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Retrospective of Battlefield 2

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  • Retrospective of Battlefield 2

    I'm about to break the 650 hour mark in Battlefield 2, making it the game in which I have put the most hours into, ever, with Deus Ex next in line. In that time I've had many a chance to reflect on the good and bad of the game, and I've come to realise that, for all the bugs, glitches and exploits, there's a lot of things they got right:

    The Commo Rose
    This is what appears when you press Q, or whatever you've bound it to. It is a radial menu in which pre-recorded voice communications can be selected by moving your mouse in the direction of the desired command. It works brilliantly. Almost everything you will ever possibly need to say is available to you, and once you memorise the comms, you can access anything in almost half a second flat. If you're without a microphone, it's still very possibly to make do using this system.

    There is more than one Commo Rose. Squad Leaders can hold T to bring up their unique commands (Attack here, Defend, Move here, etc) and can use it to request asset usage from the Commanding Officer. Whenever I assault a flag, I'll always use this system to request UAV's and supplies when needed, without obscuring my view. Commanders also get their own comm system, with the ability to drop UAV's, supplies, artillery and vehicles without entering the Commander Screen.

    Possibly the biggest part of the Commo Rose is the "Spotted" command, allowing you to identify enemy units on your teammate's minimaps. For the uninitiated, Battlefield 1942's spotting system was comparatively horrendous. Enemies do not show up on your minimap, but instead a grid reference is broadcast to your team. You even have to manually select the type of unit you are spotting using the Function keys. With BF2, the unit type and location are automatically displayed. It may not seem like much but it's a fantastic streamline that greatly assists your tactical assessment of the battlefield.

    The Squad System
    I would not enjoy this game nearly half as much without Squads. They create a proper chain of command (when everyone is playing properly) and really diversify the roles of individual players, instead of having one huge, disorganised army. Thanks to patch 1.3 squad hopping is no longer an option, so Squad Leaders and the protection of them are a very real priority.

    Pre-TeamSpeak, our squad used the in-game VOIP communication a lot. The fact that you are restricted to hearing only your squad makes a lot of sense, and zero's in on you as a unit, not worrying about the rest of the battlefield, but only your orders and immediate surroundings. I also love the fact that only Squad Leaders can communicate with the CO, as it requires orders to be carried down through to individual soldiers manually.

    You do of course have the option of carrying the battle yourself, examing the entirety of the map and planning each maneuvre. The only difference then between you and the CO is you are estimating what kind of resistance you will encounter, and you simply pray that the CO will have a UAV up by the time you get there. That's the type of squad leading I enjoy.

    Map Scaling
    I do not think this is something that has been done before Battelfield 2, at least not on the scale of allowing three different map sizes to cater from sixteen to sixty-four players at once. It is a fantastic feature and something I think all multiplayer shooters should take notice of.

    While on the subject of maps, I think there is a great variety of environments to choose from. You've got the obligatory close-quarters urban maps, as well as a number of huge installations and vast open areas for vehicular combat. But then you also have the non-stereotypical maps: the jungles of China, swamplands, mountains, islands and enough desert to keep anyone happy.

    Sniper Rifles
    This is a bit of a niche, but it's something that really bugs me in just about every other multiplayer shooter. The sniper rifles in Battlefield 2 are not lethal enough, but this is a good thing. Logic would dictate that a round of that calibre fired at that velocity would make an instant fatality. Not so in Battlefield 2, save for a headshot.

    Were this not the case, Sniper and Anti-Tank would be just about the most played classes in the game. You always have a chance to escape and heal yourself, allowing you to regroup and take down that camping ****er. What you don't see a lot of is Sniper being used in the way it is meant to: to provide spotting support for a squad from an overviewing angle, as well as occasional suppressive fire. I guess losing that isn't so drastic when you could have another medic in your squad instead.

    Unlocks and Awards
    Unlocks are not better, simply different. That's all that really needs to be said. Battlefield 2142 disrupted this by creating a distinct advantage by having unlocked everything, upsetting the balance between new and regular players. All that separates a newbie in Battlefield 2 from a veteran is skill, nothing more.

    I think awards are also very well done. Badges, ribbons, medals, they're all incidental. Yet there is a desire to achieve them, mostly just for bragging right and self-accomplishment. Having Basic, Veteran and Expert was also a smart move, and reminds me of the Goldeneye days (Agent, Secret Agent, 00 Agent). The medal requirements are also so high, that only true veterans (or Wake Island zombies) can achieve them.



    With that out of the way, there are many aspects of Battlefield 2 that scream for improvement:

    The Commander Screen
    As it stands, the commander interface is ugly. Battlefield 2142 makes it worse. The main thing that needs to be added are a set of hotkeys for assets and orders. You cannot play any RTS effectively without hotkeys, and the Commander screen is supposed to emulate this genre.

    Navigating around the Commander view itself is buggy, slow and unresponsive. It seems this way because your current point of view is calculated server-side; why this is done I'm not quite sure. Additional levels of zoom are needed when in the top-down full 3D stage. The ability to speak to a single squad is also missing, it's either all or none.

    Last but certainly not least: it is currently impossible to set waypoints. I command a lot, and this would be a dream come true. You could give a squad orders and then not have to babysit them for the next twenty minutes as they run off in random directions looking for things to do.

