If I wanted to make this review short and sweet, I'd probably just say
"If you like blowing stuff up and killing a bunch of people while doing
it, then Battlefield Bad Company is the game for you." But since I like
to add a bit of professionalism to my reviews, I'll delve a bit more
into the game and give you a more enlightened point of view on this
first-person shooter.
Battlefield Bad Company comes from developer EA DICE and publisher
Electronic Arts and chronicles the adventures of B-Company, a band of
rejected, misfit soldiers used by the army as canon fodder to slow down
enemy troops until the "real" soldiers arrive. You'll play as Private
Preston Marlowe, who's recently been reassigned to B-Company for
undisclosed reasons. Joining you for this mission are Sergeant Redford,
a tough and wise veteran whose soul purpose for joining the squad is so
he can retire early; Stillwater, who joins the army only to get a
college scholarship without realizing he'll actually have to fight; and
Haggard who's just there to blow everything to smithereens. The
camaraderie and constant teasing between Stillwater and Haggard is
actually quite funny, as you'll see them push and shove each other or
play rock-paper-scissors in the background while the Sarge gives out
orders. Although it has its fair share of funny moments, the story and
voice acting aren't this game's pay dirt. Actually, you can see how
this one will end from a country mile away.
Although previous Battlefield games weren't known for their single
player experience, concentrating more on the multiplayer side of
things, this one is much different. There's a nicely fleshed out single
player campaign here. As you make your way through the campaign, not
only will you get to blow up a ton of walls, tanks, helicopters and,
yes, even people, you'll also get to shoot them down with a very
eclectic variety of weaponry. Although there are a lot of guns to
choose from, the force and accuracy between them is barely noticeable.
It would've been nice to have freedom of choice in which weapon to use,
as we do in Rainbow Six Vegas games, but, sadly, there isn't, so you'll
just have to settle for the weapon you pick up at the time, crappy or
not. However, whether you're using a shotgun or a semi-automatic, the
shooting feels good. It might not be as tight as in Call of Duty 4, for
example, but it does the job well.
One thing you'll discover about Marlowe is that he's quite the
jack-of-all-trades. Not only can he fire rocket launchers and use
mortar strikes, he can also repair vehicles found throughout the game.
You can carry your main weapon, with either a grenade launcher attached
to it, hand grenades or a side arm, as well as, for your secondary
"weapon", a variety of things from a rocket launcher to a mortar strike
or even a repair tool. The gung-ho style of play was a nice change of
pace… for the first 30 minutes. Although the game encourages you to
blow holes into walls to expose the enemy, I found it more fun to just
rush in there and gun them down. Blowing up tanks and walls is fun, but
it really gets old after a while.
Although you'll die more often than you'd like in this game, doing so
isn't as bad as you'd think. Aside from the many checkpoints scattered
around the maps, you'll get to carry a nifty little gadget called the
health injector. Instead of the overused health regeneration system
from other similar games, I'm guessing the guys at DICE wanted to give
Bad Company a more realistic feel with this injector, but the fact that
you can use it every 40 seconds or so makes it feel more like a gimmick
than a novel idea. Add to the fact that, when you die while in a
vehicle, and even if it explodes, you'll respawn in said vehicle at the
checkpoint, armor intact and all. This reminded me of BioShock's
Vita-Chambers and how much easier it made the game.
The AI in Bad Company is laughable at best. I lost count of how many
times I just stood next to an enemy for a good five seconds before he
noticed me. Also, don't expect much help from your squad mates, as
they'll just take cover behind something and act like nothing's going
on around them. That's when they're not bumping into you while you're
trying to avoid enemy fire. This is where a human partner, or partners,
would've made all the difference in the world. Sadly, the game offers
no co-op whatsoever, which is ridiculous for a shooter released in this
day and age.
Luckily, this is a Battlefield game, which means that there is plenty
of multiplayer action to be had here. Twenty-four players go
head-to-head in an attack and defend mode called Gold Rush, where the
attacking team tries to destroy the defending team's gold crates.
Although the Battlefield mainstay mode called Conquest will be made
available to download later on down the line, you won't miss it much
while playing Gold Rush. The online is relatively lag-free and tons of
fun to play. The only downside here is that if you arrive late to the
party, you'll have a tough time keeping up with the rest of the already
established players, but that goes for any other online game as well.
Battlefield Bad Company could have been a gem of a game, but its
repetitiveness, faulty AI, quirky health regenerative methods and lack
of co-op bring it down a couple of notches. The game is far from being
bad however and should keep you entertained far beyond its 10-hour
single player campaign with its excellent online component. With
breathtaking sound and all-around decent visuals, Bad Company is worth
checking out… when it hits the bargain bin sometime in the future.
