Red
Faction: Guerrilla , you can demolish around 92-percent of the
environment (that last eight percent covers things like gigantic
buildings or massive piles of logs). Health now auto-regenerates, rather
than requiring you to jam a needle into your chest every few minutes.
The A.I. enemies are smarter than in Bad Company ;
they'll actually punch holes in your cover with heavy weaponry and
exploit that temporary vulnerability. Interestingly though, your squad
seems to be treading water: they'll never die on you, but then again,
they aren't too effective. I think my squadmates killed about ten guys
to my several hundred during the campaign -- sure, I'm glad I never fail
a mission because one dies, but I do wish they carried their weight
more often. Even as such, when you combine the increased destruction
with the upgraded graphics, the fantastic sound, and the way that both
your opponents and your buddies fill the air with gunfire, you can see
how Bad Company 2 provides chaotic (and memorable) firefights.
Besides the general, "wow, that's better" slate of improvements,
Bad Company 2 finally does something that's eluded DICE so far: provide a
good, single-player FPS campaign (Mirror's Edge ,
which was its own unique thing anyhow, nothwithstanding). Previous
Battlefield games literally took multiplayer maps, added bots, and
called them "single-player." Even the previous Bad Company's campaign
felt like a Conquest map, but with added dialogue. For Bad Company 2,
DICE drops that methodology, uses the more traditional "linear
rollercoaster" motif, and does a pretty damn good job of it.
The plot has the same squad of misfits within "Bad Company"
attempting to prevent a nasty Russian (who bears a striking resemblance
to Lazarevic from Uncharted 2 )
from acquiring a long-lost superweapon. I'm actually a bit sad that it's
so straightforward this time, unlike the previous game's "Three Kings:
The Video Game" approach. But it's a serviceable story along the same
lines as Predator , Commando , or The Rock . If you
think too hard about plot holes and leaps of logic, then you'll get
annoyed, but if you just accept the spectacle the moment-to-moment
firefights bring, then you should be fine.
Click the image above to check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2
screens.
There's actually a decent variety of gameplay within Bad Company 2's
13-mission campaign (which takes about eight-to-ten hours to get
through, depending on whether you hunt for hidden guns or satellite
uplinks for Achievements/Trophies). Besides shooting guys and blowing
holes in walls, it has you: fighting off frostbite in the Andes, rolling
a tank into a South American village, driving around the Atacama desert
(which is actually a pretty cool HD remake of Battlefield 1942 's
El Alamein map), and tearing apart an enemy base with a helicopter's
minigun. Plus, while the plot unfolds in a straightforward manner, the
incidental dialogue between your squadmates maintains a healthy dose of
humor; they break the tension and the action by heatedly debating topics
such as the Dallas Cowboys, the best scene in Predator , and the
difference between Africa and South America.
Inevitably, comparisons to Call of Duty 4:
Modern Warfare follow when discussing Bad Company, and I swear this
isn't out of laziness or groupthink, but the deliberate focus on a more
linear single-player somewhat invites said comparison. Bad Company 2
flat out dares for, and even revels, in it. The daring comes from a mix
of sly dialogue moments (disparaging remarks get made about snowmobiles
and rifles-with-heartbeat-monitors), to copy-and-paste jobs of COD
situations (using air support while cornering a villain in a safehouse, a
vicious firefight aboard an airplane, providing support as either a
sniper or a helicopter gunner). Though for the latter, it seems to be an
"anything you can do, I can do better" idea -- you'll find situations
that've been clearly lifted from the COD playbook, but embellished with
enough destruction, sound, and fury to make it a "we're not copying,
we're doing it better" moment.
As well-constructed as the campaign is, it does stumble a few times.
It takes getting used to the idea of a linear path in a Battlefield
game; in the aforementioned El Alamein remake mission, I find myself
tempted to drive into the vast desert, only to see the "you're leaving
the mission area, return within 10 seconds" message. People who love to
take a jeep and just drive in a Battlefield game could sigh when
traversing the occasional tree-lined paths or perilous mountain passes.
Along those lines, the few times you use air support or vehicles are
quite spectacular -- though not quite numerous enough. Additionally, the
checkpoints are scattered a bit too far -- which isn't too bad, until
their distance combines with your squad's earlier-mentioned
ineffectiveness-at-times, then you might find yourself dying and
replaying certain annoying stretches before progressing. Even as such,
these are stumbles on what is generally an improved campaign.
I've spent a lot of time discussing the single-player, because
that is Bad Company 2's biggest improvement. DICE has pretty much earned
its multiplayer prestige with Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2
already, and it's still present in all three platforms (play it where
you have the most friends; though for me, PC has the slight edge because
I prefer server browser over matchmaking). Again, multiplayer is pretty
much what you'd expect from DICE: extremely addictive and fine-tuned.
