Most maps don’t have them, nor do they have a lot of choppers either. But what is most notable is the real lack of jets. These aren’t too shabby, and even include basic vehicles. They also threw in a few night maps, something missing from the first installment. You have your urban-style maps like Iron Gator (inside a carrier) and Warlord (think Iraq 2005), as well as your more standard, open-ended vehicular combat like Surge. Fans of Strike at Karkadd and Mashturr City from the original BF2 should especially rejoice. First, 8 new maps grace us this time around, and show a pretty good mix of gameplay. The new additions are the main attractions though, for BF2: Special Forces. Having a good mix in a squad is always key, and better yet when you can coordinate over game hosted voice, which is only for your squad so don’t worry about garbling over other folks. Of course, if that’s not your bag, you can always dive into tossing around plastic explosives (spec ops kit), firing shoulder mounted missiles (anti-tank), laying down suppressing fire/doling out ammo (support), healing folks (medic) or being a tank whore (engineer).
There is no better feeling than picking off some moron 400m away, whose going to town in his seemingly invincible machine gun turret, or securing the high ground with claymores, setting up a nice, relaxing shooting gallery. Just a “few” of you should be familiar with it… This allows for more massive battles and vicious fights over one objective, instead of a hot dropping jet pilot who caps a flag by himself waaaaaay in the rear, pissing everyone off.īesides those shenanigans, the gameplay is fun - really fun! Whether it is the flanking maneuvers of your 6-man squad, or your pure ownage with an Abrams Tank, you will find something enjoyable to do.
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Unfortunately, they forgot to include some new gameplay elements, which many fans cried for, namely the sequential base capture functions, seen in a famous Battlefield 1942 mod called Desert Combat. But on the public servers, it’s worse than 3rd graders playing soccer- “kick, chase, kick, chase” ad nauseum. This changes obviously with organized clan play, with plans for flag defense, chokepoints, vehicle usage and so on. I use the latter term to describe the incessant capturing of flags across the map often after you capture one, you have to backtrack to recapture it seconds later. The good ‘ole frenetic musical-base action is back again. What a riot it was the first time I heard it after we won the round. Most notable is the Russian acapella version of the main theme.
The music is also fairly subdued, and you only really hear it at the end of each map. But for the sake of understanding what the hell is going on, I advise using the translation option. Getting back to the voices, it does a feel a bit odd to hear nothing but English being spouted by Middle Eastern Coalition forces, or the maps with only Russkies and Rebels. Sound wise, between the various languages (option available for English conversion) being shouted and screamed across the battlefield, and the robust sound effects, this sucker is an auditory delight. You will see some stuttering, lag spikes and other performance problems, and EA/Digital Illusions have taken warranted heat for it, yet they don’t seem to fix some of these glaring issues. To wrap up the look of this title is simple - it’s flashy and sound, but will test your rig’s power. Maybe someday Double Helix will return… But I digress (what else is new?). I am really surprised that not many games have the gruesome dismemberments of Soldier of Fortune it really adds such a visceral feel and sick fun factor to gameplay in general. Explosions and other special effects are also awesome as usual, especially the monitor-shaking artillery bombardment that kicks up clouds of dust, shrapnel and “hamburger” that was once a soldier… Speaking of goriness, this is “Teen” all the way folks - no ripples of blood or limbs flying off sadly. You can see all the authentic straps, patches, helmets, boots and weapons are displayed with infinite variety. But the player/vehicle/building models are identical, and still hold up well, with that glorious rag doll physics and great detail. Graphically, this is pretty much your same stuff as the original, with a few added effects like the new gas dizziness and flashbang “whiteout” effect, not to mention the night vision goggle’s eerie green glow. Not many games can combine the dynamic gameplay and pure fun of the Battlefield series, after all, and it’s more of the same here.
BF2: Special Forces brings us all kinds of new goodies, from 8 new maps, several different guns/vehicles and a few general improvements. The guys at EA and Digital Illusions are back with another addition of the smash hit Battlefield 2 fledgling series, with it’s first expansion.