Yet, even though many elements from the previous game are carried over into 2142, the most impressive changes come from the new set of vehicles. Instead of tanks, players can now operate powerful walkers that wreck armor and infantry alike. There are flying APC's, high-speed attack vehicles that require separate drivers and gunners, although they appear very nicely designed for running over infantry too. Once you come face-to-face with a walker, you understand fully that you are no longer in the realm of Battlefield 2, and will become entrenched into the futuristic war. Luckily, there is a small array of EMP weapons (including one that the Commander can call down) to disable vehicles for a short time, giving players the opportunity to take it out with either an anti-vehicle rocket or sticking an explosive onto it. There is only one type of aircraft, VTOL gunships that control smoothly and offer awesome air support.

Battlefield 2142 has two game modes, the first being the traditional Conquest game where players need to take and hold control points to reduce their opponents' tickets. However, 2142 now offers a slight variation through Conquest Co-Op mode, which fills a multiplayer game out with bots until additional human players join in. The second, Titan Mode, is only available in multiplayer (although there's no Co-Op mode) and can't be accessed in the single player game. Two years ago, Unreal Tournament 2004 was said to have borrowed its Onslaught mode from the Battlefield games. Now everyone can call things even, because Titan mode seems inspired by the popular UT Assault games. Two giant sky fortresses, Titans, float across the sky. Players are allowed to man turrets on their own Titan to repel attackers. In the meantime, ground forces are hard at work taking strategic points. Controlling a strategic point means that rockets will fire intermittently from that location, weakening the shields of the opposing Titan. Once the enemy shield is down, players can choose to let the rockets finish off the hull, or board the vessel in a full invasion. Soldiers can try to fly gunships over and hope they master the tricky landing, or they can use special APC's to launch surface to air drop pods. In either case, they have to fight their way through narrow corridors, disabling three shield consoles, before reaching the Titan's core.

Although there are a lot of similarities between 2142 and Battlefield 2, there are enough differences to make this sci-fi Battlefield its own unique title. In many ways, it seems like being in the future really picks up the game's pace, especially in Titan mode, where teams are racing to destroy the other's war machine while protecting their own and controlling the ground rocket silos.

A new buddy list feature lets players connect with one another no matter what servers they might be found on, cutting down on the hit-or-miss style of getting together or having to use third party programs. With Titan mode, there is a total of ten maps that support up to 64 players, which should be plenty to keep players going for a while. Players who might prefer one mode over another might be slightly disappointed in the fact that they would then be limited to about five maps. However, the maps highly detailed and varied, ranging from urban zones, to wrecked snowy villages, to huge industrial and military complexes. Explosive barrels and crates have been tossed in, creating more opportunities to interact with the environment and creatively eliminate the enemy.

The future of war is here. It's fast and merciless. Are you ready to take up arms?