Battlefield 2: Modern Combat - Review
Added April 26th, 2006 by Kisan Parikh
Introduction:
The Battlefield series, with its incredible online multiplayer action, has garnered incredible success on the PC format. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat first brought the Battlefield experience to consoles last year, when it was released for the Xbox. Now, with more powerful hardware to work with, EA has released an enhanced version of Modern Combat for the 360. We all know the game will be prettier on the 360, but do the improvements warrant a purchase?
Gameplay:
The gameplay of Modern Combat has been untouched, except for a few tweaks, during its transition from the Xbox to the Xbox 360. The single player campaign makes a return appearance on the Xbox 360, and as expected, it isn’t really the focus of the game. Those who have played Battlefield on the PC known that the series isn’t known for its offline components. Luckily, the campaign isn’t a complete throwaway mode in Modern Combat.
The Battlefield series, with its incredible online multiplayer action, has garnered incredible success on the PC format. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat first brought the Battlefield experience to consoles last year, when it was released for the Xbox. Now, with more powerful hardware to work with, EA has released an enhanced version of Modern Combat for the 360. We all know the game will be prettier on the 360, but do the improvements warrant a purchase?
Gameplay:
The gameplay of Modern Combat has been untouched, except for a few tweaks, during its transition from the Xbox to the Xbox 360. The single player campaign makes a return appearance on the Xbox 360, and as expected, it isn’t really the focus of the game. Those who have played Battlefield on the PC known that the series isn’t known for its offline components. Luckily, the campaign isn’t a complete throwaway mode in Modern Combat.
The Campaign has you completing various objectives such as taking/holding positions and eliminating enemy shooters. Instead of just controlling a single soldier throughout the campaign, you are able to switch between the soldiers of a unit throughout the mission. The way this is handled is through the incredibly intuitive ‘Hot Swapping’ feature. By looking at a friendly soldier and pressing the X button, you switch into that soldier’s role. This works well as it allows you to switch to different positions of the squad as deemed necessary. Your role seems much more involved, because you can put yourself directly into the action by simply switching to another soldier.
As you progress through the 20 missions, you advance in rank based on your performance on the battlefield. The single player campaign is entertaining and long, but it becomes repetitive and has a generic storyline. Anyone without Xbox Live should probably not even consider buying this title, due to the fact that the majority of the action is online.
Just like all Battlefield games, Modern Combat’s online matches start by having you select a soldier class. Your choices include Assault, Engineer, Special Forces, Support, and Sniper. Each of these different classes has their own weapons. The game is well balanced, because no class is overly dominant. Having success against the other team requires that you have soldiers of every class in your army.
The game modes include CTF and Conquest. Battlefields fans will recognize conquest as the signature mode of the series. It involves working to capture enemy bases and deplete the other team’s ‘Ticket’ count. The first team that runs out of tickets loses. This mode is extremely fun given the well designed maps of Modern Combat. The battles of Modern Combat can become quite heated, and you will find yourself coordinating attacks against enemy locations. Once you find a good group of players, it’s hard to stop playing.
This is due to the great balance of gameplay and huge battlefields. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s great action is a mix of infantry, air, and ground vehicles. You have access to a huge variety of tanks, jeeps, boats, helicopters, and more to operate in this game, and again, none of these can truly dominate the game. In order to win, you will have to use an assortment of vehicles and weapons.
Luckily, the few changes that have been made to the Xbox 360 version have been for the better. This time around, the online aspect is much more enjoyable. This is due to the fact that the connectivity issues of the Xbox version have been fixed. Modern Combat is much more playable on Xbox Live, and I experienced minimal issues with lag and disconnections.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is pretty much the same game on the 360 as far as general gameplay goes. Sure, it is more immersive due to the highly upgraded visuals, but if you’ve played it before, there’s nothing new here. This doesn’t mean the game is bad, because the game is still fun, and Xbox Live play is as exciting as ever. The only problem is that if you are already bored of the Xbox game, you probably won’t have too much fun with the Xbox 360 version.
Graphics:
The visual aspect of Modern Combat is the one that received the biggest boost on the Xbox 360. EA took advantage of the new hardware and gave the game a huge facelift. Everything around you has more detail, and the environment reacts to you more. Bullets show up on objects, explosions cause vehicles to shatter all over the place, and you can even see used rounds lying on the ground. Everything is much more detailed and realistic that the Xbox version.
As you progress through the 20 missions, you advance in rank based on your performance on the battlefield. The single player campaign is entertaining and long, but it becomes repetitive and has a generic storyline. Anyone without Xbox Live should probably not even consider buying this title, due to the fact that the majority of the action is online.
Just like all Battlefield games, Modern Combat’s online matches start by having you select a soldier class. Your choices include Assault, Engineer, Special Forces, Support, and Sniper. Each of these different classes has their own weapons. The game is well balanced, because no class is overly dominant. Having success against the other team requires that you have soldiers of every class in your army.
The game modes include CTF and Conquest. Battlefields fans will recognize conquest as the signature mode of the series. It involves working to capture enemy bases and deplete the other team’s ‘Ticket’ count. The first team that runs out of tickets loses. This mode is extremely fun given the well designed maps of Modern Combat. The battles of Modern Combat can become quite heated, and you will find yourself coordinating attacks against enemy locations. Once you find a good group of players, it’s hard to stop playing.
