Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Added October 29th, 2005 by Talk Xbox
Introduction:
Gamers with passé PCs rejoice for yet another PC title makes its way to the Xbox! First it was Far Cry making a beautiful transition from PC to console, now we have the Battlefield series attempting to do the same. What a year this has been for fans of these popular, once PC exclusive, franchises who own outdated PCs. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat pledges to revolutionize the way gamers play first-person shooters on home consoles. It boasts 24-player online multiplayer, a very lengthy single-player campaign, and some extremely large maps. To find out if the Battlefield series has made the conversion successfully, and all these features aren’t just smoke and mirrors, keep your eyes glued to your computer screen and pray that your 1997 Mac doesn’t burn to a crisp while in the process due to CPU exhaustion.
Gameplay:
With Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, the Battlefield universe has been brought to the Xbox. While the controls and graphics obviously took a hit, the gameplay respectively remains solid. The single-player campaign reminds me of the classic Phil Collins song ‘’Both Sides of the Story.’’ In Modern Combat, you get to serve on NATO as well as the Chinese troops. The plot is generic and practically identical to every other modern war game, but it’s presented very well with intriguing ‘’war updates’’ offered by in-game newscasts that help bring the gamer into the experience. Say your final goodbyes to ma and pa, grandma and grandpa; it’s time to ship your butt off to Kazakhstan.
Gamers with passé PCs rejoice for yet another PC title makes its way to the Xbox! First it was Far Cry making a beautiful transition from PC to console, now we have the Battlefield series attempting to do the same. What a year this has been for fans of these popular, once PC exclusive, franchises who own outdated PCs. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat pledges to revolutionize the way gamers play first-person shooters on home consoles. It boasts 24-player online multiplayer, a very lengthy single-player campaign, and some extremely large maps. To find out if the Battlefield series has made the conversion successfully, and all these features aren’t just smoke and mirrors, keep your eyes glued to your computer screen and pray that your 1997 Mac doesn’t burn to a crisp while in the process due to CPU exhaustion.
Gameplay:
With Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, the Battlefield universe has been brought to the Xbox. While the controls and graphics obviously took a hit, the gameplay respectively remains solid. The single-player campaign reminds me of the classic Phil Collins song ‘’Both Sides of the Story.’’ In Modern Combat, you get to serve on NATO as well as the Chinese troops. The plot is generic and practically identical to every other modern war game, but it’s presented very well with intriguing ‘’war updates’’ offered by in-game newscasts that help bring the gamer into the experience. Say your final goodbyes to ma and pa, grandma and grandpa; it’s time to ship your butt off to Kazakhstan.
The single-player experience is surprisingly enjoyable. The way Modern Combat combines fast-paced gameplay with mild tactical elements is startling. Going into this game, I was expecting an average at best campaign simply because the Battlefield series has never, not in a million years, focused on its single-player portion. Boy, was I ever off. It’s well executed, it’s filled with action, and it’s an absolute blast to play. The main reason why is because of the single-player exclusive (wouldn’t have made any sense to have it online) ‘’HotSwap’’ feature. HotSwapping is easy to pull off, and it allows you to switch to any squad member that you have in your sights. This means that if you’re out of bullets, you can take command of a soldier that has plenty of ammunition to spare. Or, if you don’t like your arsenal of weapons, you can make the switch to assume control of someone that has a better selection of the guns you prefer. The possibilities are literally endless. You can even snag a teammate in your vision that is in a vehicle and possess him as the mood to go for a drive strikes you. This opens the battlefield up as well because you don’t have to travel tediously through huge maps. HotSwap is vital to this game’s single-player experience, and is an exceedingly fun feature.
Just like in Conker: Live & Reloaded, you have a number of soldier classes. You have five -- count it -- five types of soldiers. They are: assault, sniper, special ops, engineer, and support. Most of these classes are self-explanatory. For example, the assault soldier will carry an assault rifle (who would’ve thought?), a grenade launcher, frag and smoke grenades, and is basically designed for fast-action combat. Special ops, on the other hand, are almost the opposite of the assault soldier. Special ops are best suited for stealth work as their arsenal is home to knives, C4, and stun grenades. The differences in these soldiers aren’t just with their weapons; I noticed that they each maneuver differently as well.
