Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review

I hear the Standard Edition is even rarer than the pictured "Limited Edition"

Albert Einstein once famously said: “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.  It’s a pity the brilliant mind didn’t live into the 21st century, because video games lately have been trying their hardest to answer the first part of his statement.

I’m reviewing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 this week, the latest mutliplayer shooter from DICE designed to spirit away our time online.  I specify multiplayer shooter because, like many of it’s current-gen peers, Bad Company 2 is an enthralling online experience with a single-player campaign thrown in.

In many ways, the great action game has come to reflect the great action movie.  Over-the-top, espionage based plots, set against exotic locales with sufficient big explosions to satisfy your average Michael Bay fan.  Bad Company 2 certainly delivers in all these regards, although it appears to have adopted a slightly more serious tone than the original game.  Sure, you’re still treated to some amusing banter here and there, but essentially much of B Company’s previous personality has gone AWOL.  In fact, anyone who hasn’t played the original could easily be forgiven for assuming the squad of military insubordinates were just regular soldiers with a sassy sense of humour.

It’s a little disappointing, because personality was what really set this franchise apart from your typical Generic Military Shooter 7, but obviously the developers have looked at their target audience on paper and decided to take things down a notch.

Medics: Forever Ignoring The Hypocratic Oath

For the single-player campaign, players return to the role of Private Preston Marlowe, who makes up one quarter of the titular Bad Company.  The squad is once again pressed into the service of their country after they recover intelligence pointing to the construction of a top-secret weapon of mass destruction.  The scalar weapon (or as I called it: “the honk bomb”) draws it power from *somethingsomething* and delivers a massive electro-magnetic pulse effecting everything outside the blast zone.  And so begins a jet-setting, gun-toting, firefight-laden adventure to save the world.

You know, all the usual stuff we expect from a game these days.

Where the original featured some wide open sandbox-esque areas, Bad Company 2 has cut back on the free-roaming aspect and delivers a tighter, more focused campaign.  The action is well paced, which kind of makes the exploration aspect something of an acceptable loss.  What Bad Company 2 does lack is a campaign co-op mode, something that would have markedly improved the game’s story.  While your AI squadmates do their best to assist you, you’ll observe early on that it’s up to you to do the majority of the shooting.  B Company will constantly suppress enemy targets, but unless one of them manages to come close to the group, rarely actually kill someone.

Elevating mass destruction to the rank of artform

The campaign also takes somewhat of a show-reel approach to it’s structure too.  The game sports a wide variety of controllable vehicles, and by the end of the story missions you’ll have used almost every one of them.  The story isn’t long, and will take maybe seven to ten hours to complete.

Aesthetically Bad Company 2 is quite impressive.  DICE’s realistic destruction engine, Frostbite, returns for this title and doesn’t disappoint.  Most buildings in the game will crumble underneath a suitably powerful onslaught, meaning that a lot of good cover in extended firefights doesn’t last too long.  You’re not often on the receiving end of this in single-player, but it’s almost a way of life in online matches.  Entire villages can be leveled under concentrated mortar fire and aggressive vehicle offense, leaving defenders wide open for attack.

And online is where Battlefield: Bad Company 2 really comes into it’s element.  Online play utilises a basic set of four, kit-customisable classes: Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon.  Each class has experience based equipment unlocks, that work side by side with perks and gear that unlock as a character’s rank increases.

BFBC2 uses multiple ATVs, because apparently "snowmobiles are for pussies"

There are four modes to play online, the most common being Rush (attackers against defenders) and Conquest (multi-point King of the Hill).  There is also Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush, both of which are tighter, more tactical modes that probably require more teamwork than you’re going to find in a random public match.

As with all online shooters, BFBC2 has it’s fair share of problems, but it’s far outweighed by the game’s rather masterful sense of drive.  Most online games manage to create an urgency in each objective that will have you sprinting out of your spawn points to try and take a tactical advantage.  Squad Rush in particular can give you quite the adrenaline burst when the attacking team is inside it’s last ten tickets.

Perks have the desired effect of offering an experienced player an edge, without breaking the game for newer players.  Entry level weapons are powerful enough to compete, and although players might find gaining their first few ranks a bit of a grind, once you’ve reached the 8th rank you’ll start gaining the higher experience badges and pins.  Sticking to one class or favouring a particular weapon also helps you gain ranks, as experience is also acquired for each individual gun.

Couple this with the fact that each class has it’s own unlock ladder, and you’ve probably got a basic explanation for the disproportionate number of players playing as Recon soldiers online.  The sniper rifle is a good beginners weapon for it’s power and accuracy, and marksman headshots are ever so addictive.

Any engineer worth his salt can tell you what's wrong with this picture

And sniper fixation is just one of the slight annoyances online.  Because BFBC2 is built primarily around a squad system, there usually isn’t a very good team balance.  Matches don’t auto-balance very accurately, and many maps lend themselves heavily to spawn camping.  Mainly a problem in Rush mode, it’s a frustrating situation when a team can outmaneuver their opponents directly into their spawn area then simply lie in wait.  As players can spawn on their squadmates, it only takes a few players to saturate a spawn, and if they’re smart enough they can also force highly specific spawn areas as the game will refuse to spawn players in the same area as enemy units.  And if you find yourself on the wrong side of this situation, don’t bother screaming your impotent rage over your mic, as your voice communication only transmits to your squad and they’re in the same situation.

Still, these problems aside, Bad Company 2 still provides arguably the most enjoyable online shooter experience, and as you play you’ll not only gain experience for your soldier, but also learn all the little tips and tricks to optimise your chosen class’ performance.  The game’s cover claims (maybe somewhat cheekily) that BFBC2 is “Defining Online Warfare”, and if it came down to a straight comparison against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I guess I’d agree.  And with the inclusion of dedicated servers for PC players, I know which game they’re going to prefer too.

Meanwhile, I’ll be eagerly looking forward to Battlefield: Bad Company 3, which if Einstein is right should be an immersive First Person Sticks and Stoner that defines cave warfare!

The Verdict:

Pros: Fun, frenetic yet tactical online gameplay that will whisk away far too many evenings before you know it.  Ever expanding unlocks and a wide array of badges/pins to collect mean you’ll always feel like you’re making progress online too.  A very high production value has been placed on audio and visual.  Still retains an edge of humour behind it’s single-player.

Cons: Singleplayer is short, and for the most part unremarkable.  This game screams out for a co-op mode, but leaves split-screen lovers in the lurch.  Personality has been toned down from the original game.

Overall: While I’m not usually a fan of modern shooters, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does an exceptional job of walking the tight-rope between fun and reality, and manages to combine action and strategy in a highly accessible package.  Throw in the fact that it’s also part of EA’s “Project Ten Dollar” (as as we call it in the AU: “Project $10.90 Plus Transaction Fees”) and you’re assured that if you pick up this game new, you’ll get all your upcoming DLC included.  Nice work DICE, you’ve earned yourselves a 4 out of 5 Pin (4000EXP).