Battlefield 2: Demo Review

Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 in the Games category.

I have been a HUGE fan of the Battlefield series since they released the demo of Wake Island for Battlefield 1942. Literally, I have played this game series, more than I have played any other games combined. Kind of sickening when you think about it, but when you see how good the series is, you would understand.

Overview

So, this weekend, EA & DICE released the demo for Battlefield 2, the modern combat sequel to the series (Battlefield 1942 was the WWII edition, and Battlefield Vietnam was the Vietnam edition). In a nutshell, Battlefield is a FPS, but with vehicles. At any time, you can hop in a Tank, Jeep, Plane, Helicopter, etc… and use it any way you please. Hell, this weekend, I took out a line of 3 guys in half a second with a Dune Buggy (if only the Prt Scrn button was closer…).

There are 2 new features that really make this version stand alone from previous Battlefield’s. The new commander mode allows a person to basically “command” the battle from a top down standpoint (execute artillery strikes, give squads orders, etc). The other great feature, is the new command execution. Before, you had to use the F keys to execute a command to your team. Now, you simply point at a target, hit Q and click the appropriate command, and not only does it call out the command to your team, it highlights it on the map. The usability of this feature was REALLY thought out, as the most used command (Enemy Spotted) is selected by default, so you just have to hit Q + click at the same time.

There are some bugs

There are a couple of bugs however. For instance, every once and a while, if you capture a base, some teammates that now spawn there, will show up as enemies, and when you kill them, you will get a Teamkill. I racked up a wopping -27 score in about 30 seconds this weekend before realizing it. How this bug makes it through testing, is beyond me, but what makes me ok with it, is that EA/Dice are usually VERY fast in patching the game to fix these type of bugs. Another annoyance, is the Helicopter controls. Not only do the controls hardly respond while at full speed, they just feel fake overall. Anytime you angle the helo down, it speeds towards the ground at an incredibly fast rate. Sure, this might be realistic, but hardly easy to use in-game.

Overall

Overall, I am extremely impressed with this game. If the full version proves as good as this demo, I would go as far to say that this is the game of the year. Go download the demo, and let me know what server you play on. Great work EA & Dice.

UPDATE: EvilAvatar has a couple good download options for the demo.