War never takes itself lightly. Sometimes the soldiers do. Of course,
I'm talking about the latest Battlefield game from DICE and EA,
Battlefield: Bad Company.
Preston Marlowe finds himself headed to B Company, where the US Army
sends all of their "loose cannon" expendable soldiers. He meets up with
his squad, Sweet water, Haggard, and Redford. The four of them are just
trying to get by the next few days smoothly, so that Redford can retire
in peace. They find themselves battling Russians in a very cliche
fashion, but get sideswept on a quest for gold. The story is told all
through in engine cutscenes and conversations during action. At first,
Bad Company's tale appears to be really average, but it quickly fastens
up, and in the end, it's a satisfying adventure about personal gain.
Throughout the game, you'll be witness to a surprisingly hillarious
performance by the script and voice actors. Even during moments of
intense war, the soldiers of B Company constantly make light of the
situation, joke around with each other, and tell stories about their
odd families or desires. It would seem to hurt the intensity of the
battles, and although it does a slight, it actually helps out the
overall enjoyment of the game. It's unique to see such a funny lineup
in a first person shooter, so congrats to the developers for taking a
chance. The story wouldn't be as acceptable as it is, if it wasn't for
the hilarity. You get attached the the characters because of this.
Most Battlefield games are pretty simple shooters. You're a soldier,
you're put in a wide open sandbox area, and you're given guys to shoot.
The twist with Bad Company is the destructibility of the environments.
You usually have a grenade launcher attached to your main weapon, or
you have smiley face pinned grenades. Also, there are barrels and boxes
of explosives set up in all the right places for some reason. People
could wonder "why are there explosives everywhere?", but they really
shouldn't because it's fun to see things go boom. Now, when an
explosion goes off, if it' close enough to a buliding, that part of the
wall will crumble in a satisfying fashion, with bits and chunks of rock
flying everywhere in a convincing cloud of smoke. The frostbite engine
does a good job of making you think that the scripted destruction is
all organic, and it's a neat effect.
The destructible environments aren't just for show, however. It is an
important gameplay function that you'll use all the time throughout the
campaign and in multiplayer. Sometimes when there's an enemy in the
window, and you can't get a good shot at him, you can blow a hole in
the wall, and kill him from behind, if the explosion itself doesn't get
to him. You can just obliterate any sort of cover that your opponents
can use. It's not just a gimmick, it's an important gameplay mechanic.
However, your enemies can do the same to you, so it's balanced on both
sides. However, it's very rare that they'll do that to you very often
due to the fact that most of your enemies, save a few who are seasoned
veterans of war, have less than desirable AI. Usually, the AI is
decent, but sometimes they'll refuse to shoot at you, or get stuck in a
loop of functions, like pop up and down. The rest of BC doesn't fare
too well against them. You'll find that most of the damage will be done
by you, the player. The AI isn't necessarily bad, it's certainly good
at times, but it does leave a lot to be desired often.
Visually, Bad Company sets the bar high in a lot of places. Buildings
all look great, although they all share similar indoor features. The
game runs well at all times, even with all the commotion going on.
Destruction definitely looks incredible, you've never seen anything
like it in a shooter before. Lighting is great, at all times, even at
night. With the exception of some pop in with the grass, and a grainy
look, Bad Company is one of the best looking shooters yet this
generation.
In addition to the incredible script and voice acting, Bad Company
sports some of the best gun sound effects and explosion noises around.
Just about every sound effect you can think of when describing war is
here, and it's here well. Preston's ears even ring when there is an
explosion nearby. The attention to detail with the sound quality is
astounding, and it puts you right in the middle of war.
The orchestral score is well done and suits the tone well, although the
lack of tunes is a little bit disappointing. The soundtrack, on the
other hand, is full of really cool jazzy licensed songs, which you hear
throughout the game, either in the menu, or on any of the radio
stations in the game.
There is a large variety to the weapons. There are a lot of different
kinds of weapons, such as snipers, assault rifles, machine guns,
shotguns, just about anything you can think of. You'll use a handful of
them throughout the campaign, and they all have different attributes
such as rate of fire, firepower, or reload time. Certain weapons are
better in different situations, and the game gets that down properly.
Unfortunately, there is no weapon customizing to be heard of. After
seeing such deep options in Call of Duty 4, it's a real downer to see
that not even remotely present here.
