You pause for a moment. You know your teammates are on their way. But you can hear the tank trundle towards the ruined house you’ve taken shelter in; then an explosion. The bricks scatter to the ground, and you’re exposed. Do you hide, fight or flee?
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 stands alone in its ability to compose cinematic, adrenaline-fuelled events — and place you right at the centre. The huge, completely destructible environments constantly transform the tactics and the arsenal you’ll employ to swing the battle in your favour — not to mention keep you on your toes with the constant fear of your position becoming exposed. Your ability to adapt to the incredibly dynamic locale will be tested to the extreme.
Similarly, teamwork is an essential trait if you want to succeed. As in Battlefield 2, Bad Company’s multiplayer places a fair amount of emphasis on teamwork and rewards points appropriately. Medics receive points for reviving unconscious comrades, while engineers are rewarded for repairing the plethora of vehicles available, and so on. Squads also make a welcome return, allowing you to team up with four friends in the fury of 32 player battles in the PC incarnation. This feature helps immensely in strategizing and localizing the epic online tête-à-tête’s. The, now obligatory, perpetual ranking system is also in-tow, gifting players weapons and upgrades for their war efforts.
The game’s sound design is also worthy of mention. Whether you’re treading snow in Port Valdez or swatting mosquitoes deep in the Bolivian jungle, each sound vividly brings the location to life. The cacophony of bullets you’re likely to hear on the battlefield will also instantly fill you in with what weapons your opposition is packing and their probable position after a few hours of play.
Despite the vivid presentation of the solo campaign, however, the overall campaign is an anti-climax. While the multiplayer is certainly a recommendable substitute for the popular Modern Warfare 2, the single player campaign will inevitably leave you feeling let down. Bad Company 2 aims at achieving a cinematic blockbuster feeling but unfortunately misfires on several counts. Major points of the story – most notably, the fact that Russia is at war with the USA – are almost overlooked, while, overall, there is a serious lack of intensity in scale compared to the Call Of Duty series. Though it would be harsh to say that there is no fun to be had in the campaign, if you’re thinking of buying Bad Company 2 for the solo play alone, you’ll inevitably feel short-changed.
With regards specifically to the PC version, the most pertinent criticism thus far is reserved for the game’s stability. The game itself has crashed on several occasions on different machines and the game servers can be hard to connect to for one reason or the other. The user interface is also incredibly fussy – exceptionally so when using the server browser which lacks real-time updates, leaving you waiting until every server has been scanned before you search through the results. Hopefully, these are only teething problems.
Technical hitches aside, if you’re a fan of first-person shooters expect Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to keep you occupied for some considerable time.
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