The commander also issues orders to squad leaders, who have the job of carrying the orders out. The commander can scan the battlefield for enemy forces, deploy spy drones on the map that transmit data to all the members of the team, air-drop supply crates that rearm and heal adjacent units, and drop powerful artillery barrages onto enemy positions. Armed with a real-time, top-down view of the battlefield, along with a number of powerful abilities, the commander can keep an eye on the big picture. This fundamentally changes the nature of the game from having a bunch of lone wolves running around to having coordinated combat teams working together to get the job done. In other words, a team of 32 players could split up to potentially form five or six squads consisting of five to six players each, with one player coordinating all the efforts as a commander. Battlefield 2 solves this by letting you organize into squads that come under the leadership of a single commander.
In earlier Battlefield games, you simply ran around as part of an unorganized mob, with little coordination between players. Rather than have 64 players swamp a single channel with nonstop chatter and taunts, the voice system is instead integrated heavily into the concept of a commander and squads, which are both new features in the game. More critically, it's the voice-chat system in Battlefield 2 that's important. The voice system in Battlefield 2 is simple to set up and use, and you no longer have to fiddle around with conflicting third-party solutions. There simply is no excuse not to get a headset and start talking with your buddies, because even though Battlefield 2 does offer an improved keyboard-based communications system, nothing beats the power of being able to instantly and effortlessly communicate with your teammates. First up is the new voice-over IP system, which means that real-time voice capability is built into every single copy of the game.
Battlefield 2 is full of excellent new features designed to make coordinating your efforts a lot easier. What makes Battlefield 2 better than its predecessors, though, is that there's much more of an attempt to instill some method to this madness. And yet, through it all, you'll find yourself coming back for more. You'll experience the hellish shelling of artillery, see the desperate revival of wounded colleagues, and be killed a dozen grisly ways. You'll see feats of audacious daring as someone flies a helicopter through a city's streets or runs up to plant explosives on an enemy tank that's mowing down your colleagues. In any given match, you can have a dozen desperate firefights, countless moments when a rocket or bullet whizzes by your head, and the proud sense of accomplishment when you and your squad overcome the odds and achieve your objective. There are simply so many insane, over-the-top moments that can happen in a single game that you quickly lose track. It's completely unscripted and chaotic, but in an awesome way. The beauty of Battlefield 2 is the fact that, like its predecessors, it has a totally unpredictable nature to it. It's a fairly simple formula, but it sets the stage for the wild and memorable virtual battles that take place. The winner is the side that can either capture all the control points and eliminate the opposing team entirely, or whittle down the opposing team's tickets to zero. Each team gets a limited number of tickets, or spawns, to draw upon in the battle for control of these points. Conquest is essentially a sprawling, king-of-the-hill-style game with multiple control points (doubling as spawn points) scattered on the map. Strangely enough, Battlefield 2 ships with just one gameplay mode, but the conquest mode is what made Battlefield what is today.
This time around, though, you'll have the opportunity to take modern weapons and equipment into the fray, as the game is based in a near-future, hypothetical conflict that pits the forces of the United States, China, and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition in mortal combat with one another. In it, two teams of up to 32 players each battle it out for supremacy on huge virtual battlefields, taking the fight to one another on foot, in a vehicle, on sea, and in the air. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sĬontrary to its name, Battlefield 2 is actually the third game in the Battlefield series, and, on the surface, it sticks closely to the formula established in the previous two games.