This is due to the great balance of gameplay and huge battlefields. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’s great action is a mix of infantry, air, and ground vehicles. You have access to a huge variety of tanks, jeeps, boats, helicopters, and more to operate in this game, and again, none of these can truly dominate the game. In order to win, you will have to use an assortment of vehicles and weapons.
Luckily, the few changes that have been made to the Xbox 360 version have been for the better. This time around, the online aspect is much more enjoyable. This is due to the fact that the connectivity issues of the Xbox version have been fixed. Modern Combat is much more playable on Xbox Live, and I experienced minimal issues with lag and disconnections.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is pretty much the same game on the 360 as far as general gameplay goes. Sure, it is more immersive due to the highly upgraded visuals, but if you’ve played it before, there’s nothing new here. This doesn’t mean the game is bad, because the game is still fun, and Xbox Live play is as exciting as ever. The only problem is that if you are already bored of the Xbox game, you probably won’t have too much fun with the Xbox 360 version.
Graphics:
The visual aspect of Modern Combat is the one that received the biggest boost on the Xbox 360. EA took advantage of the new hardware and gave the game a huge facelift. Everything around you has more detail, and the environment reacts to you more. Bullets show up on objects, explosions cause vehicles to shatter all over the place, and you can even see used rounds lying on the ground. Everything is much more detailed and realistic that the Xbox version.
Additionally, there are a variety of cool visual effects included. For instance, the ‘Hot Swapping’ effect is pretty cool. You also see some nice blur effects from getting too close to explosives and things of that nature. Everything looks pretty good in the Xbox 360 version of Modern Combat. It’s not the best thing we’ve seen on the 360, but it’s a huge improvement from the original Xbox version.
Audio:
Modern Combat does a great job of putting you in the middle of the action using sound. Enemy rounds whiz by your head, explosions in the distance, and a tank rumbling by. Each weapon and vehicle has a distinct sound. The sounds of the game are done perfectly, and everything sounds as it should. The foreign voice roles are a bit lame, but I can live with that. The game also has a pretty nice soundtrack, but chances are you will be loading up your custom soundtracks anyways.
Controls:
The control scheme in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat feels pretty natural once you get a hang of them. The button configuration is different than the standard ‘Halo’ control scheme that you might be used to. Everything worked well except for vehicle control. The left trigger and left bumper are used for acceleration and reverse. The problem is that most people will be accustomed to hitting the right trigger to accelerate. Instead, the right trigger is used to fire your weapon. This took a while to get used to, and I accidentally team-killed another player while trying to accelerate.
Replay:
The amount of replay value you can expect to get out of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the Xbox 360 depends on whether or not you have the game for the original Xbox. If the answer is yes, then you will probably not get much out of this title. However, if you have not played the Xbox version, your money will be well spent. The game’s 20 mission campaign mode is a decent way to play the game, but most of your hours will be spent online. The online mode features great battles with up to 24 players, and you will find that the action is very addicting. If you haven’t already played Modern Combat, this game will provide a good amount of replay value with its Xbox Live mode.
Audio:
Modern Combat does a great job of putting you in the middle of the action using sound. Enemy rounds whiz by your head, explosions in the distance, and a tank rumbling by. Each weapon and vehicle has a distinct sound. The sounds of the game are done perfectly, and everything sounds as it should. The foreign voice roles are a bit lame, but I can live with that. The game also has a pretty nice soundtrack, but chances are you will be loading up your custom soundtracks anyways.
Controls:
The control scheme in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat feels pretty natural once you get a hang of them. The button configuration is different than the standard ‘Halo’ control scheme that you might be used to. Everything worked well except for vehicle control. The left trigger and left bumper are used for acceleration and reverse. The problem is that most people will be accustomed to hitting the right trigger to accelerate. Instead, the right trigger is used to fire your weapon. This took a while to get used to, and I accidentally team-killed another player while trying to accelerate.
Replay:
The amount of replay value you can expect to get out of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the Xbox 360 depends on whether or not you have the game for the original Xbox. If the answer is yes, then you will probably not get much out of this title. However, if you have not played the Xbox version, your money will be well spent. The game’s 20 mission campaign mode is a decent way to play the game, but most of your hours will be spent online. The online mode features great battles with up to 24 players, and you will find that the action is very addicting. If you haven’t already played Modern Combat, this game will provide a good amount of replay value with its Xbox Live mode.
Summary:
Overall, Modern Combat on the Xbox 360 is a solid title. The gameplay is still fun and the graphics have been drastically improved. The only problem is that we’ve seen almost the exact same game on the original Xbox. This fact makes it very difficult for me to recommend Modern Combat to anyone who has already played it before. For those that haven’t, you can be assured of a fun multiplayer experience.
Overall, Modern Combat on the Xbox 360 is a solid title. The gameplay is still fun and the graphics have been drastically improved. The only problem is that we’ve seen almost the exact same game on the original Xbox. This fact makes it very difficult for me to recommend Modern Combat to anyone who has already played it before. For those that haven’t, you can be assured of a fun multiplayer experience.
