Is it just me, or has nobody reviewed BF2 yet?
Battlefield 2 has become, in my opinion, a classic. I know it isn't exactly old, but nearly everybody that I know has it, or has played it.
Now, I mainly play single player, since Punkbuster hates my ass for some reason, so expect this review to focus mainly on that.
Ok, down to business. For those of you that don't know, BF2 is a FPS focussing on skirmishes between the modern day US, Chinese and Middle Eastern militarys. There is no Campaign mode, only a single player and multiplayer mode. The difference between them being that the maps are fucking huge in multiplayer and pitifully tiny in single player. SP and MP are essentially the same, except that one is against other people and the other is against AI bots.
Single player is quite confusing when you first start up the game, as it is laid out exactly the same as multiplayer (you have to set up a server to play, basically). Once the map has loaded, life gets simpler, as all you have to do is pick a weapon and kick ass.
For me, the load times were a big problem. My computer isn't a gaming rig, but it isn't a heap of shit either. Depending on the map, the load times took as much as 5 minutes. I've actually had lunch before while waiting for a map to load! The only saving grace is that once the map has loaded once, it is quicker the next time round. As far as graphics are concerned, you will be able to whack every bar to full, as even standard PCs should be able to cope. Although I must admit that every map will start with about a minutes worth of intermittent lag, which is quite annoying.
Ok, onto gameplay. You have a choice of 7 different classes: Special Ops, Sniper, Assualt, Support, Engineer, Medic and Anti-tank.
Special Ops consist of an Assault Rifle, a silenced pistol, C4, knife and grenades. I often use Spec Ops as the range of weapons are very efficient at ultimate pwnage. The downside is that the silenced pistol sucks donkey dick, you might as well throw rocks at the enemy.
Sniper class surprisingly consists of a Sniper Rifle, Silenced Pistol, Knife, grenades and claymores. I have taken to using Sniper as my favourite class, as nothing beats blowing the enemys head off. Needless to say, tanks will blow your sorry ass to hell, and somehow artillery always manages to find the place that you are camping in.
Assault is for people who have no imagination. Consisting of an Assault rifle (+ grenade launcher), Pistol, Smoke grenades (what the fuck? How is that at all useful for an assault?) and a knife. I never use assualt, as the guns are innacurate, the smoke grenades are useless and the grenade launcher sucks ass.
Support is another pointless class. You have a light machine gun (SAW, RPD etc), a pistol, grenades, ammo bag and a knife. The light machine gun is about as efficient as throwing a frisbee at the enemy. The pistol is fun, greandes are vaguely useful, but the ammo bag is pointless. Use this class if you want to die.
Engineer has a shotgun. HELL YEAH. A pistol, knife, tank mine and Spanner (yeah, I originally thought "what the hell"? Turns out it's used for fixing tanks and shit.
Medic is a class for pussys. You have a basic assualt rifle and all the usual additions plus a medi pack and defibrillator. These can be used to heal and revive pwned teammates.
Anti-tank. Oh, I wonder what this class does??! You get a sub-machine gun that sucks, a pistol, a MSSILE LAUNCHER! and a knife. Apart from blowing the shit out of tanks and anything else that moves, this class is pretty useless.
One additional weapon can be unlocked per class. This gives more incentive to play on MP. The unlock is achieved by achieving certain goals and gaining points on multiplayer. After the required amount of points is achieved, you will have the choice to unlock one weapon. The next unlock will come after achieving the next amount of points. This provides a tactical challenge in itself, as you must decide which class will benefit the most with a weapon upgrade, as the next weapon may be a good few more hours worth of gameplay away.
The classes vary very little between factions, the most obvious diffrence is the Sniper class. The US Sniper has a bolt action rifle which is fine if every shot that you take is headshot, but annoying otherwise. the other two factions have much better Sniper rifles as they are both clip based and carry far more ammo.
You can pretty much own the map using just the Special Ops class and the Sniper class, making all of the other classes redundant. Gathering a team is pointless really, as the AI is so bad that none of your team will provide you with the services that you need. It is very easy to win a map by just going it alone.
Ok, I think that covers all of the classes.