Along with the loads of weapons, you have a lot of cool gadgets at your
disposal. There is a laser designator, which locks on to any weapon or
vehicle, and once locked on, you can control a missile which comes down
from the heavens. You have a mortar strike, a variety of rocket
launchers, and a health replenisher. The health replenisher is a needle
you can jam into yourself every so often, and you'll have it the entire
single player campaign. You need to unlock it for online. It makes the
game a little simple, but it's really useful for getting through some
tough parts.
After all, this is a Battlefield game. Bad Company features huge, wide
open levels, which are all played sandbox style. The vehicles in the
game are all a blast to drive, whether it's a tank, jeep, armored car,
dune buggy, helicopter, whatever. They all handle properly with smooth
controls, and a lot of different turrets and other weapons on them. The
whole sandbox feel translates rather well into online multiplayer. You
have a nifty little radar that shows you where to go, although you can
use any route you want to get there. It's really unique, and no other
shooter that I can think of does it this well, if it does it at all.
Sometimes, this can be a very frustrating shooter. The wide open levels
often have a lack of cover to use, especially when any cover you do
have can just be shattered. Sometimes, it just comes down to whoever
started shooting first, will live. It really lessens the experience at
a few times in the game, and it's just a bad design choice, to not have
more sustainable cover. Often, you'll find yourself up against a tank,
with nothing to do but run.
What sort of balances this out, is the lack of a death penalty. When
you die, any damage you've done, anyone you've killed, any ammo you've
used, and buildings you've leveled, will stay the same once you've come
back. The game doesn't make you redo things, as much as it does respawn
you back on the map. Some people won't like this, but I thought it was
helpful,and kept the game light and not so harsh. It fits the theme of
Bad Company well.
The single player campaign is a solid 7 hours of explosions. It can
feel repetitive at times, but things change up often enough to keep
that from becoming an issue. There's no coop at all, which sucks,
considering there are 4 members of Bad Company, all with bad AI.
There's good replayability, as you can return to any level you've
finished, on a different difficulty. There are a lot of collectibles,
although I'm not too sure what they're for. The story is also good
enough to bring you back later down the line.
Aside from the fat single player campaign, there is multiplayer online.
It's probably what you should buy the game for. There's only one game
mode, Gold Rush, but it fits the bill well, and it's a blast to play.
MP holds up to 24 players on EA's servers. There are different classes
that you can take up, such as on the assault, recon, engineer,
demolition expert, and specialist. Your team benefits from working
together. There are two sides, Attackers, who have to destroy gold
crates, and not die, and Defenders, who have to defend the crates, and
kill the attackers. The two sides balance well, and the game mode is
unique and cool. It's kind of like Attack and Defend in Vegas 2.
Multiplayer is intense. It works well, and it shares the same gameplay
features as single player. You feel as if you are on a team, all
sharing the same goal. It's much different from team deathmatch, where
everyone goes off and kills. Here, you need to work as a team to
succeed. With the sandbox like gameplay, and the vehicles which fit 4
people, that is heavily evident here. Multiplayer can be very
addictive, and it's a great compliment to the great single player
campaign.
However, Gold Rush is the only game mode. Maybe in the future, the
original conquest mode from past games will be available. For now, Gold
Rush is good enough and is addictive enough to get you by. The lack of
cover from single player isn't much of an issue online, since everyone
feels the same way, so gameplay really feels more revamped and intense
online.
The weapons unlock system is very neat, and gives the player freedom.
Everytime you rank up, you get one unlock point, which gets you any
weapon that is available for unlock. The player gets to choose which
weapon or item to unlock, and it's a nice touch that brings some depth
and motivation to play.
I found all the issues I usually find with EA's servers. You can't
choose which map you want to play on, which is a shame, because you may
dislike one or two of them. Also, lag occurs fairly often, considering
EA uses their own servers for all their games. It can get a little sad
sometimes. Luckily, the lag isn't everywhere, and you will enjoy most
of your online games immensely.
There are a few bugs and glitches you might run into, such as a tank
you're supposed to defend, suddenly becoming an enemy tank that's
invincible, people shooting at you during cutscenes, where you can't do
anything, and sometimes the hit detection is off. It doesn't wreck the
game, but the game would benefit without them.
Battlefield: Bad Company is fairly simple, but it's hidden depth and
complexity is very noticeable at times. A cool story, addictive
multiplayer, and the fact that there are no decent shooters this
summer, are the reasons you should pick it up. It's not the best
Battlefield game ever, but it is an excellent shooter with unique ideas
that are all pulled off well.
