Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
It’s BF2, it’s console-flavored, and it’s freakin’ awesome.
Published: December 12, 2005
There are two ways to approach Modern Combat: you can see it as a port of the PC version and knock it for not being the same experience despite having a single-player mode, or you can see it as a reinterpretation of the core mechanics into a game that’s very clearly made for the console gamer. If someone tells you the former, tell ‘em to shut their piehole and kindly introduce the idea of the latter.
Seriously, if you’ve played Battlefield 2 on the PC and loved it, there’s no reason not to go right on playing it. Modern Combat is not BF2, even though they (confusingly) share the same title. This isn’t just in regards to the single-player game which we’ll happily delve into in a second, but the online multiplayer as well, which tends to skew things more towards building up individual player skills rather than trying to rely on a retard to lead the team.
We’ve covered a lot of what happened to the multiplayer game in our preview, which you should read before we even get into the single-player portion. Since it more or less covers everything that was changed, I won’t have to go into it again here save to say it’s absolutely addictive, especially considering all the points you earn as you play through the game, which count towards your total online rank.
Literally everything you do, from getting in vehicles to popping someone gets you points, which unfortunately leads to a bit too much me me me behavior in most people, but then as a general rule of thumb I avoid morons by simply organizing matches with friends around the country – most of which I’ve met and talked more extensively with outside of online gaming (read: via the forums).
Now, about that single-player game.
The Battlefield games have traditionally been a purely multiplayer experience on the PC. Even the offline mode just duplicates the online gameplay with bots, so when it finally came time to add in a single-player portion – and at the expense of the original release date to boot – most assumed this was exactly what would happen with the console version, and it raised a few questions about why it was taking so long.
Instead, the single-player matches of Modern Combat are something like an extended tutorial. They slowly work you into playing as each kind of solider that’s available in multiplayer matches; Assault, Sniper, Engineer, Support and Special Ops roles all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the game spoon feeds you a bit at a time. It works brilliantly, transforming an already accessible game into something where you have a perfect idea of what each type of player is best suited for before you go online.
Offline, though, the experience takes on a whole new kind of ADD-fueled speed. Developer Digital Illusions implemented a HotSwap feature, which lets you leap from any soldier on the battlefield to another in their line of sight with a press of the Square button. This allows you to adapt to the single-player game’s missions instantly, sniping fools pouring out of a hanger one section, jumping into a tank to throw a few shells into enemy tanks, then zipping over to an engineer to fire a few rockets at some pesky choppers raining down missiles.
It’s an awesome experience, and easily the best thing about the offline game. The whole progression of your squad and slow unlock of all their weapons and slots on a squad (which are of course already unlocked online) is batted about around a quickly mocked-up story of East/West viewpoints about an occupation of Kazakhstan and the media angles that are used on both sides.
It’s a fairly generic might-be World War III scenario, but the use of back-to-back news coverage clips does a good job of highlighting how footage can be twisted to make one side look like the bad guy, and it’s a nice play at media coverage in light of what’s been going on recently in the Middle-East without it actually taking place in the Middle-East.
The movement speed, loose targeting and overall pacing of the single-player missions are perfectly suited to the console experience, and the game’s integration of a Burnout-style rewards system ties the whole mess together wonderfully. As you HotSwap, gun down enemies and travel distances, you’re awarded medals, but the game also tracks how many enemies you gun down, how many times you die, how long it takes to finish a mission, what your total points are and so on, rewarding you at the end of a mission with stars. These stars add up to higher ranks, which in turn unlocks more weapons for your different soldier types.
Seriously, if you’ve played Battlefield 2 on the PC and loved it, there’s no reason not to go right on playing it. Modern Combat is not BF2, even though they (confusingly) share the same title. This isn’t just in regards to the single-player game which we’ll happily delve into in a second, but the online multiplayer as well, which tends to skew things more towards building up individual player skills rather than trying to rely on a retard to lead the team.
We’ve covered a lot of what happened to the multiplayer game in our preview, which you should read before we even get into the single-player portion. Since it more or less covers everything that was changed, I won’t have to go into it again here save to say it’s absolutely addictive, especially considering all the points you earn as you play through the game, which count towards your total online rank.
Literally everything you do, from getting in vehicles to popping someone gets you points, which unfortunately leads to a bit too much me me me behavior in most people, but then as a general rule of thumb I avoid morons by simply organizing matches with friends around the country – most of which I’ve met and talked more extensively with outside of online gaming (read: via the forums).
Now, about that single-player game.
The Battlefield games have traditionally been a purely multiplayer experience on the PC. Even the offline mode just duplicates the online gameplay with bots, so when it finally came time to add in a single-player portion – and at the expense of the original release date to boot – most assumed this was exactly what would happen with the console version, and it raised a few questions about why it was taking so long.
Instead, the single-player matches of Modern Combat are something like an extended tutorial. They slowly work you into playing as each kind of solider that’s available in multiplayer matches; Assault, Sniper, Engineer, Support and Special Ops roles all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the game spoon feeds you a bit at a time. It works brilliantly, transforming an already accessible game into something where you have a perfect idea of what each type of player is best suited for before you go online.
Offline, though, the experience takes on a whole new kind of ADD-fueled speed. Developer Digital Illusions implemented a HotSwap feature, which lets you leap from any soldier on the battlefield to another in their line of sight with a press of the Square button. This allows you to adapt to the single-player game’s missions instantly, sniping fools pouring out of a hanger one section, jumping into a tank to throw a few shells into enemy tanks, then zipping over to an engineer to fire a few rockets at some pesky choppers raining down missiles.
It’s an awesome experience, and easily the best thing about the offline game. The whole progression of your squad and slow unlock of all their weapons and slots on a squad (which are of course already unlocked online) is batted about around a quickly mocked-up story of East/West viewpoints about an occupation of Kazakhstan and the media angles that are used on both sides.
It’s a fairly generic might-be World War III scenario, but the use of back-to-back news coverage clips does a good job of highlighting how footage can be twisted to make one side look like the bad guy, and it’s a nice play at media coverage in light of what’s been going on recently in the Middle-East without it actually taking place in the Middle-East.
The movement speed, loose targeting and overall pacing of the single-player missions are perfectly suited to the console experience, and the game’s integration of a Burnout-style rewards system ties the whole mess together wonderfully. As you HotSwap, gun down enemies and travel distances, you’re awarded medals, but the game also tracks how many enemies you gun down, how many times you die, how long it takes to finish a mission, what your total points are and so on, rewarding you at the end of a mission with stars. These stars add up to higher ranks, which in turn unlocks more weapons for your different soldier types.
