The most interesting additional toys are probably the grappling hooks and ziplines. Grappling hooks give you access to otherwise unreachable rooftops, and ziplines are a quick way to slide to a lower point on the map. Multiple players can travel on them once they are set up, and they can be picked up again for reuse. It's either hook or zipline, you are never given both, which encourages you to work with teammates to get around on these new devices.
In my view, the grappling hooks and ziplines are so nifty you have to wonder why they weren't included in the original BF2. They would fit in wonderfully with the Sniper and Special Forces kits. My only complaint is that, in the expansion, snipers have been given the zipline rather than the hook, which would likely prove more useful for getting to the ultimate nest.
Not So Special
If there's one major drawback to Special Forces, it's that it really doesn't make you feel all that special. You're still playing the same BF2 classes, including the original Special Forces class, as convoluted as that sounds. There are a few night missions, a few new gadgets, a few less vehicles, but nothing that gives you any lasting sense of being part of an elite force.
This can be attributed in part to conquest mode, which remains the only gameplay mode in Special Forces. If an expansion ever cried out for some kind of objective-based missions, this is it. Sure, the maps are described as if there were an objective, but they don't follow through. In the Surge map, for instance, the Spetsnaz forces are supposed to be sabotaging a Rebel missile launch site in Kazakhstan. What this amounts to in practice is that you're trying capture and hold the most command points on a map with some big missiles sitting in the middle. At no stage does your team actually have to disarm, defuse, detonate, or "sabotage" anything. The command point nearest the missile silo is worth no more or less than any other command point on the map, or on any of the maps for that matter.
In my mind, Special Forces conduct precise operations on specific, high-priority targets, and running around capturing command points is a job for the regular troops. This expansion would have benefited enormously from hostage or bomb scenarios akin to Counter-Strike, or even objective-based maps like those of BF1942: Secret Weapons.
Technical Issues
If you're familiar with the Battlefield series, you're prepared to deal with the high system demands and annoying bugs that are becoming a trademark of these releases. Quite a few people that were happily fragging away in BF2 before installing the expansion claim that they can't get any of it to run afterward. There's no shortage of people online, however, and I had no problem getting Special Forces going, but it has been crashing to the desktop on occasion. Then again, I think the original BF2 also still does this.
Another concern is gameplay tends to get choppy when the action heats up, even on fairly beefy computers. You'll likely have to fiddle with the video settings to get acceptable performance. To make matters worse, you could almost play a match in the time it takes to load a map and complete the client data verification process.
Bottom Line
While there are some decent additions to the game in this expansion, some of it probably should have been included in the original title. A couple more features, or at least a new gameplay mode, would have made Special Forces much more compelling. Nevertheless, if you enjoy infantry combat in BF2, or you're tired of dealing with a relentless barrage from the skies, this expansion could be just what you're looking for. If you're after cool new vehicles to take into action, you'll have to keep waiting. And you may want to wait in any case, because, in the tradition of the Battlefield series, it'll take another patch or two to ensure that the bugs are under control.