Vehicles include anything from helicopters to tanks to vans (or SUVs) to APCs and cars. Oh and some ass sucking boats. I'm not going to go into details but basically if you have a tank you are a target for ass kicking. If you have a chopper, you will crash and burn, or be AAed down. Vans and SUVs are slow and crap unless you want to transport you nob jockey friends across the map and cars are actually quite useful.
The main aim is to lower your opponents tickets by either killing them all or capturing bases (spawn points). Once all of the bases have been captured no more of the enemy can spawn, so all you need to do is kill off the remaining opponents on the map, and you have won. The other way of winning a map is by capturing the majority of the bases, this lowers the opponents tickets to zero, resulting in a win. This makes for very repetitive gameplay. This shouldn't be too much of a problem though, as the challenge of working out new tactics for every game adds to the overall fun of it.
There is a distinct lack of blood in this game, so I recommend getting a blood mod (because I am a blood thirsty bastard) as there is no fun in blowing someones head off without the joyous spout of the red stuff.
The difficulty is questionable. Play it on Easy and you will most likely win every game hands down, but occasionally the enemy will pwn your ass for no apparent reason. Medium and Hard are just that. Medium lowers your chance of winning and Hard is so hardcore that you will grenade yourself at the start just to avoid humiliation.
Multiplayer is the same as all that, except that you are against your (non-existant) friends. Or more likely, some sad ass in Russia or Germany who spends their whole life grinding. Punkbuster will rape you if it senses the slightest whiff of foul play (i.e. harmless blood mods, grrr). The benefit of MP is that you don't get a map full of really bad AI bots, so the gameplay is both more genuine and more challenging.
In MP tactics play a much greater part. It is prudent to get each member of you team to provide a service such as a medic, anti-tank, sniper and engineer. Gathering a team (or squad) is quite easy. All you need to do is apply to be a commander, then every person who wants in has to click join. The role of commander allows you to give orders and set waypoints, it isn't compulsory for your teammates to follow your orders, but it helps to give every member a common goal, most likely resulting in a quicker win. It is near impossible to win a map by yourself on MP, therefore getting a team is essential.
Overall, I think that BF2 is worth buying, as it is dirt cheap and provides all of the fun of Call Of Duty 4, without the RAM induced coma. Don't expect a story or mind-blowing graphics, just expect lots of mindless violence.
Battlefield 2 has become, in my opinion, a classic. I know it isn't exactly old, but nearly everybody that I know has it, or has played it.
Now, I mainly play single player, since Punkbuster hates my ass for some reason, so expect this review to focus mainly on that.
Ok, down to business. For those of you that don't know, BF2 is a FPS focussing on skirmishes between the modern day US, Chinese and Middle Eastern militarys. There is no Campaign mode, only a single player and multiplayer mode. The difference between them being that the maps are fucking huge in multiplayer and pitifully tiny in single player. SP and MP are essentially the same, except that one is against other people and the other is against AI bots.
Single player is quite confusing when you first start up the game, as it is laid out exactly the same as multiplayer (you have to set up a server to play, basically). Once the map has loaded, life gets simpler, as all you have to do is pick a weapon and kick ass.
For me, the load times were a big problem. My computer isn't a gaming rig, but it isn't a heap of shit either. Depending on the map, the load times took as much as 5 minutes. I've actually had lunch before while waiting for a map to load! The only saving grace is that once the map has loaded once, it is quicker the next time round. As far as graphics are concerned, you will be able to whack every bar to full, as even standard PCs should be able to cope. Although I must admit that every map will start with about a minutes worth of intermittent lag, which is quite annoying.
Ok, onto gameplay. You have a choice of 7 different classes: Special Ops, Sniper, Assualt, Support, Engineer, Medic and Anti-tank.
Special Ops consist of an Assault Rifle, a silenced pistol, C4, knife and grenades. I often use Spec Ops as the range of weapons are very efficient at ultimate pwnage. The downside is that the silenced pistol sucks donkey dick, you might as well throw rocks at the enemy.
Sniper class surprisingly consists of a Sniper Rifle, Silenced Pistol, Knife, grenades and claymores. I have taken to using Sniper as my favourite class, as nothing beats blowing the enemys head off. Needless to say, tanks will blow your sorry ass to hell, and somehow artillery always manages to find the place that you are camping in.
