Battlefield 2142

Battlefield has been a long-running series, complete with its ups and downs. Despite bugs and flaws it has still managed to grasp a large fan base and hold tight. The newest game of the series, Battlefield 2142, advances in certain areas while seeming to take steps back in others. But in the end it’s still Battlefield, and there’s a reason the series is so popular.

Battlefield 2142 takes place in the future, as the name implies. To emulate the feel of the future, DICE and EA have made many tweaks to the environment, weapons, vehicles, and even the soldiers themselves. Some of these are good tweaks, while others almost feel like they limit play compared to previous Battlefields.

Battlefield 2142 is a first-person shooter that is played across a huge battlefield. While most first-person shooters restrict the player to a small area and only allow them to travel by foot, the Battlefield series has expanded war simulation to the size of an actual battle rather than a skirmish. The maps are huge and support up to 64 players at a time while providing vehicles and aircraft that players can use.

Conquest still exists in Battlefield 2142, where players fight over spawn points across the battlefield. The new Titan mode, however, is a fresh spin on the Battlefield gameplay. In Titan mode, spawn points are replaced by missile silos. Players still spawn at these missile silos while their team has control over them, but they serve more purpose than just a spawn point. While under a team’s control, the silo will constantly fire missiles at the opposing team’s Titan.

The point of a Titan game is to take down the opposing team’s Titan. This can be accomplished by holding all the silos for the entire game and just letting the missiles do all the work. Or, once the shields are down, players can man little launch pods and board the other team’s Titan. Fighting their way inside and destroying the main energy core will immediately end the game.

Battlefield 2142 has a vastly improved menu structure since Battlefield 2. The menus navigate quickly and smoothly, and there’s now a functioning friends list and favorite server feature. Also, when switching between servers, the game will ask if you want it to disconnect from the last instead of making you do it manually.  There’s a headquarters section very similar to Battlefield 2, where players can review their awards, combat points, and the progress of their unlocks.

Unlocks are rewarded a lot more frequently in Battlefield 2142. This is most likely due to the increased amount of unlocks since Battlefield 2. Cool, right?  Well, there are more unlocks because 2142 requires players to unlock certain features that were readily available in Battlefield 2. The defibrillator now needs to be unlocked, as well as grenades, C4, and claymores.

Another reason there are so many unlocks is because the amount of available kits have been reduced to four. Features of the kits that have been removed were given to one of the four surviving kits. Assault now acts as the medic, carrying around the healing box and the unlockable defibrillator. Snipers can now carry C4 since there are no more Spec Ops, and all classes can have grenades once they’ve been unlocked.

The unlock system is designed as sort of an unlock tree. The new weapon unlocks are at the top of the tree, but to get to them you must start from the bottom and work your way up. Each kit has its own tree, and there are some unlocks that affect every kit. Reaching your first weapon unlock isn’t too difficult, but you sort of have to focus on a single kit to do it. Later on you don’t earn enough points to pound out the unlocks as you do in the beginning, so if you don’t aim for a weapon unlock early it may be a long time until you get your new toy to play with.

There are also brand new things to unlock in BF2142. Squad leaders can now unlock helper drones, or even a physical spawn point that can be placed on the ground. While most unlocks are weapons or objects to use, there are also some soldier augmentations to unlock. Things that will stabilize a sniper’s aim or increase a player’s sprint duration can be unlocked, among others.

The vehicles and weapons haven’t changed a whole lot, aside from the color of the muzzle flash and the sounds they make. The inclusion of a hover tank with the ability to strafe is pretty cool, and helicopters have been replaced with a sort of miniature space ship. Walking tanks have also been added.

The maps seemed to have been taken down a notch. There weren’t a whole lot of levels I found exceptionally fun to play within. They all have a very bland palette and not much to see. There are still urban maps versus broader vehicle-based maps, so you can kind of decide which style of play you like and stick to those levels.

Battlefield 2142, despite the changes, still plays very much like past Battlefield titles. So if you were a fan then, you’ll most likely have fun with 2142. Since it still uses the same gameplay formula that the Battlefield series has adopted, there can be some very intense firefights and some awesome moments. With the unlock system you’ll have to invest some time to fully enjoy the game, though, and the new vehicles and weapons don’t feel much like upgrades as they do minor changes.

Gameplay: 8.2
Gameplay improves as you get more unlocks to play with, but at first you will feel your choices are very limited. With the locking of features from Battlefield 2, 2142 can feel like a step backwards at first. Otherwise, the gameplay is very Battlefield and a lot of fun.  

Graphics: 8.6 
Battlefield 2142 has great graphics, but the level design is so bland at times that it’s hard to notice. You really see it in soldier and vehicle models, though.

Sound: 8.5
The weapons actually sound a little weaker than previous BF games. Other than that, combat ambience is great as usual, since it’s all real-time combat going on around you.

Difficulty: Easy-Hard
It all depends on who you’re playing and your relative skill level. You can play against a very organized team that uses squads and get destroyed, then turn around dominate an unorganized team.

Concept: 7.0 
There wasn’t really anywhere left for Battlefield to go after BF2. The future was pretty likely, since it seems to be a popular theme in games these days. Unfortunately in this case the future is very ugly and plain. However, the absence of aliens and lasers is refreshing.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Battlefield was made for multiplayer. I would actually go as far as not recommending this game if you don’t plan on playing it either with friends or online.

Overall: 8.0
I can’t help but feel this is a slight step backwards from Battlefield 2. Removing features players are used to just seems strange to me, and the levels don’t really provide an interesting backdrop. But the improved interface is a plus, and with traditional Battlefield gameplay you really can’t go wrong. Just be prepared to earn back certain weapons and tools you’re used to.
 

11/24/06 - the above review has been edited due to inaccuracies in the original review.