Battlefield 2142 Preview

"What's different?" That's inevitably the question on everyone's mind when a sequel is made, especially when it's a sequel to something as universally lauded as Battlefield 2. DICE must have found itself between a rock and a hard place when it had to plot the direction for the fourth Battlefield game: should they introduce many innovations (and risk losing what made the last game successful) or keep the basic format unchanged? Having played the final build of Battlefield 2124 at a European press event, it seems the developers wanted the former but ended up doing mostly the latter -- which may not be a bad thing, if it's what you are expecting.

In case you are unfamiliar with any of the previous games in the series, they are class-based multiplayer shooters featuring not only infantry combat but also vehicles, aircraft and gun turrets that can be manned by one or more players (the original Battlefield was the first game of this type to introduce large scale vehicle combat). Multiplayer sessions can have up to 64 players in two teams fighting for map domination in what is essentially an elaborate version of capture-the-flag. Team coordination is necessary to play the game properly, so much so that a team can elect a commander to guide it to victory. The most significant addition in Battlefield 2124 is the Titan mode, in which each team has a large flying warship, called a Titan, that hovers above their base. A team can only win by destroying the Titan's energy shield, then boarding it, reaching the reactor core and blowing it up. However, everything leading up to these final objectives is quite similar to the traditional Conquest mode. You still have to capture various points on the map, but instead of flags they are silos that launch missiles at regular intervals. The missile is fired at one of the Titans depending on who controls the silo at the time of launch. At the top of the screen are indicators for the two Titan's energy shields, essentially representing how much dominance each team has over the silos on the battlefield so far. I played the Titan mode almost exclusively during the preview and tried it on four different maps (the Sidi Power Plant map from the recently released demo was one of them). Whereas the regular Conquest mode ends by either time running out or one team losing all its spawnpoints, Titan mode adds a more intense climax. It also gives the losing team a last chance to make a stand, since a Titan comes equipped with many powerful cannons controlled via computer panels located near the first spawnpoint. Seeing the other team's Titan exploding into pieces in the victory screen makes for a satisfying reward, reminding somewhat of objective-based multiplayer games such as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. The new Titan mode would obviously not have been possible without Battlefield 2124's futuristic setting. Whereas the previous games were set in quasi-realistic environments, the setting of Battlefield 2124 is somewhat reminiscent of Command & Conquer, mixing some current-day scenery and vehicles with high-tech mechs and hovertanks. It's an interesting direction, though it is perhaps not taken far enough. While the futuristic Titans are pretty unique, you will be fighting on the ground for most of the time where you rarely ever notice them, so instead of being awe-inspiring air fortresses looming over the battlefield they are more like artificial floating platforms that you have to know are there. The buildings on the ground are only futuristic by virtue of having metal plating on the outside; otherwise the environments feel mostly like a re-skinning of Battlefield 2 rather than a brand new arena. With few exceptions, the hand weapons are very conventional, not really taking advantage of the possibilities offered by a sci-fi setting. Granted, the setting and its atmosphere are perhaps not the most critical elements in a competitive multiplayer game, but following Battlefield 2's contemporary desert combat and Battlefield Vietnam's lush jungles and 1960s music, the world of 2142 feels cold and characterless. Of course, whether this is an issue at all depends a lot on your personal preferences. The maps that I played were reasonably varied. I played Shuhia Taiba most extensively as it's a classic sort of Battlefield map, with both teams on very opposite sides and a string of small bases in the center to fight over. The Fall of Berlin map, on the other hand, is a deserted landscape with several tall office buildings in the middle. It makes you wonder why anyone would put office buildings there, but seeing as 2142 is facing a new Ice Age, I suppose it makes sense. Parachuting on top of the roofs is indeed possible, and it probably makes for a good sniping position. The odd map out is Suez Canal, in which the teams fight over control of a bridge over the canal. This map can get pretty crazy at times if everyone focuses their forces on this one main conduit. Most other maps feature coastal villages and follow a more traditional layout. Instead of seven infantry classes, Battlefield 2124 has four, which is actually a step up in terms of balancing. The medic and assault classes have effectively been merged into a new assault class with medic abilities. The sniper and special ops classes in turn have been combined into the recon class, able to kill infantry from afar but also blow things up close-by. The new streamlined classes give you more flexibility in how you can play the game, not to mention the ability to customize your equipment and abilities as you unlock them. Putting only four well-balanced but customizable classes in the game makes a lot of sense given that Battlefield is about vehicle combat half the time anyway, in which class differences are irrelevant. Battlefield 2124 is full of other refinements. For instance, instead of assault infantry doling out med packs that heal instantly, only one med pack can be dropped at a time, and it gradually heals soldiers when they are near it. The controls for the aircraft have been significantly improved so that even newbies can jump in and control them without having to practice much. Assault pods allow you to eject out of aircraft and APC's to quickly board Titans. Making a knife kill now gives you that player's dog tag, presumably so you can add it to your profile. It's these details that remind you that you're playing a brand new Battlefield game. Still, Battlefield 2142 seems to be to Battlefield 2 what Battlefield Vietnam was to Battlefield 1942; more of an incremental upgrade than the next major installment in the series. It remains to be seen how the game holds up after extended play -- perhaps the changes have more profound effects on the gameplay once players adjust to them, and I have yet to try any of the unlocks -- but so far most of the changes seem quite conservative. The game is new and improved, but it's not necessarily as different as the new setting might suggest. Battlefield 2142 is expected to be released on October 17, 2006 in the US and October 20, 2006 in Europe.