The single-player missions include neutralizing war zones, driving engineers around so they can dismantle the enemy’s technological efforts to wreak havoc, and kicking some occasional behind. However, we all know that people don’t buy Battlefield games for their single-player offerings. Even though Modern Combat’s is surprisingly good, you’ll be spending an obscene amount of time playing this one over Live. Luckily, it delivers. Another thing, aside from the single-player campaign being good, that came as a shock was how seamless this game’s online functionality is. I’ll be honest, EA’s servers aren’t always the best, but with Modern Combat’s, they have really outdone themselves.
The two modes of play offered in Modern Combat are Conquest and Capture the Flag. I’m sure everyone reading this review knows how to play CTF, and the majority of you know what Conquest mode is. The only one I feel the need to go over is Conquest since some of you may have forgotten what it’s all about. You and your fellow teammates attempt to take command of more control points, placed on these vast maps, than the opposing force. It’s a rather simple mode, but nonetheless an exceptionally fun multiplayer ordeal.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s gameplay will please followers of the Battlefield series, no question about it. Its 24-player online multiplayer facet is among the best on Xbox, and it follows through with its well produced single-player campaign. My only complaints are with its amount of playable modes online (only two), and I would have like to have seen some sort of offline multiplayer. Aside from these minor flaws, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s gameplay is absolutely stunning.
Graphics:
Battlefield 2’s visuals on the PC were mind-blowing. It’s a shame, but Modern Combat’s sadly don’t quite stack up. Similar to the case with Far Cry Instincts, we have a game here running on outdated hardware. You also have to take into account how utterly massive some of these environments are. They’re not just ‘’big’’ big, rather ‘’look ma, I’ve been traveling along this path for thirty minutes and I still HAVEN’T REACHED THE END OF THE MAP!’’ big. That’s not to say they’re not detailed or designed well. Some of the middle-eastern-style foundations caused my jaw to drop.
Just like in Conker: Live & Reloaded, you have a number of soldier classes. You have five -- count it -- five types of soldiers. They are: assault, sniper, special ops, engineer, and support. Most of these classes are self-explanatory. For example, the assault soldier will carry an assault rifle (who would’ve thought?), a grenade launcher, frag and smoke grenades, and is basically designed for fast-action combat. Special ops, on the other hand, are almost the opposite of the assault soldier. Special ops are best suited for stealth work as their arsenal is home to knives, C4, and stun grenades. The differences in these soldiers aren’t just with their weapons; I noticed that they each maneuver differently as well.
The single-player missions include neutralizing war zones, driving engineers around so they can dismantle the enemy’s technological efforts to wreak havoc, and kicking some occasional behind. However, we all know that people don’t buy Battlefield games for their single-player offerings. Even though Modern Combat’s is surprisingly good, you’ll be spending an obscene amount of time playing this one over Live. Luckily, it delivers. Another thing, aside from the single-player campaign being good, that came as a shock was how seamless this game’s online functionality is. I’ll be honest, EA’s servers aren’t always the best, but with Modern Combat’s, they have really outdone themselves.
The two modes of play offered in Modern Combat are Conquest and Capture the Flag. I’m sure everyone reading this review knows how to play CTF, and the majority of you know what Conquest mode is. The only one I feel the need to go over is Conquest since some of you may have forgotten what it’s all about. You and your fellow teammates attempt to take command of more control points, placed on these vast maps, than the opposing force. It’s a rather simple mode, but nonetheless an exceptionally fun multiplayer ordeal.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s gameplay will please followers of the Battlefield series, no question about it. Its 24-player online multiplayer facet is among the best on Xbox, and it follows through with its well produced single-player campaign. My only complaints are with its amount of playable modes online (only two), and I would have like to have seen some sort of offline multiplayer. Aside from these minor flaws, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s gameplay is absolutely stunning.
Graphics:
Battlefield 2’s visuals on the PC were mind-blowing. It’s a shame, but Modern Combat’s sadly don’t quite stack up. Similar to the case with Far Cry Instincts, we have a game here running on outdated hardware. You also have to take into account how utterly massive some of these environments are. They’re not just ‘’big’’ big, rather ‘’look ma, I’ve been traveling along this path for thirty minutes and I still HAVEN’T REACHED THE END OF THE MAP!’’ big. That’s not to say they’re not detailed or designed well. Some of the middle-eastern-style foundations caused my jaw to drop.
