REVIEW: Battlefield 2: Special Forces

So unlike everyone else all the guys were up till the wee hours of the morning, not playing an xbox 360 but instead playing the new expansion to our favorite game Battlefield 2, Special Forces. The best part about Special Forces is it’s at night; the worst part about Special Forces is it’s at night. Let me explain, first off the night time adds some stealth to the game and with the use of night vision you can hide and be a sneaky bitch. The flip side to this is the opposite team is also being sneaky bitches so figuring out just where you are being fired upon from can be a royal pain in the ass. Having to download an apply an enormous patch on release day really sucks, especially since I swear it takes over an hour to install both the game and the patch, not to mention the 20 minute download of the patch itself. Also the load times to get in the game seem to have jumped and the short 2 minute “optimizing shaders” warning now lasts 5 to 7 minutes. The last gripe would be the whole new weapons that aren’t new, per say, they are all variants of the G36, and the fact that unlocking them doesn’t mean you can use them in Special Forces but you have to wait until you are on the correct team on the correct level, very lame. So now for the fun stuff, tear gas in the face with no gas mask on = FUN! Just popping off tons of tear gas as the opposing team approaches to fill the area with smoke is great. Hitting someone with a flashbang while they have on night vision is also great since they act like a cat when you stick a sock on it’s head, they just back up cautiously and stay low to the ground, easy pickin’s. Less heavy vehicles and more infantry firefights is a nice change to the all out mechanized combat found on the majority of vanilla Battlefield 2 maps. Now the zip line and the grappling hook, come on, how many times as a kid did you wish you had a crossbow zip-line and a grappling hook to get to places no one could go, or you weren’t allowed but knew if you just had a grappling hook you could make it there unseen. Well now is your chance so get to hooking and zipping, however wrong that sounds. Somethings we would like to see, ability to crossbow zip-line enemy in the back, score a kill and still be able to zip-line, same with grappling hook onto someone scoring a kill and still able to grapple. More closed in space to get 64 people with less even less vehicles around and full player-vs-player combat without the worry about that shitty beat up Honda Civic rolling over your whole Seal Team, since for whatever reason the glass came bulletproof from the factory. All-in-all fun stuff and I can’t wait to loose even more sleep!