Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review : from a famousblueraincoat
Played 20+ hours on PC
Available for PC, PS3 & XBox360 - ESRB: M
"Just Like Back in '42"

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 the first-person shooter sequel to the first Bad Company from EA DICE. Although the Battlefield series is known mostly for its large-scale map and multiplayer focus, BC emphasized a full on solo campaign following a group of strongly stereotypical characters battle through a storyline taking place in those large-scale settings. BC also gained interest in its destructible environments. Its sequel is similar, ramping up the intensity on the aural and graphical side to be beautifully immersive, it takes the environmental destructibility and makes buildings entirely collapsible and unusable as cover.

The difference in the Bad Company titles in the Battlefield series is the presence of a singleplayer campaign, and the sequel picks up with the same rag-tag group of overbearing stereotypes in Russia. After a preliminary battle, the group is recruited for an assignment in South America to track down a massively destructive pulse-weapon. Tracking down the weapon and its developers takes Bad Company from Russia to Bolivia, Chile and Columbia for a mix of Forest, Mountains, Urban and Jungle scenery.

Although well developed, this singleplayer campaign did very little for me in terms of providing enjoyment. Where BC2 really shines is in its robust multiplayer with multiple modes and a variety of classes. Most enjoyable of these game modes is RUSH where each team takes a turn attacking and defending COM stations that, if destroyed, push the defending team back to a more and more vulnerable part of the map. SQUAD RUSH is just a squad-on-squad version of the same mode. CONQUEST is the traditional Battlefield mode of holding flag positions for the most amount of time. And SQUAD DEATHMATCH which is essentially a free roam of the map for the opposing squad for points.

The Recon class has a long-range sniper rifle and binoculars primarily used for calling in artillery strikes, can also be used to spot enemy units at distance. Assault; which is the basic all around infantryman with a rifle-attached grenade launcher and the ability to refill ammo. The Engineer has the ability to repair vehicles and is primarily used as anti-armour. As a medic, your primary role is to heal your teammates with health kits and revive fallen teammates can also lay down suppressive fire with a Light Machine-gun.

The Multiplayer here seems to have been developed in such a way to maximize intensity, striking a balance between encouraging tension and fun-factor. One example of this is the inability to drop to the prone position. This is obviously a detriment to snipers, or support classes looking to lay down covering fire, but it forces the action to stay constant. Snipers, after all, already have so much advantage in terms of the distance they can cover, and Light machine gun fire is high powered and should be vulnerable to being picked off.

Other ways of maximizing intensity gives the ability to respawn on other squad members after dying giving a heightened reliance on teamwork. Here one thing i take issue with is the lack of larger squads. Four players doesn't seem large enough to do any kind of significant damage. Additionally, squad-to-squad communication is really lacking. Another helpful tweak might be a compass shown on the HUD, or at least on the minimap to specify direction.

This game is simply built for communal gaming. The in-game voice chat options, the one-button communicate button to shout "ammo" or "health" on teammates who have the ability to give you ammo or health, and above all the server-hosted games all contributes to a very social experience. Additionally, having that same button being able to highlight enemies as bright orange indicators on teammate's HUDs and minimaps sometimes makes it more important to be spotting out enemies instead of shooting them first.

There are a few setbacks with BC2. You would think that a simple thing like getting a menu to work wouldn't be so hard, considering the complexity of blowing a building to smithereens piece by piece takes so many art and physics assets to accomplish. Why is it that in every iteration of this series it cannot, at the very least, create a usable menu? Frankly, it's embarrassing.

Other small gripes might include the lack of shortcut or presets for kit load-outs. Far too often, there are too many clicks to choose your primary, secondary, gadget and upgrade when you want to get into the heat of battle, or switch classifications in five seconds after a brutal death.

However, these limitations add to the overall factor of regulation that I tend to enjoy in Battlefield games and their subsequent modifications. Regulated in that the spawn times between deaths, the fragility of your own life on the battlefield are all integral in creating a very intensely engrossing experience. When you buzz through a squad of four or five enemies with your Light Machine Gun, it feels like an accomplishment. The task at hand feels epic. Your size and and influence as a single infantryman is small, but with a good and communicable squad, this game is truly at its best and has elicited some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.