Battlefield Bad Company 2
Producer: Dice, EA
Release Date: March 2, 2010
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person Shooter
Love Is A Battlefield…
Written by William Nadel
Yes, the review’s title is the first of perhaps many classic rock puns that shall bubble forth during this Journey into world of Battlefield Bad Company 2. For the unfortunate shooter fan who has not had the chance to experience a Battlefield game, the series is an open world shooter with a style and personality unique to the series. Players have an opportunity to jump into the boots of various armed factions while fighting using choppers, tanks, modern weaponry and squad tactics to win the battle for their side. The series originated in the gritty world of PC shooters, therefore retains much of the frantic pace and twitch shot goodness when being translated to a console. Battlefield has progressed to legendary status and the series continues to push technical boundaries with BC2. There have been vast improvements over Battlefield Bad Company. Many took issue with the bullet damage in the first game and this has been corrected. More often than not, people die when it seems like they should. They use a class-based system, where certain guns are paired with certain abilities. A great addition to the system is the ability to swap in some of the unlockable weapons for your default class gun. The environments, audio, and graphic fidelity have improved, thus raising the bar when taking into consideration the scope of the online battles.
Everything is destructible. This chaotic system is called Destruction 2.0 and it revolutionizes online shooter strategies. If you want to rush a building, no need to go through the door. Blow the Sh*t out of the wall behind your enemy and flank them through the smoldering new entrance. Given enough explosives, it’s even possible to bring entire structures down upon the helpless victims inside. As great as this is, DICE cheesed that a bit. To assist aspiring demolitionists in their Dirty Deeds (done dirt cheap), Destruction 2.0 will kill you if you are anywhere near the collapsing building. It matters not if you are sheltered in a non-collapsed section of the building, you are simply terminated the second the building starts to go. I wish it were more dynamic. That being said, You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
The Story mode is more exciting than it was last time ‘round. There is no cooperative mode for the story and that would have been fun. The game is still all about the multiplayer and the feel of running around in squads, chatting up devious strategies with your mates while pillaging the war torn landscapes of some Swedish designer’s daydream.
I have a few points of contention. Sorry Colbert, but I’m putting DICE on notice. In the PC iterations, players were able to drop to their stomachs during battle. This ability has been stripped from all console versions of the series. They claim going prone gives snipers an unfair advantage, however many players feel that not being able to go prone gives snipers the best advantage of all. In an FPS about strategy, please give us all the tools we need to recreate realistic scenarios. An issue that makes my brain go Comfortably Numb is the connection errors these games experience when first released. The online servers are craptastic when console Battlefields first ship. They always fix these issues within a few days, but I now expect online issues the first few days of release.
If you’re feeling Hot Blooded and you need an adrenaline fix, Bad Company 2 is your huckleberry… I can’t deny it.