Battlefield 2142 Demo Review / Biased Opinions

Not been many posts on BF2 since…a while. Last one was about the 1.2 patch, and adding new weapons as I recall. Those days are far behind us. We now have 1.4 and the game to me is just as fun, if not more so, than when I first started playing over a year ago now. But now we have a new beast on the horizon, 2142… This is set in the “future”, which at first may put some people off, it put me off. But then I played the demo. You really can’t judge this game without playing the demo, and even then, the unlock and persistence system isn’t in play so you will never see the vairety and depth of gameplay you will in the real thing (which incidentally comes out on the 20th of October).

The demo is of Sidi Power Plant and features both the original and brilliant conquest mode and the new Titan mode. There is no point playing conquest, it is just as much fun as BF2, and you play 2142 for the Titan! These floating bricks are awesome, the guns are powerful and the shields prevent spawn camping (so NOW you can all quit moaning!). There is a lot to say about the demo, so I will try and be to the point. The weapons are good. I was scared we would get weird high tech ones, they aren’t like that. They still use good old bullets and are still pretty balanced. The vehicles are fun and unique, the hover tank is very different but cool and the walker is just plan awesome! Now the biggest change in my mind is that there is no helicoptor and no jet. Now we have a…jeliitoper…At low speeds it will hover and manoeuvre like a chopper, at higher speeds it will bank and move like a jet. This takes some getting used to as Bobby will testify (he was with me as I was practising 😉 ). The map felt pretty balanced, not really played it a huge amount to know the ins and outs, but it looks pretty good

As for the Titan, they are a reason for buying the game in themselves. The big floating tin cans have a nice shielded section at the front which stops you being raped completely. You also have easy access from the spawns to all the guns in the ships, launch pods and the rest of the titan itself, namely the four control panels which must be destroyed to gain access to the big ass reactor core. Only the second time I played the demo I got into a huge defense fight at the core, while our missles slowly took down their hull. (They broke though and won eventually 🙁 ). nearly every round will end like this – do I:

1. Defend our titans control panels and core for as long as possible to allow out other guys to get their titan down.
2. Do I board the other Titan with a few others and try and take out their probably well defended panels and core?
3. Do I stay on the ground and try and hold the missle silos to keep a steady drain on their hull.

There are a few minor gripes I have, namely the titans look identical, for balance purposes, I know, but if they are flying very close difficult to know for sure which one you want to get on. Also some of the emplaced weapons are a bit wimpy, namely the “anti-air” gun (although the EMP emplaced weapon is deadly, choppers literally fall from the sky!)

Now that I have praised it, I expect to go ahead and read all the nasty things people are saying. Oh well, this game is going to be a huge hit, as it has the battlefield formula – squad work, vehciles and infantry weapons and unlocks, all of which are kept very finely balanced (for now, until people start moaning).

And yes, I will be getting Quake Wars when it comes out, probably, I just wish they would TELL US WHEN!!!