Battlefield 2 Demo

[Shnay]

The demo for the PC game Battlefield 2 was released yesterday to generate interest for the game's June 22 release.

The first game in the series, Battlefield 1942, gained lots of critical acclaim for its implimentation of a wide array of vehicles and the "Conquest" gameplay mode, which has your team capturing and holding strategic points. Battlefield 2 looks to expand on those ideas and place them in a modern/not-too-distant-future fictional setting.

I've got a lot of thoughts about what they got right and where they faltered, but I wanted to know if anyone here is interested in the game before I prattle on about it. So, anyone playing this now, or curious about how the game plays? Also, for all you exclusively console gamers out there, a similar game called Battlefield: Modern Combat will be out for the Xbox and PS2 later this year.

[Captain Harlock]

I've been very much looking foreward to Battlefield 2 for the last couple of months. Until it's release, my friends and I have been tiding ourselves down with World of Warcraft. I did manage to download the demo and play it yesterday, and I have to say that I was happy wit hthe experience it provided. It ran pretty smoothly on my machine (1.7ghz, 1GB ram, geforce 6800 go), but there seemed to still be some lag problems in multiplayer games. I don't know if this will be patched / fixed when the real game comes out, because I have a high speed connection and I shouldn't be getting little twitches of lag in a 16 person game with a ping of 14..

This time around though, with modern weapondry, everything seems more lethal. It seems like more realism was incorperated into the playing experience. For example, carrying a more heavier weapon slows down your movement, while carrying a pistol makes you faster. The movement seemed a little clunky though. I didn't see a 'turn left / right' option in the controls, but only a 'strafe left / right', which means I had to just run straight and then use the mouse to guide me. I'm not sure if BF Vietnam had sprinting, but this game does. Also with the inclusion of a sprinting meter, there's an overheating meter for your gun. I know that vehicles in the old games had this, but I was never sure that the soldier's weapons did.

Another big advantage for BF2 is the commander mode. In the couple of rounds I played last night, the commander would signal to a capture point that all of our teammates should go after together. Sure enough, there was about five of our team assaulting a capture point with success. I'd say in the past games that it would be more of every man for themselves. I'm still going to buy the game when it comes out, and I can't wait to see what other kinds of maps there are. I'm also interested to hearing your thoughts on the game too, Shnay.

[Shnay]

I think there are a number of additions to the Battlefield formula in this game that make for an amazing multiplayer experience...when things go right. When you have a team that clicks well, and is interested in working as a group to accomplish objectives, BF2 looks like it could be the finest in strategic, team-based FPS gameplay out there. When it doesn't work, however, when you get a commander who doesn't know what he's doing, or a group of players that are only interested in working by themselves, then it's a bit of a mess. This is true of any team game, but it seems especially true with the added intricacies of BF2.

The commander mode is by far my favorite addition, though I don't think I've fully seen what it can do just yet. In commander mode (for those who haven't played it), one player on a team gets to give attack/defend/support orders to squads (which players can create or join whenever they like), drop supplies in strategic postions, call for artillery strikes, or give players reconnaissance information from radar. Of course, if the other team takes out your artillery or your radar, then you'll have less tools to utilize for a period of time. Assuming you have a decent team (and a decent commander), this can be extremely useful, and can really turn the tide of the game at key moments. A well-timed artillery strike combined with a coordinated assault is mighty difficult for the other team to stop.

Another big change that (ideally) increases team play are the tweaks made to the medic and engineer classes, and the introduction of the "support" class. In both Battlefield 1942 and Desert Combat, medics were almost useless and engineers were mostly limited to repairing their own vehicles out in the field. This was because there were a number of "first aid stations" were one could gain health as well as a number of bases one could repair any vehicle they had. In BF2, they got rid of all first aid stations, most repair stations, and all ammo boxes. Now if you want health, you need to call in for a medic, or ask the commander to air drop some supplies. If you want ammo, tell the support class you're running low. If your vehicle's hurtin'...well, you get the idea (though the engineer class still isn't all that useful).

I was really looking forward to the changes made to the support classes, as that's what I usually like to play in games like this. I think the changes are pretty good, though some of the things, like medics reviving wounded players, don't work out in practice like the developers probably thought they would. As far as I'm concerned, Return to Castle Wolfenstein still holds the title for best support classes in an FPS, as it really made sure there was a need for them, but they had enough drawbacks to them that you wouldn't want to play it unless you really wanted to support your team. That's one of the thigns I'm worried about in BF2, actually. I think the medic class gets basically the same gun as the assault class, so a lot of players may play a medic primarily so they can heal themselves. If the support classes can be almost as efficient in combat as the straight combat classes, then there's less incentive to focus on supporting those combat classes. The game is still pretty new to everyone, and I think most people are playing around with all the different classes. When things settle down, I don't know if people will settle onto picking two or three classes 90% of the time or not.

