Australian Gamer Review :: Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

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Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Available on: Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation Portable

This game has a very arcade feel, and really does feel like it has suffered from the all too common "dumbing down" of games when they come to consoles.

Players: 1 (24 via Xbox Live)
Genre:
Release: 2006-04-11

Developer: Digital Illusions CE (Dice)
Distributor: Electronic Arts

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I don?t know how many ?realistic? FPS combat games there are, but there are bloody heaps. Across consoles and PCs there is currently a glut of WWII or ?modern? combat themed shooters. I?m not sure how many more I can take. There are some real gems out there like "Ghost Recon:Advanced Warfighter", and there are some real duds like ?The Outfit?. Whatever score they may get on Gamespot, they can all generally be categorised as Sims or as Quake-style shooters. Sims, like Ghost Recon, aim to simulate the intensity and reality of real combat. One shot to take out your opponent, and one shot for you to be taken out. No health packs, no respawns. When you die, you?re dead, end of story. Then there are games that for one reason or another have your in-game persona being some sort of Jerry Bruckheimer-produced super fighter. You can take a dozen shots, pick up a health pack, sling on some new armour and keep on running. If you die, well you have infinite respawns! Rambo, eat your heart out.

Battlefield has always been a strange beast. Traditionally the single player element of the game is all but non-existent. And when it has been included, it is more frustrating than it is enjoyable. The reason for that is that it is a team game. It has always been at its best with a full house, with no bots. The AI has always sucked. There is nothing worse than the mad scramble for a vehicle at the start of a game as every single bot runs to the nearest tank, jeep or chopper. Personally, I?ve never been a fan of Battlefield. I played the first one, I got the ?weapons? expansion, I played battlefield Vietnam and crashed more choppers than I?ve had hot lunches, and now I?ve played Battlefield 2. The feeling has always been about the same for me, a complete lack of excitement. This is, and always has been, an exercise in running from point A to point B to achieve X objective before being shot and respawning back at the starting point? rinse and repeat. It isn?t that it is a bad game, it?s just one that I have real trouble maintaining more than a fleeting interest in. When you?ve been playing games like GRAW and Call of Duty 2? it just doesn?t stack up.

A year is a long time in the gaming world, and even though this game as received a pretty decent face lift, the game is essentially the same as the PS2/Xbox version of the game. There are some minor changes, but other than hotswapping your player without requiring line of site, there isn?t a lot to rave about. If you have the previous gen versions of the game, stop reading now, you don?t need this one. Graphically the game has gone up a notch, but really, it is not up to par with other games that have come out this year for the 360. Yeah, there is more grass, and the textures are bit more detailed? but the game still ?feels? the same as it does on the Xbox. This game really does look like a ported game, maybe not as bad as Tony Hawk or Gun, but it definitely has some similarity. Sure there are nice shadows and I can see bullets lying on the ground, but how about letting me take cover in a few more buildings instead?

Battlefield has always been well known for vehicles. Nothing quite compares to the joy of crawling around in a tank blowing the shite out of anything in sight. The problem is that in all versions of Battlefield, the vehicles are nearly always hard to control. To this day it still feels unfinished and unpolished. Sure we don?t expect it to be like PGR3 or Forza, but really?. it still kinda sucks. While I?m bashing the control scheme, the duck/prone/stand control sucks big time. Seriously, who was the genius who decided that the button you press to go from crouch to prone should also be ?jump up from prone?, not even ?go back to crouch?. This retarded feature got me killed more times than I?d like to remember. Stupid, really stupid.

In another effort to reduce any sense of realism, Battlefield 2 makes use of a feature called ?hotswapping?. This is basically a way to switch from your player to any other player on the battlefield, by just whacking the X button. On the surface of it, this seems like a great idea. You can theoretically take control, and position, your entire squad. Unfortunately, the end result is that it totally destroys any sense of danger or realism from the game. The feeling that if things are going badly, you can just ?eject? from this person and go play as some other schmuck really brings down the whole sense of urgency that the game would otherwise have. That and the fact that your team mates are all a little trigger happy and often leave you with no ammo when you decide to pop back to take over again. Or even more annoyingly, the moron will go for a run with no health and wind up dead in seconds. Although not as piss-poor as the AI in previous incarnations of Battlefield, it is still enough to make you wish you had more friends to play online with, even if they are all retarded. And don?t even get me started on the appallingly bad voice acting for the Chinese troops, I haven?t heard such bad accents since Benny Hill?s, ?She is a vehwi rubbery raidy?.

At least in this new release of the game, you don?t have enemy troops materialise out of nowhere right in front of you. In Battlefield 2 they generally come in via helicopter or boat, which is a nice change, although occasionally you still have the odd bastard getting beamed down from outer space somehow. Damn you Scotty! The missions are generally fairly well implemented, but often feel too scripted. Once you?ve played through once, you know exactly what is coming and from where, making the game less about tactical decisions and more about remembering the pattern the enemy used last time.

But really, Battlefield has always been about the online component. This is where fans of the game will be genuinely happy. Most of you who are buying this game probably don?t give a toss about the single player campaign anyway. If that is the case, you?d be more than right to just skip it and jump straight online. The online game is definitely where it is at and, assuming you can find anyone to play with, you?ll have a stack load of fun. The unfortunate thing here is that all the real FPS enthusiasts are off playing COD2. I?d hate to say it, but they?ve probably got the right idea. This game has a very arcade feel, and really does feel like it has suffered from the all too common ?dumbing down? of games when they come to consoles. For most people, that isn?t a problem. If you?re a fan of Ghost Recon on the other hand, well, you probably feel like you?ve jumped into Serious Sam. But still, it is a great game online and well worth getting into should you get this game for your birthday or something.

Generally when reviewing games, you like to judge the game on its individual merits, even if the game has appeared on multiple platforms. But at the moment we?re at an interesting point in gaming. We have games that have come out on PC, have been ported to PS2/Xbox and then re-ported to the next gen goodness of the 360. The end result is that we often see games that are in their own right quite a good game, but feel very ?last gen?. Graphically, Battfield 2 is a big step up from the PS2/Xbox version, but the game is almost identical. Worse than that is, that neither of those were even remotely comparable to the PC version! And worse than that is the fact that the original Battfield is probably still the best of the lot. So all in all, unless you?re a Battlefield virgin, or are tossing up whether to buy the Xbox or 360 version, it is pretty hard to recommend this release.

Reading over this, I sound like I?ve been pretty harsh on what really isn?t such a bad game. Taken on its own merits, Battlefield 2 is actually a heap of fun, but the reality is that this game just isn?t what you?d expect from a 360 game and just doesn?t stand up against GRAW or Call of Duty 2. When you take in to account that you can pick up the Xbox version for $45 and that the 360 version will set you back $110 when it is essentially the same game? well you can see my point.

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Final Verdict

If you?ve never played another shooter, have never heard of GRAW or COD2, then you?ll love this game. If on the other hand, you?re not a moron, go and buy GRAW or COD2 instead. If you must have the game, save yourself some money and get it on the original Xbox instead. This is just another last-gen port that has little to nothing above the last-gen version and completely fails to justify its hefty price tag.

Pros
Looks nice enough I guess. Heaps of guns and vehicles. Fun arcade style game play. Online play is the best yet with up to 24 players! Look it?s a fine game really?.. honest!
Cons
Too few improvements on the Xbox version. Twice the price for no real reason. The AI is still as dumb as a grade 3 kid with a learning disability. Not up to par with other 360 games.