Battlefield On A PS2? Why not?
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat marks the debut of the EA's hit franchise on the PlayStation2 system and the first time they have taken the ground breaking series off of its well established computer roots. Though it may not be as captivating as the computer counterpart, it does pretty well in the fierce, competitive world of shooters on the console. Bringing its unique style to the table, Battlefield has always been about un-compromised, unrelenting combat on foot, in the sky, or behind the seat of a tank and this installment is no different. While supporting its solid base with the tried and true multiplayer matches, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat also offers a great single player campaign with hours of gameplay spanning 20+ missions.
First and foremost, the most interesting and ingenious addition worth note is the HotSwap mechanic. This adds a creative dynamic to the traditional first-person shooter campaign. Essentially, HotSwapping is where you take over control of a friendly unit. The rule here is if it is a friendly, and it is within sight, i.e. nothing stands between you and your target friendly, you simply press the square button and boom your shot across however long a distance it is to take control of the target unit. This comes in pretty handy for shooting from an oil refinery to an island and back. As far as the tradition controls they are, well traditional. You have different classes who possess different weaponry. The troops all have little indicators above their heads so you know what class you are HotSwapping into. The classes themselves are what you would expect from assault to engineer and everything in between. The controls handle pretty solid as well. After some adjusting and tweaking to your liking you will have no trouble picking off foes with ease. The vehicle usage is pretty nice to. The ability to jump in and out of any vehicle at the press of a button makes it easy to cross great distances or take out heavily dug in enemies.
The campaign itself is very interesting if not predictable for the genre. Basically you have two opposing forces that are fighting over power. This classic power-struggle is augmented by the fact that you play both sides during the campaign, which is not usually the norm. There are quite a few missions that have you doing quite a few different things but the overall point is the same, wipe the bad guys out. Whether you do this by demolition of an infrastructure, flying recon via helo, or simply running them down with a tank, you can be sure you will see your share of action. A noticeable feature that would have helped the game out a bit would be the inclusion of a counter to show how many enemies remain. One would expect it included since it is in multiplayer but it is strangely absent, leaving some levels where you are searching for some last guy to kill before you can move on.
Another instance of absence is solidity, the game as a whole runs very well, but there are isolated instances where the game falters. One such example would be an early on level where there are multiple objectives you must complete and they are given to you on a defeat one get another basis, otherwise meaning you must fulfill one to get to the next one. There was one occasion where it skipped one in a glitch therefore I was never able to finish the level. Needless to say it took me some time to come to this conclusion, rest assured that I searched the entire map sure there was some dude that I missed somewhere but it was not so. However this doesn't happen every single time you play that level, nor does it happen often, so don't let it scare you away. The respawn mechanic shares this fate as well. There are times when an enemy just pops right up behind you with a shotgun and, well you don't need me to tell you where those times get you. While you progress through the single player campaign, you get stars for doing well. Things such as time efficiency, total score, and medals all earn you these stars. As you gain stars your rank advances from Private to Private 1st class to Corporal and so on. This along with your overall score unlocks new weapons for each of the classes and other bonuses such as the ability to carry more ammo for a specific weapon. This level up system works well and is a great addition to make the campaign feel more solid.
Unfortunately the game's audio leaves much to be desired. The graphical look can be overlooked because of circumstance and sheer size of the maps, but the audio seems to have been sacrificed as well. On top of the annoying voices providing the game's dialogue, the sound effects themselves are just stale. This along with a weak score really take away from your gaming experience, and that is a shame because if the audio was done correctly, this game would definitely be one of the heavy hitters.
Four games spanning five different machines and a dozen plus expansions later EA's franchise has shown that it has some pretty hefty legs to stand on. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the PlayStation2 marks the first transition of the PC phenomenon over to the home console base. Though the transition hasn't been seamless, it definitely pulls its weight worth. Through intuitive gameplay mechanics, multiplayer support and great level depth and design, this title is well worth the recent 19.99 greatest hits price point and enough to procure a 7 our of 10 from my scale granting it the honor of being "Excellent."
First and foremost, the most interesting and ingenious addition worth note is the HotSwap mechanic. This adds a creative dynamic to the traditional first-person shooter campaign. Essentially, HotSwapping is where you take over control of a friendly unit. The rule here is if it is a friendly, and it is within sight, i.e. nothing stands between you and your target friendly, you simply press the square button and boom your shot across however long a distance it is to take control of the target unit. This comes in pretty handy for shooting from an oil refinery to an island and back. As far as the tradition controls they are, well traditional. You have different classes who possess different weaponry. The troops all have little indicators above their heads so you know what class you are HotSwapping into. The classes themselves are what you would expect from assault to engineer and everything in between. The controls handle pretty solid as well. After some adjusting and tweaking to your liking you will have no trouble picking off foes with ease. The vehicle usage is pretty nice to. The ability to jump in and out of any vehicle at the press of a button makes it easy to cross great distances or take out heavily dug in enemies.
The campaign itself is very interesting if not predictable for the genre. Basically you have two opposing forces that are fighting over power. This classic power-struggle is augmented by the fact that you play both sides during the campaign, which is not usually the norm. There are quite a few missions that have you doing quite a few different things but the overall point is the same, wipe the bad guys out. Whether you do this by demolition of an infrastructure, flying recon via helo, or simply running them down with a tank, you can be sure you will see your share of action. A noticeable feature that would have helped the game out a bit would be the inclusion of a counter to show how many enemies remain. One would expect it included since it is in multiplayer but it is strangely absent, leaving some levels where you are searching for some last guy to kill before you can move on.
Another instance of absence is solidity, the game as a whole runs very well, but there are isolated instances where the game falters. One such example would be an early on level where there are multiple objectives you must complete and they are given to you on a defeat one get another basis, otherwise meaning you must fulfill one to get to the next one. There was one occasion where it skipped one in a glitch therefore I was never able to finish the level. Needless to say it took me some time to come to this conclusion, rest assured that I searched the entire map sure there was some dude that I missed somewhere but it was not so. However this doesn't happen every single time you play that level, nor does it happen often, so don't let it scare you away. The respawn mechanic shares this fate as well. There are times when an enemy just pops right up behind you with a shotgun and, well you don't need me to tell you where those times get you. While you progress through the single player campaign, you get stars for doing well. Things such as time efficiency, total score, and medals all earn you these stars. As you gain stars your rank advances from Private to Private 1st class to Corporal and so on. This along with your overall score unlocks new weapons for each of the classes and other bonuses such as the ability to carry more ammo for a specific weapon. This level up system works well and is a great addition to make the campaign feel more solid.
Unfortunately the game's audio leaves much to be desired. The graphical look can be overlooked because of circumstance and sheer size of the maps, but the audio seems to have been sacrificed as well. On top of the annoying voices providing the game's dialogue, the sound effects themselves are just stale. This along with a weak score really take away from your gaming experience, and that is a shame because if the audio was done correctly, this game would definitely be one of the heavy hitters.
Four games spanning five different machines and a dozen plus expansions later EA's franchise has shown that it has some pretty hefty legs to stand on. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the PlayStation2 marks the first transition of the PC phenomenon over to the home console base. Though the transition hasn't been seamless, it definitely pulls its weight worth. Through intuitive gameplay mechanics, multiplayer support and great level depth and design, this title is well worth the recent 19.99 greatest hits price point and enough to procure a 7 our of 10 from my scale granting it the honor of being "Excellent."
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