Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review
Developed By: DICE
Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC
Reviewed on the Xbox 360
Who’s Bad?
The Battlefield franchise is one that found its roots in the PC community giving some of the most massive air, land and sea battles in 1942 and expanding into modern day with Battlefield 2, years before Call of Duty Modern Warfare was a thought in Infinity Ward/Activison’s mind. When Microsoft and Sony entered the next-gen war, the Battlefield franchise migrated from PC community to masses of couch killers with Battlefield Bad Company. The first Bad Company was a great leap forward for shooters, giving vast open land and the ability to blow the shit out of everything around you. This isn’t the first to do this though, Black came a few years before with the idea that blowing shit up is fun, and it fucking is. Unlike Black’s more cosmetic damage system, Bad Company used it in a much more of a tactical way. Some son of a bitch dug in that building laying down sniper fire like a mother fucking? Load up that M209 and lob a grenade into that bitch to blow up his cover, and most likely send him flying arms akimbo. The first Bad Company had a great foundation but the lack of solid direction due to its large scale made it a little hard to stay focused on objectives. Also its destructive system, all be it fucking sweet as shit, wasn’t as versatile as it could have been. Fast forward to 2010 and DICE delivered Bad Company 2, a break neck roller coaster ride with the sole objective to dethrone Modern Warfare 2’s current dominance on the modern military shooter market.
The overall story line part Red Dawn, part A-Team, and partly disjointed. The wacky team we came to know and love, for better or worse, from the first BC is back but a little more reigned in. Gone are some of the annoying constant jokes and replaced with a better pace of jokes and serious moments. The melodrama is just that, its standard video game fare, not breaking any boundaries but also being satisfying at the same time. DICE wanted to deliver a Michael Bay type experience not only in its awesome explosion filled gameplay but its simple popcorn friendly story. The downside to this is it doesn’t give you much attachment to the characters in the game. Also the simple plot line doesn’t make for a gripping or engrossing story you get in a game like Uncharted or GTA.
The baseline shooter mechanics in BC2 are nothing less then perfect. The controls are precise and the singe player has a very forgiving lock on when you snap the iron sites to your face, letting you feel a little more like a bad ass if you’re not to good with the analog sticks. What DICE does well is mapping the buttons to the controller in a sensible way, so switching from ground combat to vehicle combat doesn’t feel clunky or tacked together. Gone is the health syringe from the first BC and in is the duck and cover regenerative heath system most games have adopted. This is both good and bad because you don’t to worry about annoying antiquated health pickup but at the same time, cover doesn’t stay intact for long so most of the time taking cover doesn’t seem to matter. Also the indicators that show you’re getting hit seem to be delayed. There’s a red overlay that creeps in from the edge of the screen, but I found sometimes it doesn’t show up or it has a delay, showing up after I got my ass to cover.
The maps in the 6-8 or so hour campaign are much more linear then its predecessor, funneling you down a path, but at the same time giving you a little room to experiment in your fire fight. Just like other pseudo open world games like Crysis, this more straight forward approach is nice, making the game feel a little more structured but at the same time there are too many moments where the game design felt rushed and unpolished for a linear experience. One moment leading up the games climax has you chasing after a plane through an underground tunnel. This could have been hectic, after all your squad does holler at you to hurry, making you feel like you need to get there before it leaves the runway. Instead of giving you shit to shoot while a timer ticks down, the game gives you a straight shot through empty concrete tubes with nothing to shoot at. This scene could have been done better as a few second cinematic rather then the minute or so section where you control the character. If the section had some obstacles or enemy NPC’s to take down, the section would have been a much more satisfying penultimate moment.
The enemy and team AI is done well, for the most part, but your team seems a little useless most of the time. They move through the levels, return fire, and never get bogged down or stuck, but at the same time they hardly ever kill anyone. I guess DICE wanted the player to feel like the ultimate John Rambo bad ass by letting you kill every guy between you and your goal, but if that’s the case why give me a fucking team at all. Also, if the game has a squad like this one does, why in fucks sake is it not co-op? There is no reason why the other people in your group can’t be controlled by another human player, and the many amazing looking co-op games like Gears of War and Resident Evil shows that it’s not a hardware issue. There is a mission where you do a solo mission in a frozen wasteland and have to duck into building to warm yourself up before you freeze to death, but they could have built it in a way to have your co-op team doing something else. Seriously, co-op people, and damn it devs don’t skimp on the split screen mode. People like sitting next to people, gaming is a social activity after all.
The world is a gorgeous landscape full of the most destruction you’ll see short of Red Faction Gorilla. Every building can be blown to bits and most can be leveled all together. The level design jumps between land and vehicle combat a lot so you move from place to place, seeing something new around every corner. There is a trade off sadly where the textures seem a little lower resolution then they are in other shooters, and the model work is a little lacking in the poly count department. When you weigh the pros of being able to level entire buildings versus the con of lower graphic fidelity, I’ll take airstrikes for 1,000 Alex. The lower resolution wasn’t a major issue, you wont need a paper bag to take this one home, but it does show the frostbite engine has a slight bit of a but-her-face.
On the other hand the sound is some of the best I’ve heard in any form of entertainment. The bullet impacts, the wizz of rockets and the deafening explosions are more engrossing then a few more polygons on a broke down Buick could ever be. When a rocket is a near miss, your sound cuts out and rings in your ear giving you a sensation of tread mark inspired glee. Every gun not only sounds unique but sounds like it’ll fuck shit up to boot.
Overall this was a satisfying shooter with great core mechanics and a fun ride. It doesn’t re-write fps games as we know it but it does what it does, and it does it well. It’s a little on the short side, as most shooter are, not so short you feel it’s over before it started. It’s brisk pace and constant switching of play styles help to keep this fresh. Outside of the single player is a bulky multiplayer suit that also gives players plenty to come back to. It gives you standard online modes that most games give you and something other games don’t do by adding in lots of vehicles to play with. Add in a level up system, unlock system, 24 player battles, and the full destruction system, online is a fucking sweet experience to go along with the satisfying single player excursion. This is a must buy for shooter fans and those who are over the MW2 hype.
Story: 6 -- Gameplay: 8.5 -- Graphics: 8
Sound: 9.5 -- Replay: 9 -- Fun factor: 9
Overall (not an average): 8.5 out of 10
-TuxedoKatsJoe
Growing up nerd, there were a few shows that I loved with a passion and still remember fondly to this day; the original Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Space 1999, The Greatest American Hero, V and of course Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (Oh, Erin Gray how I miss your skin tight suits). 
