Fast forward 200 years after DICE,s original Battlefield title, add extreme global warming, activate another Ice Age, and you have the newest installment in the franchise: Battlefield 2142. Two new super-powers have formed-the European-led EU forces and Russo-Asian PAC army-which are now involved in massive-scale conflicts across the globe, over the last livable pieces of land.
So what,s new in Battlefield 2142? Quite a bit. Each faction has developed new, powerful, futuristic battle vehicles to totally obliterate the opposition. A totally new, instant, and dynamic unlock/customization system has been added, and the new Titan game play mode seems to have made its way into every server,s rotation.
The character classes have been minimized to allow the customization features to truly shine. Instead of choosing between several concrete classes, there are four basic soldiers to start with: Recon, Assault, Engineer, and Support. While each core class is pretty simple to start with, players can customize each one as they unlock more and more weapons and gadgets. I,ll briefly describe the Recon and Support classes, two very popular choices.
The Recon class is essentially your scout or sniper. He is a combination of the Special Forces class from previous games, and the Sniper. You start with a basic rifle (SR4 or Park 52, depending on your faction), a combat knife, and a pistol. As with all classes, you can choose to wear light or heavy armor-increasing your sprint duration but decreasing your durability. Some of the unlockable upgrades for the Recon class include the Gruber 5 Stabilizer, which will grant temporary rifle stability when zoomed in; the IT-33 Optical Camouflage, allowing a soldier to turn nearly invisible; and the RDX DemoPak, your typical, C4 inspired, remote explosive.
The Support class is a heavy machine gunner intended for stationary assault against infantry and light-armor. You start with a heavy machine gun, pistol, and combat knife. This particular class has some interesting unlocks, such as the IPS Shield, which is a deployable ion-charged shield. Set this bad boy up in front of you for added personal protection against incoming infantry fire, or lay it down in front of the next unlock: the A-12 Enforcer Sentry Gun-a deployable automated turret that fires on enemy targets. Many of the Support class,s unlocks are geared toward defensive strategies.
There are also unlocks which can be used by squad leaders only, such as flying sentry drones, scouts, or spawn beacons. Universal unlocks, usable by any class, include grenades, larger clips, or longer sprint enhancements.
The new vehicles feel very much like their old counterparts, with a few exceptions. The Battle Walker, for instance, is a walking tank. There is room for one driver and one gunner, mounted on the top of the walker. The unit can sprint or crouch, like a regular soldier, and maneuver some terrain impassable by regular tanks or vehicles. One of the new features of 2142 is the addition of weak spots for heavy armor. The Battle Walker has two weak spots. One is the knees, which can be taken out to cause the walker to tip over. The other is right between the legs, where the sun don,t shine. A rocket fired directly into the ventilation ports here will score an instant kill. Just don,t stand around long enough for it to fall on you.
Another new vehicle is the APC, which has changed quite a bit since the old, metal death traps from Battlefield 2. The new carriers are equipped with successive-fire rocket turrets, EMP blasts, and ejection pods-which come in handy during Titan maps.
The Titan game mode is what gives 2142 the most obvious new-game smell. Each team begins with a massive, flying war fortress. The objective is to destroy the enemy fortress before they destroy yours. To do this, you’ll need to destroy the Titan’s shields and then destroy the Titan’s core.
In order to destroy the shields, you must capture points around the map, just like in Conquest mode. The only difference here is that these points are actually silos which fire surface-to-air missiles at the enemy Titan, slowly destroying the otherwise impenetrable shields. Once the shields are down, the fun can begin. Your team can either keep controlling these silos, which will eventually take the Titan out via these missiles, or go for a much quicker, albeit more dangerous method: destroying the Titan core.
In order to expose the reactor core, four reactor consoles must first be destroyed. It seems easy enough, but with a well-organized opponent, that Titan fortress is going to be well guarded. One of the most effective ways of getting your team onto the enemy Titan is landing an APC Aircraft on one of the aft decks, which then acts as a forward spawn point. If the enemy is smart, they will be manning the two machine-gun turrets on the top of the Titan, and nothing with a heartbeat is getting anywhere near those rear decks. Plan B is to park an APC on the ground below the Titan and launch out of the escape pods, which can then be guided using normal movement keys onto one of the decks. Your team must then work its way through the hallways of the Titan base into the console rooms and finally, the reactor core. Each class has its uses here, and some handy unlocks become crucial in these situations-such as squad leader spawn beacons, sentry drones, sentry turrets, and mines. If you do manage to destroy the Titan reactor core, you,ll have several seconds to high-tail it out of there before it explodes with you inside. Just run out the back deck and parachute down to safety.
All of this makes for a very interesting new Battlefield experience. The Titan game mode, along with the new unlock system, makes the game feel much more enthralling and exciting; you truly feel like you are working as part of a team and building up your soldier. Even public servers often manage to pull together and have a well-organized round now and then. The integrated VOIP function helps this go a bit more smoothly, but it,s rarely used, just like in Battlefield 2.
The graphics have received quite an upgrade since the last game, as well. Watching the many ways a Battle Walker can be destroyed is impressive in itself, but when you get in the middle of a massive assault with explosions and EMP blasts going on all around you, it can look awfully real. You,ll also hear your teammates scream for medical aid, ammunition, or call out enemy locations from every angle.
As a new title, Battlefield 2142 holds its own. Even for those who didn,t like Battlefield 1942, Vietnam,orBattlefield 2, this may hold some key elements that seal the deal. The new vehicles and weapons seem fairly well balanced, and there don,t seem to be any obvious overpowered strategies so far. For a team-based shooter, you can,t do much better with what,s available today, and if you,re looking for a game to move your clan to, this may be what you,re looking for.
