Battlefield 2 PC-CDROM
Since the dawn of the FPS genre there have always been games whose goal it is to capture the essence of the modern battlefield, but many fall short of this target and prove in the long term, failures.
The first time I heard of BF2 on a gaming news website, it really sounded like an Enemy Territory meets Medal of Honor disappointment, but after seeing the game first hand, I took the risk and bought it…
The game itself only takes 2.3Gb of space on your hard-drive which is pretty good being only about a third of the space that Counter Strike: Source takes up.
The first time you run the game you are required to create a “user account” in order to record your scores and calculate a rank from them. Once you have obtained certain ranks you will find you’re able to unlock new and more powerful weaponry giving you an advantage over the enemy.
All of the maps on the game have three different modes for different server sizes, 16 players, 32 players and 64 players. The size of the map not only limits the number of players but it also limits the vehicles available. For example on the map “Operation Clean Sweep”, if ran for 32 players, the terrorist team will only have the use of 1 airport giving them access to one jet plane. However if played on 64 player the map is much larger granting access for two jets and a battle copter, with the opposing team having much the same advantage.
Upon joining a game you are presented with a screen of classes, Anti-tank, Assault, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Special Ops and Support. The different functions of the classes are pretty apparent from their names, each with their own weapons and tools to ensure their team’s final victory.
The graphical quality of the game is superb, rivalling if not beating those of games like CSS and CoD. Plants and trees react in perfect synchronisation with the effects caused by the action of player, adding the utmost realism to the environment, making you feel as if your in the heart of the battle.
The actual scoring and victory systems resemble vaguely those of SWBF, but are far more advanced. Each map consists of several "Victory Locations" (VL), which can be used as spawn points and to spawn vehicles. To win you must control the majority of the VL whilst destroying enemy equipment and defeating enemy troops.
One of the things that really surprised me was the need for good teamwork. You can’t win the match all working as individuals, and at the end of the day it’ll be the team that co-operates with each other that wins.
BF2 is a game that really tries to be realistic but fun, which is really rare in the gaming world. It deeply resembles modern conflict giving you a feeling as if you’re almost in the game, but the freedom of individual movement and planning makes it better than the article it attempts to be…
