Battlefeild: Bad Company single player review
I will just get this out of the way really quick
Battlefeild bad company is the most unique and suprisingly good games to come out this year so far.
I began this experiance during the multiplayer beta earlier this year and i was left feeling suprised , but not excited for the game. Later when the demo came out it was much more polished and the singleplayer got me hooked and i decided to purchase the game.
The game's singleplayer starts with you getting out of a helicopter reporting for duty after an apparent court martial of the main character , you are now assigned as punishment to B-company. Also known as "bad company" , this military unit is comprised of all the misfits and screw ups the army has to offer. You are quickly greated by a group of 3 guys that are clearly off the deep end and you join up with them as a 4 man squad. The squad leader Redford , is your typical roughneck army sergeant . Haggard is your typical crazy redneck. And sweetwater is the wisecracking smartass of the story.
Some of the dialog these characters are given is pretty funny . So are some of the situations you are put in by these guys
On the first mission you are sent in to take out some artillery guns up on a hill and it becomes very apparent from the first couple of tutorial parts of the mission that this game is very different. First and formost being the destruction that you can produce in the game. You can Blow huge chunks out of every building in the game , you can take down trees , and even explosives carve deep into the ground to create craters. Its easily the most entertaining part about this game and what makes it so unique.
The other defining feature is how open and big the world is . Even in the first mission you can approach your objectives from almost any angle. This becomes more and more important in your strategy as you go along in the game , especially on the later levels.
You are given colectables in the game such as gold crates and weapons that are scattered throughout the game world. Its pretty cool that they added another layer of replayability to the game with 2 types of collectables. Weapons you pick up in the game for the first time are added to your collectable list , some you will find on dead enemies , and some you will find hidden in the world. After you collect the weapon they dont really unlock any new features or ability to access them though. The other collectables are gold crates which are scattered across the world aswell and are a little bit tougher to find due to the incredible amounts of buildings and size of the world in bad company.
Im not going to ruin some of the single player moments , but it has some great ones that are both funny and kick ass.
If you havent heard yet , this game sports some of the most amazing Audio in a video game . The sound is clear and sharp , the explosions will shake your house , and the ambient noises of distant warfare is very memorable . Sounds change depending on the enviroment you are in . Inside of houses gunshots will echo and reverberate. And when you are outside they sound like actual guns being fired at a range( unlike alot of todays games )
The lighting in this game is pretty good too , there are some awesome moments in the game where your jaw will drop at the lighting technology implemented in this game. All the lighting is dynamic and light will fill up a house and cast shadows with every hole you put in it. Light will shine through trees and cast shadows on your gun and other things aswell.
The special effects ( most importantly explosions ) are simply out of this world . With every artillery round that hits infront of you , you can see each individual patch of dirt fly up into the air . the aftermath of each explosion leaves thick smoke lingering in the area. Blowing holes in buildings looks amazing and you can see chunks of the wall blowing outwards from the building. Its truely a sight to see.
There are a ton of weapons in the game that range military revolvers all the way to 50 caliber sniper rifles. The assault rifles in this game are the most usefull do to the fact that they are accurate and carry the most important tool in the game which is the grenade launcher. The sniper rifles can hit anything you can see all the way out to the edge of visibility. The shotguns are very powerful but only at extremely close range . The machine guns are not as accurate as the assault rifles but carry alot of ammo in a clip. And the sub machine guns are IMO not very good due to the fact you cannot zoom in and use the iron sights to get a head shot but they do have a very high rate of fire.
There are also tools you get in the game such as an impact wrench that you can use to repair , and destroy vehicles. The GPS transmitter will call in mortar strikes where you need them and has a short rechage time. The C4 is used to destroy objectives and vehicles , but is also useful in gaining entry to buildings. And the laser designator is a pair of binoculors that you use to call in a missle to strike a enemy vehicle. There is also a rocket launcher ( but i think you know what that would do )
The vehicles in this game are alot of fun and are easy to handle. you can choose from a variety of types ranging from armored cars , Armored assault vehicles , Tanks , buggys , boats , and helicopters. Each vehicle has a first and third person veiw. When in first person it takes you inside the vehicle and you can also look around inside. Some of the vehicles have machine gun turrets and even grenade launcher turrets! You will need vehicles to get around the world unless you want to spend alot of time walking.
Over all this game is the best i have played this year and worthy of a buy from anyone that is a fan of military shooters or just blowing stuff up