Another thing I really liked is the scaleable map. In Battlefield 1942, maps would have to accomodate for 10 on 10 matches some times, and 32 on 32 matches other times. Needless to say, the maps play really differently depending on how many people there are, and BF2 adjusts the map accordingly. It's not the first game to do so, but it does it extremely well. For example, the demo map on 16 on 16 mode takes airplanes out of the game entirely, so that half the team isn't up in the air. The three map settings really make sure that the game will be balanced no matter how many people are playing.

I'd agree with you Captain Harlock that the weapons are far more deadly than they were in BF1942, though they're significantly weaker than they were in the mod Desert Combat. Which, in my opinion, is a great thing. Desert Combat allowed a player to really be a one man army on infantry maps. Now, weapons like the shotgun have been given less range and the assault rifles made far less accurate. While some of these changes may not accurately reflect modern weapons, I do think they make for much better gameplay. Although, some of the rifles feel a little too innaccurate, but I'd rather have the weapons be underpowered than overpowered.

One of the changes I'd like to see made is to the stamina meter. Basically, I think it's too big. Players can sprint for far too long, and the meter regenerates far too quickly. I'd like to see players use sprint to get behind cover while under heavy fire, not run half way to their next objective, wait five seconds for it to regenerate, then sprint again. I'd also like to see a harsher penalty once players reach the "exhausted" state when the stamina meter reaches zero, where your stamina would regenerate much slower, your shots became less accurate, and your run speed greatly decreased (like it does now). If there was something like this, then I think players would look at the stamina meter much more strategically, and save it for when the situation gets really dangerous.

I've actually got a bit more to say about the game, as I really love team based games, and think this has the potential to be the best one yet. But, basically, I think the changes they've made are positive ones, overall, and if they're willing to support this game with patches and give tools to a mod community, then this could become something truly amazing.

Edit: The one other thing that I really wanted to mention (because this post about a game that only one person here seems to be interested in wasn't quite long enough) was that I really dislike the changes they made to the automated voice commands. Battlefield 1942 had an awesome system where you could tell your teammates about an enemy tank, request air support, or confirm an order with just two button presses. It needed to be streamlined a little bit, but BF2 simplifies the system too much, and loses many of the cool features of the original voice menu. I guess this may be intentional, as they now use the VOIP system to support players using mics. The old system was so good, and communicated so much, that I'm dissapointed they chose to cut it back, rather than improve upon it.

[Captain Harlock]

A big post, but full of good information.

The improvements to the medic, support, and engineer classes make me want to play the game a whole lot more. I'm not exactly the best at shooting, but I'm really great at capturing / nutralizing points. In a medic / support / engineer role - I'd be more utilized to just dodge enemy fire to assist the people who really can shoot. I feel now that in BF2, these actions are alot better and I can be a more useful player in the game. Just in playing today, I had about 5 times the amount of capture points compared to my teammates, but probably had 75% less kills.

Before playing games like Battlefield, I didn't see the need of having a headset, but now I have one! My friends and I plan to play in a very organized, strategic group. Using a headset is far more benefiticial to be able to have such a great amount of specific detail compared to the minimal default radio commands. (I.e. "Enemy armor spotted" vs "There's an abrahams tank at the Construction Yard point with two support gunners.")

I have to disagree with the stamina bar point. Being a sort of stealthy / capture point player, I use the sprint option almost all the time, and find myself exhausted. :sweat: I definately like the new system of electing a commander. I was playing lately with pretty bad commanders that didn't make use of the artillery / radar, while the enemy was using the artillery like every 5 minutes. Another cool function is voting to forgive / not forgive a teamkiller. One of the problems I've noticed in playing with random people is that they can't often tell who the enemy is, which results in alot of teamkills. I was probably killed more by teammates than the enemies so far in my entire existence of playing the game.

A thing about the map sizes changing to the number of players. It seemed like playing in the Gulf of Oman when you played with 32 players, it added a boat base for the USMC, but it had a red "no" sign over it, which means it couldn't have been used. The good part is - in the real game it will probably be more functional, the bad part is - haven't experienced it yet in the demo.

More observations as I play more.