    Ranks
    As it stands it is impossible to tell if someone is a high rank through actual skill, whoring of armour and air, or from playing a single map and class to excess. I find I get frustrated and annoyed when high-ranking players flaunt their status as though they're the greatest players in the world, when really, they're mindless zombies who jet-whore into the early hours of the morning. The solution to this is to diversify the ranks.

    You would have three branching categories: Marines, Mechanised and Air Force. Similar to the way First Sergeant and Sergeant Major are branching depending on your badges, you would (after say, 10,000 points) be placed in one of the three categories based on a number of your stats. This could be hours played in a vehicle, be it armour, helicopter or jet; kills with the vehicle; time spent on-foot; flags captured and defended; even average total time in a vehicle per round.

    Players who focus on ground-pounding (me) would recieve different ranks with different graphics than people who find themselves in the Mechanised branch (I'm sure there are some kind of "Armoured Division" ranks existing). Aviators would find themselves with Air Force ranks. Not only does this add a greater sense of soldier customisation, but allows you to simply glance at a roster and identify your team's strengths and weaknesses.

    When you see a jetwhore with a high Air Force rank, he's still a jetwhore nonetheless, but you can respect the fact that he's chosen that as his focus and he is good at it. Same goes for armour and infantry players.

    New Class: Anti-Air
    This would not be that hard to do. Basically the same loadout as an Anti-Tanker, yet in place of a SRAW is a Stinger. These can either be lock-on based stingers like the static emplacements already in Battlefield 2, or they could be made to resemble the ones from Desert Combat.

    Personally I'd rather the latter, considering the unreliability of Anti-Air lock-on. The Desert Combat stingers featured no lock-on or wire-guiding, it was simply point up and shoot. However, there was a considerable splash radius within which the missile would detonate, making it not impossible to even take down jets with it. Failing the addition of a new class, the Anti Tanker should recieve the stinger either as an unlock or part of the base kit.

    New Game Modes
    The infamous Supply Lines needs to be re-introduced in the next patch (if there ever is one). Conquest is fast becoming stale. Failing that, an official Capture the Flag mode would be even more welcome, as the current CTF mods out are vastly unpopulated. CTF would be a fast-paced refresher from the otherwise tedious and frustrating Conquest rounds that seem to happen more often these days.

    Release the Booster Packs for free
    This will never happen, but it would be the greatest thing ever if it did. There is currently no reason to purchase the booster packs in their current form, as there are little to no servers even running them, let alone at full population (I am referring to Australian servers, this might not be the case in the US). Were they released as part of a patch, every server would be able to integrate them into their rotation without fail. This would quite possibly be the most refreshing thing to ever happen to Battlefield 2, and would inject many more months into it's lifespan.

  • #2
    Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

    The boosterpacks are in my point of view "Money makers". The EA makes sh*** games BUT EA makes boosterpacks look so good, that they are often bought.

    Ranks. I am truely intrested in ranks becuase if U dont have a good rank, people call you noobs and d**** because of ur rank not ur performance. So I honest want a good rank. Also whoring up vehicle isn't that bad in my point of view. You also have to play the vehicle that you want to be in and own. Well sometimes i share

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    • #3
      Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

      Is this a review? Cause I could of just went to gamespot...

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      • #4
        Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

        Originally posted by PeaceKeeper-CAN-
        Is this a review? Cause I could of just went to gamespot...
        Maybe you could of just went to school instead.

        A noob is the guy you just killed and a Vet is the guy that just killed you.

        I like the way BF2 uses rank. It is really just an indication of your time in the game, but the game actually uses it for leadership roles. That is cool. I also like the way that awards are tied to promotion. The Commander screen is very cumbersome to use. There are a lot of buttons that don't mean anything to me. Also, I think everyone one should be in a unit of some sort. It is unrealistic to think that a battle field would have a bunch of independent contractors running around doing whatever they want. Having everyone in a unit would allow for better command and control. It does not have to be a squad. It could be a flight wing or a cell or whatever works for the play style or nationality.

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        • #5
          Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

          Wow.....that deserves a toast....

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          • #6
            Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

            Nice post, can see you took some time and considered your opinions.

            Unfortunately I hold little faith in EA releasing booster packs for free, in fact the only large games company I know of that has done anything like it is Rockstar making the original classic GTA freely available. So if it does happen, give it about 5-10 years!

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            • #7
              Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

              Originally posted by ThePhotoshop
              Ranks
              As it stands it is impossible to tell if someone is a high rank through actual skill, whoring of armour and air, or from playing a single map and class to excess.
              Wrong. All it takes is a couple minutes in a round with them. Good post with the rest though.

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              • #8
                Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                booster packs are scams

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                • #9
                  Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                  nice post. i wont read it, but nice post.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                    i still prefer binds over the Q menu :P

                    thanx for the read tho

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                    • #11
                      Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                      excellent post; I agree with most of it.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                        It'll be remembered more for the bugs and glitches.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                          Thanks for a constructive post at last

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                          • #14
                            Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                            i liek your idea about the air force ranks and stuff

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                            • #15
                              Re: Retrospective of Battlefield 2

                              Very well put mate, enjoyed reading that.

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