Battlefield: Bad Company is a refreshing take on the tired modern era first-person shooter. Instead of focusing on ultra serious “this is what it could be like” mentality, Bad Company goes for the more half-hearted approach. Half-hearted in that it can be serious, but those moments are usually broken up by an off the wall remark from the company’s designated funny man Haggard. Along with the trademark geed Sweetwater, the no nonsense sergeant Redford, and the new guy Marlow, the squad chemistry really provides a likable group that you will enjoy watching as their adventure unfold. Throw in a whole lot of explosions and you have the recipe of Battlefield: Bad Company.
The visuals are pretty average for a PS3 game, which is to say that they look really good, but that is to be expected in the current generation of hardware. Where they really shine are in the explosions, of which you will see plenty. Throughout every level you will see red crates and barrels that are explosive and go up nicely when shot at. Of course that means that you don’t want to hang around one yourself longer then you have to. Factor in the destructible attribute of just about everything in the game and you have yourself a faced pace shooting experience that is one of a kind. The fire, the smoke, the rubble, all the details of the destruction are really spectacular and adds to the immersive quality the game possesses.
Going hand in hand with the visuals, the sound quality is superb. The voice acting and script are great. The interaction between the non-player characters in your group is quite impressive. It is just a good piece of dialogue work all around. Roll that in with a great musical compilation and realistic sound effects and the entire package is well represented. The on board radios in the vehicles also carry some good selections to drive by, something nice to see return to the series in it’s PS3 debut. Which is good because driving is the best way to get around the rather large maps.
Vehicle transportation is great when you can get it but there are many points in the game where you have to walk. Walking is no fun. There are many instances where you reach a save point on your way to an objective. If you die you have to start back at the checkpoint, which can be a ways away from the objective. If you reach that save checkpoint while in a vehicle, you respawn with your vehicle, which is great. However if you are on foot when you reach that save point you are out of luck. Even if you get into a vehicle then you die while in that vehicle, you respawn but the vehicle doesn’t. Usually there are a few choices around when it comes to picking transportation, but once they are all destroyed, they are gone leaving you to walk.
Another draw back is the accuracy of the NPC squad mates. This is of course nothing new to first-person shooters. This leaves you doing almost all of the work yourself. Sure Haggard is good for blowing holes in buildings, but for some reason the enemy seems to elude his strikes. They don’t draw the enemy’s attention all that well either. Most of the time, once the enemy finds out where you are, they will pursue you relentlessly not caring all that much for your inaccurate comrades. This inevitably leads to you dying many times. The enemy will get you pinned down and since about 1 in every 5 of your foes carries an RPG, you can’t even stay pinned down very long. So all that beautiful destruction can quickly turn ugly, leaving you completely exposed. Which means that you have to both be quick in dispatching your opponents but at the same time you have to stay out of their line of sight as well. A tricky spot indeed but luckily the enemies that you kill before you die and respawn don’t respawn themselves so even if it takes you a dozen tries, you will get through any part of this game eventually.
Even with all the things that fall short in this installment of the Battlefield franchise, the game rounds out quite well. The story is great and will take you a good bit of time to get through. There are plenty of weapons to choose from and gold to collect. There is a great part in the game where you get to fly a chopper, a must if you are going to call it a Battlefield game. You just can’t go wrong with this game. A solid 7 out of 10 for being an excellent and satisfying experience. Definitely worth a play through for any fan of the FPS genre.