The textures and character models are slightly above average, but when you’re having the caliber of fun you’ll be having you won’t even notice the washed-out clothing and building textures. The animations aren’t silky smooth, but they still hold up decently well. The foremost aspect I admired about this game’s graphics was its steady frame-rate. There can be tons of particles exploding as well as countless characters on-screen, yet it will miraculously stay fairly steady. Speaking of exploding particles, the particle effects in Modern Combat are second to only Far Cry Instincts. Overall, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat gets serious props from me for delivering enormous-sized environments while at the same time keeping a stable frame-rate, and pulling all this off on outdated hardware to boot.
Audio:
Outstanding, simply outstanding. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is one of the few games that can go without the custom soundtracks feature (hold on music lovers, 360’s a comin’). True, players should have the option to play their own music, but when you’ve got music that’s this good, who the heck cares? The score is brilliantly produced, and is hands down one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Explosion sounds are very well done as well, and the voice-acting is phenomenal. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s auditory value is, like I said, outstanding on all fronts.
Controls:
The controls are certainly nowhere near as spectacular as a keyboard and mouse, but that’s not to say Modern Combat doesn’t have a good setup. The Y button is used as your HotSwapping button, and is frankly the only thing worth mentioning about this game’s controls because pretty much everything else is your fundamental first-person shooter layout, which we’ve been seeing since the release of the Xbox. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing. Hey, if it works, it works. No complaints here. I should, however, mention that the vehicle handling and control is a tad awkward.
Replay:
It’s Live-enabled, and it’s Battlefield, what more incentive do you want? That should speak volumes when trying to figure out if this game is worth the full fifty. Let’s not forget that Modern Combat has an extremely lengthy, non-linear, fun-filled single-player campaign as well. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is simply feature-packed, and its replay value is higher than your heating bill last winter -- and will most likely be higher than your heating bill for this winter -- count on it.
Audio:
Outstanding, simply outstanding. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is one of the few games that can go without the custom soundtracks feature (hold on music lovers, 360’s a comin’). True, players should have the option to play their own music, but when you’ve got music that’s this good, who the heck cares? The score is brilliantly produced, and is hands down one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Explosion sounds are very well done as well, and the voice-acting is phenomenal. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s auditory value is, like I said, outstanding on all fronts.
Controls:
The controls are certainly nowhere near as spectacular as a keyboard and mouse, but that’s not to say Modern Combat doesn’t have a good setup. The Y button is used as your HotSwapping button, and is frankly the only thing worth mentioning about this game’s controls because pretty much everything else is your fundamental first-person shooter layout, which we’ve been seeing since the release of the Xbox. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing. Hey, if it works, it works. No complaints here. I should, however, mention that the vehicle handling and control is a tad awkward.
Replay:
It’s Live-enabled, and it’s Battlefield, what more incentive do you want? That should speak volumes when trying to figure out if this game is worth the full fifty. Let’s not forget that Modern Combat has an extremely lengthy, non-linear, fun-filled single-player campaign as well. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is simply feature-packed, and its replay value is higher than your heating bill last winter -- and will most likely be higher than your heating bill for this winter -- count on it.
Summary:
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is no doubt one of the best first-person shooters to be found on the Xbox. It followed in its father’s footsteps, and in return not much of the core elements were changed. Its graphics may not be as eye-catching as its PC counterpart, but the Battlefield series has never been made great by its visuals. What matters is here. The audio is fantastic, and most importantly, its gameplay is superb. HotSwapping is a distinctive new feature, and makes the single-player campaign worth playing. Combine all of this and you once again have another worthy addition to the Xbox’s large family of above average shooters.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is no doubt one of the best first-person shooters to be found on the Xbox. It followed in its father’s footsteps, and in return not much of the core elements were changed. Its graphics may not be as eye-catching as its PC counterpart, but the Battlefield series has never been made great by its visuals. What matters is here. The audio is fantastic, and most importantly, its gameplay is superb. HotSwapping is a distinctive new feature, and makes the single-player campaign worth playing. Combine all of this and you once again have another worthy addition to the Xbox’s large family of above average shooters.
