Most of you who frequent the forum or listen to the podcast could probably hazard a fair guess as to what my opinion of this game is, it's no secret that BF2 is one of my fave titles of all time. BF2142 has a lot to live up to in that regard though. Did it impress as much as the original which spawned it (Dig's review
here), or was this merely a lacklustre exercise in money-grabbing from Dice and EA?
 | | Battlefield's back, but - Great Scott! - it's taken a trip in a DeLorean |
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Before we get into all that, first some background info. 2142 is the most recent incarnation of the now long-running tried and tested Battlefield formula of FPS action mixed with large-scale vehicular combat across humongously large maps. Back when the original Battlefield was released (1942), the king at the throne of WWII FPS games was - for me at least - Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Battlefield changed all that though. No longer were you simply sniping Nazis, now you had jeeps, mortars, tanks and even planes backing you up...not to mention 31 fellow team mates. This was war on an epic scale.
The monumental success of 1942 cemented it as one of the definitive online shooters of that era, a feat which subsequently proved ripe for EA's obsessive compulsion with pumping out sequel after sequel under the same license for years to come. While the Medal of Honor franchise got progressively worse with each rendition however, the Battlefield series has generally gotten better and better though. Battlefield Vietnam brought those epic battles forward to the - you guessed it - Vietnam war with reasonable success, while Battlefield 2 turned the clock forward even further to a more modern day militaristic combat setting, creating a genuine classic in the process.
Which leads us onto 2142. The Tardis has taken us far into the future this time you see, with the game utilising a radically new sci-fi setting in which the second ice age has transformed Earth dramatically. You rarely see back-stories present in online shooters - and arguably one wouldn't care to for the most part - but the scarce hints at one here are a nice touch from Dice, pumping a little extra atmosphere into the battles if nothing else.
 | | Titan Mode is a brand new addition to the series, and a worthy one at that |
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Time period aside though, this plays all but identically to BF2 on first glance. Utilising the same engine, similar visuals, identical controls and that same old Battlefield outpost capturing gameplay, it feels almost more mod for a while than full-blown sequel. After a little more exploration though, it does start to take on more character of its own, and that's primarily down to a wee little thing called "Titan Mode".
In this brand new game-type, you'll continue to wage war across huge battlegrounds comprised of men and vehicle alike, but the difference now is that instead of merely reducing your opposing team's reinforcements to win, you're instead attempting to wipe out their humongously imposing flying Titan fortress flying high above the battlefield. These Titans start off with heavy shields which first have to be reduced via ground-based missile launchers though, and each missile silo subsequently becomes a capture point in its own right, with needless to say, mammoth ground skirmishes surrounding each and every one. The more silos you have under your control though, the quicker the Titan's shields will be destroyed.
That's far from the end of the game mind you, as with the shields finally down, a Titan's hull will require a further hefty beating before it fully destructs. Thankfully you can speed this up dramatically by actually boarding the now-defenceless ship and blowing it up from the inside. Each ship contains four control consoles which must first be destroyed if you do so, followed by a central reactor core. Destroy the core and it's game over...that is, after an ever so brief grace period with which you get to run like hell in order to escape from its now shuddering innards (presuming you'd rather
not be cooked alive by this giant exploding pressure cooker).
 | | Battling onboard a Titan. To think, there's an entire war going on miles below... |
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The sense of achievement you feel here - from legging it like an Olympic athlete to safety as the most epic of explosions rings out from behind you - has yet to get old for me, and feels more like fighting your way deep into the bowels of Hell, then having to high-tail it out when the job's done. These Titan encounters are essentially a completely different beast next to the external skirmishes as a result; you and your squad mates will find yourself confined - really for the very first time yet in this series - to incredibly tight environments for a change, with nothing in the way of vehicles backing you up. This cramped and claustrophobic atmosphere leads to tense, quick-fire show-downs, with split second choices forever popping up, those which can just as often result in blunders and team-kills (which is fine if Dig's on your team). It's this ramped-up sense of tension and urgency that raises your adrenaline hugely for me however, and takes the game into much more of a Planetside vibe, hinting back heavily to those classic days of storming bases and hacking terminals on foot.
