Battlefield 2142 Review.

There’s a cliché to start video game reviews describing a scene that grabbed the reviewers attention and then proclaiming that they are, indeed, playing a game. For example, the reviewer is ‘under heavy fire by enemy troops with only his trusty sidearm for company, while air transports scream overhead and the distant approach of a tank can be heard’. When it comes to a game like Battlefield 2142 it’s hard not to describe the feeling you get in situations quite similar to this. The thought that you are on an enormous battlefield with real-life players slugging it out in a variety of guises is quite exhilarating. Except, on this battlefield, all sense of tactical awareness and the common sense mantra that shooting your teammates in the back isn’t the best idea of the century, seems to be thrown out of the window and crushed by a passing steamroller.

Battlefield 2142 was always inevitable, not only because EA tend to churn out a long line of games part of the same series, but also because a future Battlefield was the only logical step forward. The World War II aspect has been done to death, Vietnam was a failure (both in real life and in video game world), and the modern aspect screamed ‘war on terror’. Also, having a Battlefield set in the future allowed Dice to throw a bunch of creative ideas into the pot as they were unconstrained by the limitations of Battlefield games based on real-world events. However, it’s good to see that Dice didn’t go overboard when they were presented with a completely blank slate in which to scratch out a new Battlefield – lasers and teleportation are out of the picture here. Dice took the Battlefield 2 engine, modified it a bit, and came out with a Battlefield that, although set in the future, allowed us to relate it to reality in a way that Star Trek cannot. Combined with a new blank slate and the realisation that players would probably like something more than Conquest mode for once, the Titan mode emerged.



The plot is unimportant but it needs mention to introduce the Titan mode. The Northern Hemisphere has frozen over and billions are forced to flee to the warmer lands far south. As a result wars break out over what little land remains, as is typical of Human nature. Two factions, the EU and Asian PAC, are fighting over the African lands with no indication to where the North Africans or USA have got to (possibly a future expansion pack?). Due to this you get rugged ice covered maps while occasionally jumping over to desert style maps. The two factions –having been used to transport refugees to the south – have adopted the Titans as command centres and, as such, the aim of the Titan mode is to attack and destroy these floating behemoths.

The Titan mode is a combination of conquest (which also returns) and the new aim to destroy the Titan’s. Players much capture missile silos, which, in turn, launch regular missile’s that will eventually destroy the enemy Titan’s shields. After the shields are down the players can either land on the Titan in an airships or launch from pods in an APC. They must then take down four-control console’s, which gains access to the Titan’s core. Destroying this means your team wins the round. It also means a great deal of teamwork is needed, especially when both Titan’s shields are down. If most of your team are attacking the enemy Titan this leaves your Titan undefended, leading to a quick defeat, but this also means that their Titan may be lax on defence, unless the opposing team is pretty clever that is. It can lead to pretty close stalemates if your team is working together by defending and attacking at the same time. You also have people running around on the ground holding the silos continue to pound the enemy Titan and take more damage off the faltering hull. The Titan mode can fill you with sheer utter joy, topping up your flask of gaming goodness, especially when you all run laughing and screaming off the exploding Titan, the opposing team’s impending doom finally realised as they frantically scramble for the escape pods or airships.



Of course, teamwork always comes down to the players on the server. If you’re playing with a group of friends then the match can be pretty fun. It’s not to say that the match can’t go fun without friends. The squad system encourages players to work together, that is, if they actually join a squad. Squad leaders can place spawn beacons and also act as mobile spawn points, providing they are still alive. This means the squad leader can instantly get backup when left alone, as squad members re-spawn on his/her position. You now gain experience points by completing squad objectives set by your squad leader, something missing from Battlefield 2. In fact, experience points are gained from pretty much everything, which is most likely why teamwork is far more preferable this time around. As a medic, which has been combined with the assault class, you gain experience by healing people and reviving them. Cue players running around healing their comrades for experience, not because of companionship. All this experience adds up to the returning rank system and a variety of unlocks you can gain to improve your soldier. It gives you a sense of something to fight for; something to while away the hours helping your team gain the upper hand. This doesn’t mean your team will always work together, quite the contrary, many players have little sense of tactical awareness and will continue to throw themselves at the same objective without thinking of alternative ways to accomplish the same objective without constantly dying. The response to losing the round is to start a mutiny on the commander, whom returns with his usual artillery and aerial scans, even though it’s often not his fault. Like any war the commander is only as good as the troops, and if his troops refuse to follow orders without any passion or refuse to follow them all-together, then they are the ones who are to blame.

When it comes to vehicles Battlefield 2142 has an interesting bunch. Big mech type walkers will scare the hell out of you when you first witness one stalking towards you, while hover tanks can move sideways quickly across your field of view, before making a nice little carpet of you across the snow. Most of the other vehicles are revamped versions of the ones you’ll have employed in Battlefield 2 but some, like the APC, are more integral to the round then before – if you’re playing the Titan mode. There’s an issue with air support however. The gunship is far slower than the jets in Battlefield 2 and they seem far easier to take out when launching an EMP from the ground. Still, it all depends on the pilot, as one stalking you can be pretty annoying when you don’t have anything to take it out.

You can’t review an EA game without mentioning a few bugs, and Battlefield 2142 has its fair share. Amazingly some of the bugs from the beta make their return in the final game, and when any game has to be patched on release day you have to wonder just what the testers have been doing. Bugs will always be rife in Battlefield games since there are so many things the players can do that they’ll always find a bug somewhere the developers never even dreamed of. The game sometimes crashes at the start of maps, and the screen can go all funny when you try to choose an unlock during a game. Corpses still slide around on board Titan’s, which can make it awkward to revive them - eventually falling through it towards the ground. Lag can also be pretty horrendous during the Titan mode, but it’s more due to the server than anything.

The bugs are minor niggles in the end and hopefully you won’t experience anything horribly annoying that would take your enjoyment away from the game. Annoyance will come more from running into an enemy walker that promptly blasts your body into a billion atoms, or being hit in the face by a team-mate in the closer quarters of the Titan’s corridors. With the unlock system and two fun-filled modes there’s always plenty to do in Battlefield 2142 and, being a Battlefield game, making your own fun has always been the aim of the game. Whether you choose to be a pilot ferrying your team-mates into battle, or a sniper nestled in your own little high spot, or whether you decide to flank an objective instead of meeting it head on. Battlefield has always been a series where every round will be something different, a splurge of amazing moments you’ll remember for the rest of your gaming life. Although the engine is showing it’s age Battlefield 2142 can still impress with the sheer amount of flexibility you can employ, which, is of course, all depends on whether your team wants to work with you or pursue their own vain interests.

Eight-out-of-ten.