More Conquest Mode
This is Battlefield, so the mandatory conquest game mode is alive and well. If you don't like conquest, there's... uh, more conquest. I realize that conquest has always been the most popular mode of play for this series, but I can't understand why we aren't given more options in this regard. After all, BF1942 had conquest, capture-the-flag, and objective-based modes.
The problem with conquest mode is that it tends to dissolve any semblance of a front line in the battle, particularly on maps with air power. Any command point on the map can come under attack at any time because they don't have to be taken in order. Half the time it feels like playing "musical bases," where everyone runs around shooting each other for a while, then you exchange positions on the map, rinse, and repeat.
What I would really like to see is something like PlanetSide's base lattice or Unreal Tournament's onslaught mode added to game. These types of gameplay force the opposing sides into a concentrated battle where offensive and defensive strategies become considerably more meaningful. Something tells me the community will try to mod additional multiplayer modes into the game.
Team Kill System
FPS games that permit friendly fire have long had to find ways to deal with people who decide killing their own team is more amusing than killing the enemy (TKers). In previous BF titles, a voting system was used, allowing players to kick a TKer off the server by consensus. It wasn't a perfect solution because a lot of people can't be bothered to vote.
BF2 has a new system that gives the victim the option to punish or forgive the teammate that perpetrated the crime. If you are punished for too many team kills, you are booted from the server.
This may seem like a sensible solution at first glance, but in practice it is nothing short of ridiculous. For example, if a teammate jumps wrecklessly in front of your jeep, you may well get punished for it. Even worse, if you're an engineer and a teammate runs over one of your mines and dies, despite all the bright red warning icons, as often as not you'll get punished. To top it all off, if you don't hit forgive within about ten seconds of being killed, it defaults to punish! Subsequently, people who simply aren't paying attention to the messages on the bottom of their screen end up punishing you when they didn't intend to.
Annoying Details
EA and Dice have a rock solid franchise here that has always sold well, and yet for some reason they insist on releasing a blockbuster sequel like this with all sorts of loose ends. Not one of the BF games has a proper server browser for finding an online game, and almost nobody plays BF single-player. In BF2 there is no way to mark a favorite, no buddy tracking, and you can barely even scroll through the server list, which is itself rife with inaccuracies. It is "powered by GameSpy," but I've seen GameSpy implemented nicely into other games, like Neverwinter Nights. The priority in BF2 seems to be having the fullscreen movie running in the background, rather than making the thing actually work.
Of course, some of this was/will be addressed in the first patch. Unfortunately, the first patch was rolled back because of other problems it created, which doesn't exactly instill confidence in the game's technology.
Another frustrating oversight is user account management. Because players have persistent stats when playing on ranked servers, it's necessary for them to set up an account for the game (yes, it's free). This is to be expected, but people also expect to have rudimentary ways to manage that account.
A BF2 account ties every nickname to an email address, which appears to then be permanently carved in stone, because there is no way to delete it. Subsequently, you have to create a new account with a new email address every time you want to change your name. Imagine a MMORPG that allowed you only one character per email address, and gave you no way to delete a character - there would be outrage!
I could go on about several other small issues I have with this release, but I have to admit that, although irritating, they aren't game stoppers. Hopefully BF3 will have some of the polish of a title developed by id Software or Epic Games, because BF2 sure doesn't.
Bottom Line
There's a lot to like here, particularly if you enjoyed previous titles in the series. BF2 delivers many great moments of classic multiplayer Battlefield mayhem, and the commander functions are a slick addition to the fun. They've mixed in some nice new features without departing from the gameplay that has made this series a success. It might be a couple patches before everything is working as intended, but if you don't mind the wait, odds are good that you will get your money's worth out of BF2.
