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Battlefield 2142
- October 23, 2006 14:07 PM PST
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Battle Fatigue
PROTIP: Make like Corporal Hicks and fire your rifle in short, controlled bursts, especially if you're at a distance.
Thankfully, Battlefield 2142 continues the series' tradition of excellent visuals, but that edge is slowly dulling with time. Though 2142 puts on a sturdy show, it's a cautionary tale concerning the critical role of art direction. On an artistic design level, the game is boring, boring, boring. The future, it seems, is painted in nothing but dirty browns and grimy blues, with an occasional smear of dull red. You'll need to go watch some Saturday morning cartoons after playing to recharge your rods and cones.
While it's true that 2142's visual style is shooting for that cool David Fincher/Nine Inch Nails rust-and-disuse vibe, the sameness of the environments (icy tundras, dusty desert dives, snow-logged city limits) quickly grows thematically tiresome. The designers should have looked to films such as Terminator 2 or Blade Runner to for inspiration on how to pull off a unique vision of the future.
PROTIP: EMP shockblasts will scramble your vision and cripple nearby vehicles; a real problem if you're flying aircraft.
On the technical side, though, the game pumps out some pretty pixels, complete with heat haze effects, volumetric explosions (blooming clouds, showering debris), and distortion effects that telegraph shellshock and EMP blasts. You won't see the raw level of visual detail you'd find in say F.E.A.R or Oblivion, but considering the fact that 2142 is basically an MMO game, it looks just fine.
There are some visual problems, too, like wonky physics that make bodies bounce like Superballs, or the way objects shimmer and swim at a distance. There's also noticeable draw-in on some maps, which isn't a terrible surprise given the enormity of the levels. And unless you've got a top of the line video card, don't expect to play the game with anything approaching the highest settings.
PROTIP: Walkers can get a speed boost just like regular infantry. Just hold the Run button (L.Shift) to run like the wind.
Our more than capable test rig, which was equipped with a 3.4 Ghz Pentium 4, 2 gigs of RAM and a Radeon X800 XT Platinum, delivered super-solid frame rates only after we set the game to "medium" visual settings and the resolution to 1024 x 768. On the plus side, the game scales quite nicely to accommodate lesser machines, so our MacBook Pro (via Boot Camp) was able to power through big battles on low-to-medium settings, which still provided a pleasing visual experience.
The audio is also strong and does a great job of bringing 2142's dystopian future alive. The sound of deafening explosions, whizzing projectiles, and screaming aircraft engines are everywhere and they make you believe that you are in the middle of a warzone. Even the game's stomping title song sounds appropriately urgent and bloodthirsty. We also like the ethnic mish-mash voice transmissions of the PAC forces, which adds a dash of flair to the straight-laced war talk.
PROTIP: EMP pulses will disable enemy vehicles, but you'll need explosives to finish the job. Try using an EMP to outrun from a superior enemy vehicle, like a Walker or a tank.