These overarching on-foot missions won't be easy either way, and for those that prefer it, the option remains to simply stay outside and instead bombard the Titan with heavy ground and air support. If you're lazy.
 | | In spite of its futuristic setting, 2142 still has that same old ace infantry combat to fall back on, complete with good old-fashioned machine guns and rocket launchers like you'd expect |
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As always, this underlying choice of play-styles rings true throughout all aspects of 2142. Those who prefer to hang back and pick off infantry from afar have the Recon kit complete with sniper rifle. Those who prefer to be more in the thick of it may prefer the Assault class, which now includes medic abilities folded in for the ability to heal and revive team mates. And of course the Engineer and Support kits allow you to still get your combat on, while simultaneously mixing your time with repairing vehicles and re-supplying comrades with ammo. The classes all ultimately offer similar stuff to that seen in BF2, but have been somewhat streamlined here.
The beauty of the more recent Battlefield games though - this one included - is how regardless of how feeble your point and shoot skills are, you can still earn points and increase your ranking via many of the above means. Hell, you may well have a hard time hitting a barn door with a banjo down on the battlefield, but if you're a top ranked Commander for instance - one who's able to lead his troops to victory from the side lines while keeping his cool at all times - I'd sure as hell want you on my team!
Which leads us comfortably onto the final class, the Commander. The basic concepts BF2 introduced haven't changed hugely here - you can still call up an overhead map, scan to find enemy positions, re-supply troops and perform good old artillery bombardments - but now you also have the pleasing ability to dish out EMP strikes as well. This is a new addition to the Battlefield series, not causing physical damage to your opposition, but instead disabling their vehicles for a short period while also screwing around with their HUD displays (discerning friendlies from foes is considerably harder for instance). The ability to slow down the advance of an enemy tank convoy can prove impeccably useful while your team waits to respawn, and subsequently proves a valuable new addition to the Commander's arsenal. It's especially cool at pulling down flying vehicles, as it somewhat hilariously cuts their engines in mid-air...
 | | Vehicles are back too, of course, and are now joined by Metal Gears! |
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The unlocks, ranks and awards all make a welcome return in BF2142. This time however, the unlocks aren't merely limited to weapons. Each of the above kits have two branches to pursue that deck you out with more interesting abilities and non-firing weaponry, such as cloaking devices and C4 packs. There are even additional player and squad leader unlocks - effective regardless of which kit you choose - which range from extended run time to a mobile squad respawn beacon. You can pick and choose whether to unlock these items all within a single kit which you favour, or if you're more of an all-rounder spread them out across multiple different classes, which gives the game a nice hint of strategy as you pick carefully which route to pursue with your profile.
Naturally though - much like BF2 - 2142 only allows you to level up your rank by playing on ranked servers, which can make tracking down decent games with available spaces a little more troublesome at times. This isn't helped by the absolutely horrendous in-game server browser, which if anything, is even worse than the mildly average one featured in BF2. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to connect to servers with 40/48 people playing for example, only for it to spit out "Server Full" repeatedly. Then I'll log into one with 45/48 players listed only to discover a meagre 18 there when I actually arrive in the game.
These problems are compounded by the fact that on your quick tab list, server latency is listed not by ping, but an archaic traffic light system. Green for good, red for bad, etc. Green refers to any ping under 100 however, which any hardcore PC FPSer will tell you, ain't particularly good by any means. The front-end probs continue when you pop on down to the key config screen as well, with an incredibly complex, yet buggy design that as a bonus seems to regularly forget which buttons I've assigned to certain actions on my gamepad, thus turning them blank. This proves bloody annoying.
 | | Titan Mode. The reason to buy this game |
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Graphically, 2142 requires similar specs to BF2, but due to some minor tweaking to the graphics engine, tends to look ever so slightly better while holding a steadier frame-rate on lower-end systems. It does however, tend to eat up a fair bit more RAM on the full-size Titan maps - understandable considering how ridiculously enormous they are - and thus may prove a little framey for those with only 1gb of memory. While complaining, I also have to say I would have liked to have seen more maps available than what's bundled in with the game. I guess EA will no doubt use that as an opportunity to nab even more cash from us via tons of
expansion add-ons and those infamous booster packs.
Regardless, I can confidently state that if you enjoyed BF2, you'll most likely lap this one up as well. I wouldn't go in expecting a similar leap in innovation as we saw from 1942 to BF2 - here the underlying mantra seems to be if it ain't broke, don't fix it - but 2142 delivers as a pretty damn decent follow-up never the less. As a self-professed Battlefield fanboy, I was always gonna say that, but I genuinely recommend everyone at least experiences this game's Titan mode if nothing else. It's the most accomplished and interesting new addition to the Battlefield formula in years, and - for me - subsequently makes it a worthy sequel to the wondrous BF2.
Now I just wish my all-but-perfect weapon of choice the G36C made a bleedin' reappearance...
