The first Battlefield game (that’s BF:1942, for those of you keeping count at 
home) only reached its defining moment when a group of intrepid modders 
hacked modern weapons and vehicles to replace the WW2-era weapons the 
game shipped with. The mod was Desert Combat, and it was the first 
large-scale multiplayer combat game featuring modern weapons.

After a forgettable sophomore attempt (Battlefield: Vietnam), Dice has 
created another game that pushes the genre forward. Battlefield 2 manages 
to combine the fast pace and cohesive action of a small-squad game such as 
Counter-Strike with the grand scope and vehicular combat of the Battlefield 
titles. The secret is in the squad.

But before we can really talk about squad combat, you need to know the basics 
of the game. When you first join a Battlefield 2 server and pick your team, 
you must select a class. Different classes have different abilities and 
weapons.

You can carry anything from semi-automatic sniper rifles to chain-fed machine 
guns. There are also several classes that fulfill support roles—healing 
teammates, repairing vehicles, and replenishing ammo. There are dozens of 
vehicles sprinkled throughout most maps, including planes, tanks, boats, 
helicopters, and even automobiles. You’ll need the vehicles to succeed, 
so it’s crucial that you keep them repaired and stocked with munitions.

The object of the game is to capture and hold all of the spawn points on the 
map. If you take over all the enemy spawns, while defending your spawns, you 
win the round. Lose the spawns, and you lose the round. The maps are huge, 
but unlike BF:1942 maps, they’re chock-full of choke points, which focus the 
battle into small, super-concentrated areas. Close-combat urban skirmishes 
make for brilliant fun!

By focusing the battle in those key areas—mostly urban settings—the emphasis 
has moved away from squad-level battles spread across five or six square 
miles to squad-level battles spread across a three- or four-block area.

Facilitating communication between squad members and separate squads sets 
Battlefield 2 apart from its competition. Every time you connect to a 
Battlefield 2 server, you have the option to join a squad. When you join a 
squad, you automatically get voice communication with your squad mates, and 
they’ll show up as green blips on your radar. Most importantly, in addition 
to the normal spawns, you’ll also be able to spawn at your squad leader’s 
position. As long as your squad leader remains alive, you’ll be able to 
respawn wherever he is.

In large games with multiple squads, the ability to spawn next to your squad 
leader enhances the intense, squad-vs.-squad combat. Battlefield 2 makes 
it easy to issue orders to your squad, as well. Press T and a context-
sensitive menu pops up with orders that are appropriate for the target. The 
menus are faster and easier to use than the old keyboard shortcuts, and 
they provide much more useful info than in other games.

Controlling all the separate squads on your team is one all-powerful 
Commander. The Commander controls strategic Battlefield 
resources—artillery, aerial drones, satellite scans, and supply drops—in 
addition to giving orders to individual squads. The Commander can also talk 
to the squad leaders, giving them instructions or a warning about incoming 
enemy concentrations.

A painfully slow server browser and the absence of a mechanism to get you 
playing with your buddies keep Battlefield 2 out of 10/KickAss territory. 
But Battlefield 2’s combination of small-scale combat and large-scale 
strategy is damn fun, warts and all.

The new BF2 expansion pack delivers on its promise of making an awesome 
game even awesomer. That is, if you can put up with the hassles typically 
associated with the launch of any Battlefield product—some stuff just 
ain’t right the first few weeks after release.

The expansion is all about Special Forces combat, so instead of it just being 
the USMC against the MEC, this time around you play as part of the Navy Seals, 
British SAS, Russian Spetnaz, and other elite units. The problem is that all the 
changes seem like window dressing, without any real substance. While 
everything looks new, the weapons and vehicles all feel exactly the same as 
regular BF2.

That said, there are a few new features that are very cool. Some classes 
have flashbang grenades or tear gas, which give you a huge edge in combat. 
There is also a grappling hook that can be used to scale buildings, and a zip line 
to descend from rooftops. These tools are rarely necessary, and using them 
leaves you open to attack, but a team that takes advantage of them can 
do serious damage. Gas masks and night-vision goggles are now standard 
equipment for all classes as well. The gas mask is mostly unnecessary, but 
some night maps require use of the night-vision goggles.

Which brings us to the really good part: The eight included maps are 
outstanding. Several are very Karkan-like, featuring up-close urban combat. 
The others include smaller maps that encourage close-quarters combat, and 
three new battles that occur at night, requiring the use of different 
tactics. Operating in darkness requires a lot of stealth and strategy, and 
is easily the most rewarding (and fun) new feature in the expansion pack.

