In the past the Battlefield games have been an enjoyable multiplayer
experience and a single player campaign that is marginally enjoyable.
Well this time Bad Company has a very solid campaign mode that is more
than just training for multiplayer. First thing to notice is that this
game looks really good and has very nice cut scenes. This is a real
next gen version of Battlefield.
The single player campaign
places you in a war with Russia in Eastern Europe. Eventually the
game's story takes a turn and it's all about your squad's quest for
gold. In the campaign you play in a four member team playing very
large levels moving from objective to objective. The campaign allows
you to play though a nice story and allows you to practice with some of
the cooler weapons and vehicles found in multiplayer.
Where
Battlefield really excels is how easy the match making system gets you
right into the action and keeps you there till you've had your fill.
There is no such thing as a lobby in this game, you'll join a new match
already in progress or just starting after each match. There is really
only one mode to play and that places you in the role of a defender or
attacker. You will either need to defend the gold crate or destroy the
crate. There are multiple crates per base and once all are blown up the
defenders retreat to a new base and the pattern of play begins again.
Most multiplayer maps have four bases to either attack or defend.
Like
other online shooters there is a nice leveling up aspect of the
multiplayer game. You will increase your military rank by getting
kills, head shots, defensive kills, saving a teammate's life, blowing
up a crate and getting a knife kill. As you level up more weapons
become available to you. Battlefield multiplayer is a class based
multiplayer so you can play as an assault, demolition, recon, support
or blitz type character. The different roles determine which weapons
are available to you. For instance the recon character is a sniper is
a ghillie suit and the demolition character is a shot gunner who has an
rpg as a secondary weapon.
Battlefield allows you to play how
you want to play and based on the situation you can choose the best
character for a give situation. When you die in a match you'll have a
waiting period before you can rejoin the match. You have the option to
change weapons or change characters while waiting to rejoin the match.
This is really nice when the other team decided to roll up in a bunch
of tanks so you can choose to be the recon character. It's also nice
when the other team has a sniper in the hills and you need to snipe him
to kill him.
I definitely recommend Battlefield: Bad Company
as a fun multiplayer game. One very nice aspect is the matches are
always fairly well balanced and there are no griefers online. Often I
don't even bother wearing a headset because there is no communication
in matches. We all know the objectives. The game will call out enemy
troops if someone sees one. It really is the most pleasant online game
I've played with strangers. I've not heard a single swear or racial
slur online which is very uncommon in a first person shooter.