Like Bad Company, it's a more streamlined version of Battlefield 2: You
play as, and level up, four classes (Assault, Recon, Engineer, and
Medic), each with a mix of shared and unique equipment; leveling up in
overall rank and within each class unlocks additional weapons and
gadgets, such as light machineguns and defibrillators for Medics,
anti-tank missiles for Engineers, or ceramic body armor and rifle scopes
for all classes. While I generally like the unlock system (which dates
back to Battlefield 2), I do think it's a bit odd that a fundamental
item for both Medics and Engineers (a healthkit or a repair tool,
respectively) needs to be unlocked; those classes start with just simple
guns and feel like generic soldiers.
Click the image above to check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2
screens.
What I appreciate most about Bad Company 2's multiplayer is that it
doles out experience points for doing a variety of things, which lends
to a feeling of teamwork (one nice touch: you can actually spawn right
behind teammates no matter where they are). Sure, taking out fools
online still remains the best way to get points, but even if you aren't a
great shot, you still get experience points for activities like:
tagging a vehicle with a tracer dart (which makes it easier for friendly
anti-armor equipment to hit the tagged vehicle), spotting foes (a
simple button press to alert teammates to enemies in the area), reviving
buddies, capturing points, and so forth. It's rewarding to hop into a
tank gunner position, and not only use the machinegun to shoot down
foes, but also spot enemies in armored safety and earn even more points.
I realize more and more games do a decent job of making non-shooting a
viable gameplay mechanic, but on a pure personal level, I appreciate it
most during Battlefield -- it's nice to contribute to the team by
helping out my more-skilled buddies and still be able to place high on a
leaderboard
Besides Battlefield's traditional Conquest mode, the multiplayer
also includes Rush (an objective mode where Attackers destroy a series
of crates while making an aggressive push into the Defender's
territory), Squad Deathmatch (players are divided into four-man squads
in a competition to hit the frag count first), and Squad Rush (a
quicker/tighter version of Rush, with just two, four-man teams fighting
over two objectives). Similar to the previous game, matches cap out at
24 players (32 for PC) -- this makes matches fall somewhere between
small skirmishes of Modern Warfare 2 and the enormous wars of either MAG or Resistance .
Also note that if you buy the game new, you get 10 maps right away.
Buying it used lets you access eight maps, with the remaining two locked
behind a VIP code (similar to the day-one DLC codes for Dragon Age:
Origins and Mass
Effect 2 ) that you'll have to buy separately -- though PC gamers
won't have to worry about that last part, as they get all the maps via
game updates. To add another layer of corporate obfuscation in
multiplayer, the Squad Rush mode is technically exclusive to Gamestop
for 30 days; it's a bit annoying that buying the game at another outlet
locks you out of starting any Squad Rush matches. But it's a relief that
someone else who has Squad Rush can invite you into matches.
Click the image above to check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2
screens.
Fact is, despite the smaller player count and the reduced classes and
items, Bad Company 2 still feels like a Battlefield game. It still
pushes the graphics of whatever generation it happens to be in, and the
chaos of mixing in destructible terrain, vehicles, and wacky players,
gives it a distinct vibe. It's in Bad Company 2 where a rocket can fly
through the doors of a helicopter and hit someone on the other side of
said helicopter. It's a Bad Company 2 moment where you hop out of a
near-destroyed tank, and take out your opponents who were silly enough
to jump inside without regard to how vulnerable they'd be. It's here
where you get cornered with no ammunition, decide to say, "f--- it," and
just run towards your nemesis with a mere power drill -- only to have
it perfectly connect to his head for a kill. It's the game where you can
snipe at an incoming jeep in such a way as to make it flip over and
crush a squad of unaware fools. Because it's a multiplayer DICE game,
the most painful omission isn't a missing class, omitted unlockable, or
smaller player count, it's that there's no save film or replay
functionality to capture these bizarre and awesome DICE moments.
And that's the magic that DICE has tapped into ever since
Battlefield 1942. The core gunplay has that "DICE feeling" that I like a
lot, and even when the checkpoints or the linearity or my squadmates'
inaction annoy me a bit, the snap-crack-thud of a sniper rifle or the
explosion-driven collapse of a building make up for those flaws. It
might only have ten maps for now, but they're big maps that I'll be
leveling up my duder within and mining for plenty of crazy stories.
Though it occasionally stumbles, there's one thing that Bad Company 2
clearly demonstrates: DICE has graduated from the "can only do a
multiplayer FPS" class and is perfectly capable of making a great
all-around game.1UP.com .
