4 explosives. There’s a lot of variety here. Also, if you play on a ranked server, building up a high ranking will eventually unlock even more cool weapons for you. Just another little gimmick to keep you hooked.

The system requirements for BF2 are somewhat steep (1.7 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 8500+/NVIDIA GeForce 5700+), which is unfortunate because it limits the audience that this great game will reach. I love pretty graphics as much as the next guy, but the gameplay is the important thing for a fast-paced game like this, and it would have been nice if the game could be made compatible for people with older PCs.

When you’re playing a good, well-balanced game with a fair amount of human opponents, BF2 is absolutely addictive. Each game is never the same, and there’s a good selection of maps, scalable by size (at 16, 32 and 64 player increments). However, even the smallest maps need at least 8 people or so to be interesting since this game is all about the large scale battles. One drawback to this is that sometimes you can respawn without a vehicle nearby and you have to do A LOT of walking to get back to the action (all the more reason to join a squad and stick with your leader).

There are so many little moments that stand out in any given match; from tense firefights in narrow city streets, to dogfights in the sky, to battles on boats across winding rivers, and the game never feels repetitive — which means a lot for a first-person shooter. Battlefield 2 may lack the epic historic backdrop, but it more than compensates with its faster-paced style of modern warfare. I don’t know if it’s necessarily better than the original, but it’s definitely not a rehash and makes for a worthy sequel to this great series. — Sean

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Recommended If You Like: Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, Star Wars Battlefront, America's Army, Unreal Tournament, Day of Defeat