Unfortunately, there are some weird installation issues. Installing the 
expansion pack rolls back BF2 to version 1.1, even if you have 1.12 installed, so 
you have to reinstall the patch. People have also reported some instability 
issues, which we experienced on one of our test machines, but not on another 
virtually identical PC.

The new maps alone justify the cost of the expansion, but unless you’re a 
hardcore Battlefield 2 player, you probably won’t miss anything if you pass on 
this pack.

Battlefield 2 won our 2005 Game Of The Year award for one simple reason: 
our entire game-playing staff was completely absorbed by the game for the 
second half of last year. After more than a year of regular play, however, 
Kubra Dam and Dalian Plant were getting a little tiring. That’s where the BF2 
booster packs come in.

Unlike full-blown expansions, which offer new weapons and tons of new 
content, the booster packs simply add a few new maps and vehicles to the 
basic BF2 experience. Euro Forces, the first $10 booster pack to Battlefied 2, 
added a new European front in the form of three new maps, but they didn’t 
see regular play on many servers. Armored Fury adds three 
damn-near-perfect new maps that focus on a North American invasion by 
aggressor nations.

The beauty of these new maps is that they place you in familiar suburban and 
rural locations within the U.S., and they focus heavily on open-field armored 
combat. Operation Road Rage is the fight for a key cloverleaf on an eastern 
Interstate. Operation Harvest places you in the rolling fields of Amish 
country, and Midnight Sun forces you to defend an Alaskan port against an 
invading force.

The focus on vehicular combat is immediately apparent. Between the flags you 
must capture and hold to win, there are wide-open fields. However, 
chokepoints abound, making it possible for infantry grunts to defend flags, 
while the heavy armor pushes forward on offense. These maps are well 
balanced and fun, and have earned spots alongside Sharqi Peninsula and 
Strike at Karkand as our favorites.

It’s not all about the ground-pounders, though. The new scout choppers pack 
an infantry-killing punch, but are better used for their additional tricks. With 
seats for two passengers and the pilot—as well as a radar scan similar to 
the UAV drone—the small choppers let you move your men anywhere on the 
map in a hurry. The ground-attack planes, including the classic A-10 Warthog, 
are capable of shattering an armored column, but are vulnerable to the 
anti-air stations spread liberally throughout all three environments. On 
average, there’s one AA placement per flag to give foot soldiers a better 
chance against air assets.

For anyone still playing Battlefield 2, these three maps are well worth 
your $10.

Battlefield 2’s multiplayer action is so good it practically blew our heads off.  
Few other games in the history of the medium have so effectively captured 
the visceral feeling of modern military combat in an urban environment*, 
where your life rests in the hands of your squad and theirs in yours.  There
 is far more to this fight for control of critical map points than a random flailing 
of bullets and explosives.

Without forcing it, Battlefields 2’s game mechanics promote teamwork on 
multiple levels.  Loners can do their part as spec-ops commandos or snipers; 
however, there’s only so much one man can handle by themselves.  But a 
cohesive squad composed of assault, anti-tank, support and medic classes 
working together and supported by engineers driving tanks and flying attack 
choppers overhead?  A team like that can overcome any obstacle, especially 
when a great leader emerges to direct his men.

A good commander in Battlefield 2 is a surgeon, and the soldiers are his scalpel.  
Surveying the battlefield from a strategic view, he points his squads leaders 
to where they’re needed most, provides intelligence with satellite scans, 
drops supplies to troops in battle zones, and bombards entrenched enemy 
positions with deadly artillery barrages.

Try sampling more than a few of the game’s classes and you’ll find at least one 
that’s suited to your individual talents – that’s how diverse 
Battlefield 2’s gameplay is.  And because each supporting role is practically 
indispensable to an effective fighting force, you will always feel that 
you’ve made an important contribution to your team’s victories.  There’s no 
better feeling in the gaming.

That said, the game is unquestionably flawed:  the load times are interminable, 
the server is an absolute disaster area, and some annoying bugs have still 
not been quashed after several rounds of patching.  But the fact that the 
gameplay remains so incredibly fun, drawing us back in again and again even 
despite these handicaps, is all the proof we need to declare Battlefield 2 
our 2005 Game of the Year.