Assault is for people who have no imagination. Consisting of an Assault rifle (+ grenade launcher), Pistol, Smoke grenades (what the fuck? How is that at all useful for an assault?) and a knife. I never use assualt, as the guns are innacurate, the smoke grenades are useless and the grenade launcher sucks ass.
Support is another pointless class. You have a light machine gun (SAW, RPD etc), a pistol, grenades, ammo bag and a knife. The light machine gun is about as efficient as throwing a frisbee at the enemy. The pistol is fun, greandes are vaguely useful, but the ammo bag is pointless. Use this class if you want to die.
Engineer has a shotgun. HELL YEAH. A pistol, knife, tank mine and Spanner (yeah, I originally thought "what the hell"? Turns out it's used for fixing tanks and shit.
Medic is a class for pussys. You have a basic assualt rifle and all the usual additions plus a medi pack and defibrillator. These can be used to heal and revive pwned teammates.
Anti-tank. Oh, I wonder what this class does??! You get a sub-machine gun that sucks, a pistol, a MSSILE LAUNCHER! and a knife. Apart from blowing the shit out of tanks and anything else that moves, this class is pretty useless.
One additional weapon can be unlocked per class. This gives more incentive to play on MP. The unlock is achieved by achieving certain goals and gaining points on multiplayer. After the required amount of points is achieved, you will have the choice to unlock one weapon. The next unlock will come after achieving the next amount of points. This provides a tactical challenge in itself, as you must decide which class will benefit the most with a weapon upgrade, as the next weapon may be a good few more hours worth of gameplay away.
The classes vary very little between factions, the most obvious diffrence is the Sniper class. The US Sniper has a bolt action rifle which is fine if every shot that you take is headshot, but annoying otherwise. the other two factions have much better Sniper rifles as they are both clip based and carry far more ammo.
You can pretty much own the map using just the Special Ops class and the Sniper class, making all of the other classes redundant. Gathering a team is pointless really, as the AI is so bad that none of your team will provide you with the services that you need. It is very easy to win a map by just going it alone.
Ok, I think that covers all of the classes.
Vehicles include anything from helicopters to tanks to vans (or SUVs) to APCs and cars. Oh and some ass sucking boats. I'm not going to go into details but basically if you have a tank you are a target for ass kicking. If you have a chopper, you will crash and burn, or be AAed down. Vans and SUVs are slow and crap unless you want to transport you nob jockey friends across the map and cars are actually quite useful.
The main aim is to lower your opponents tickets by either killing them all or capturing bases (spawn points). Once all of the bases have been captured no more of the enemy can spawn, so all you need to do is kill off the remaining opponents on the map, and you have won. The other way of winning a map is by capturing the majority of the bases, this lowers the opponents tickets to zero, resulting in a win. This makes for very repetitive gameplay. This shouldn't be too much of a problem though, as the challenge of working out new tactics for every game adds to the overall fun of it.
There is a distinct lack of blood in this game, so I recommend getting a blood mod (because I am a blood thirsty bastard) as there is no fun in blowing someones head off without the joyous spout of the red stuff.
The difficulty is questionable. Play it on Easy and you will most likely win every game hands down, but occasionally the enemy will pwn your ass for no apparent reason. Medium and Hard are just that. Medium lowers your chance of winning and Hard is so hardcore that you will grenade yourself at the start just to avoid humiliation.
Multiplayer is the same as all that, except that you are against your (non-existant) friends. Or more likely, some sad ass in Russia or Germany who spends their whole life grinding. Punkbuster will rape you if it senses the slightest whiff of foul play (i.e. harmless blood mods, grrr). The benefit of MP is that you don't get a map full of really bad AI bots, so the gameplay is both more genuine and more challenging.
In MP tactics play a much greater part. It is prudent to get each member of you team to provide a service such as a medic, anti-tank, sniper and engineer. Gathering a team (or squad) is quite easy. All you need to do is apply to be a commander, then every person who wants in has to click join. The role of commander allows you to give orders and set waypoints, it isn't compulsory for your teammates to follow your orders, but it helps to give every member a common goal, most likely resulting in a quicker win. It is near impossible to win a map by yourself on MP, therefore getting a team is essential.
Overall, I think that BF2 is worth buying, as it is dirt cheap and provides all of the fun of Call Of Duty 4, without the RAM induced coma. Don't expect a story or mind-blowing graphics, just expect lots of mindless violence.
