Ok, I told myself I wasn't going to run out and buy Battlefield 2 when it first came out, but after playing the demo for a couple days, I ran right out yesterday when it was released and picked up my copy of the DVD version.
Sitting through dinner was somewhat hard to do as all I wanted to do was get up on my computer, install the game, and start kicking some enemy butt! By eight o'clock, I was loading the DVD in the drive and began the install. Simple install, like all games these days, and I was running the game within a few minutes. First off, I was hoping that the full version would allow the user to cancel the annoying EA Games and DICE logos and not have to sit through them, but no can do. Ok, it's only 10 seconds or so, but it's an annoying 10 seconds when all I want to do is play. Then comes the account creation/login process. Since I had already played the demo, I already had an account created so I proceeded to log in. The message "Logging in to Account Server" message appeared and persisted for the next 10 minutes while I presume tens of thousands of other eager gamers tried to do the same thing. I had flashbacks to the painful Steam login process for Half-life 2. Had I not started to hit some keys at random trying to cancel, it might have stayed like this forever. I'm not sure why this happened. The same thing happened this morning when I logged in to try to view my stats. This time I left it while I got ready for work. 25 minutes later... I had to hit the escape key and a few seconds later I could view my stats. That's odd.
So on the gameplay. There is a lot to love about this game. Really. Fans of the original Battlefield 1942 game and it's mods will most likely love this game as it builds upon the strengths of that game and then some....but...and this is a big BUT, only if you happen to find a team/squad that knows how to play as a team. If you don't, be prepared for frustration. You can definitely have fun, but you will die a lot, and you won't win. Period. This is a tough game that forces teamwork in order to survive. The new commander role and the squad based teams really adds a whole new level and makes it easier to work together. But that doesn't mean anyone ever does. At least I haven't seen it yet. Ok, I've only played the full version for 4 hours now, I know. I'll give it more time definitely. It may sound like I dislike the game, but it's quite the opposite. I love it. It's just going to take time for me to find the right people to play with who take it as seriously as I do.
I'll save the things I love about the game for a near future post as this is getting kind of long. For now, I'll focus, as you can tell from the first few paragraphs, on my little gripes and nitpicks that I hope will be fixed in the near future. First of all, the in game interface for finding servers is slow and doesn't work right. I tried filtering by name of map and it kept showing all maps. The filters don't seem to work right, and occasionally, no servers so up after refreshing. It's frustrating. Another thing, why can't stats be updated immediately after you leave/enter a new server? After 4 hours of play, I had absolutely no stats at all. I did play on so called ranked servers, and still had no stats. The marketing people seem to have misled me in thinking that my stats will be tracked on each and every BF2 server, but that does not seem to be the case. You must play on a "ranked" server and they are few and far between. Maybe 1 in every 15 servers is a ranked server; that means most of them are all full.
Another gripe I have is what they left out of the game that was allowed in the original. It appears that it is no longer possible to drive big battleships, destroyers or the aircraft carriers. Yes, at times rarely some idiot would drive the carrier off the map, but that hardly ever happened in the games I played. Having stationary artillery with which ANYONE could bombard parts of the map and ships and such was great fun. Leaving out this aspect misses a big part of the gameplay from the original that made it great. It does make up for lots of it with all the things you can do, but I miss the naval battles already.
My last gripe is with the special ops class. This has quickly become my favorite class to play for the stealth, behind-enemy-lines, nature of the class. I love jumping behind enemy lines and blowing up the enemy's radar, artillery, and UAV capabilities. In games where a good commander can make or break a match, having someone to take out the enemy commanders capabilities is key. Yet, I get no credit to my score whatsoever for destroying all the enemy's artillery, radar and UAV trailers. That should count for something, no? Risking my neck in enemy controlled territory to protect my comrades from bombardment and detection for no benefit to my stats is discouraging. I think a lot of people may switch away from this very important role for one of the other support classes like medic, engineer, or support in order to get better scores and advance up the ranks. I hope they remedy this in the near future.
One cool moment I remember from last night was when I was at the enemy base on the nuclear plant map and needed more C4 to destroy the rest of the artillery. The commander wouldn't give it to me! Replied that he would send it, but it never came. Ever. After a long argument with him later in the game, he resigned for the next match. So, on my way to the enemy base in a chopper, I applied for the commander spot. Upon bailing out, I was approved for the role and I accepted. I was high enough floating to the ground, that I opened the commander interface, dropped a supply drop at my location, and proceeded to take out all the enemy commanders capabilities. Take that. I'll resupply myself! BTW, I don't advise this. The commander should NEVER try to be both a commander and a field operative. You cannot do both effectively. Trust me. Focus on one role and support your team in the best way possible. I noticed at one point when I needed something from my commander, that he was flying around the map in a jet. WTF. Some commander.
Ok, here's the link part. Before playing the full version, I strongly urge everyone to read up on the maps and strategies as much as possible. Learn tactics and methods for working as a team. First off, check out Gamespot's
The Maps of Battlefield 2 article. It's long, but gives a good overview of every map in the game. Read it. Know it. Study it. Second, definitely take a look at the site
TotalBF2. You will find many
great strategy suggestions and tips in this forum at TotalBF2.com.
That's it for now. I hope to have many more posts in the future discussing my successes and exploits. Until then...
covering the well-known Gulf of Oman map and the spectacular, and undoubtedly one of the most popular, Strike at Karkand map. You should definitely check out these two free Battlefield 2 guide chapters as they have a wealth of good strategies for both sides, USMC and MEC, as well as for all map sizes, 16, 32 and 64. After reading the sample chapters, go buy the Battlefield 2 Strategy Guide book at Amazon. The book is a very good deal at under $12!