Battlefield: Bad Company review

Welcome to Bad Company, Soldier!

Battlefield: Bad Company is one of those titles that everyone had mixed opinions on. From the early screenshots, you could tell the game itself was going to be an incredible title, both graphically and conceptually, with the destructable environments playing a large role in those impressions. The thing that made many people skeptical of the title and actually kept them back from picking it up was the announcement that, while the multiplayer was going to be the core of the game, the single player was getting a lot of focused. Perhaps it was EA reacting to the mediocre sales of Battlefield: Modern Combat on 360, but I can easily say that it's got a great single player campaign in addition to endless ammounts of fun in the multiplayer.

Story - 7/10

Since this is one of the two big additions to the game, I figured I would point this one out first. BC has some very enjoyable spins on film and gaming war cliches while not really adhering to any of them. The entire concept is that you take control of Preston Marlowe, a soldier that "should have been imprisoned for what they did", whatever that is, but instead was shipped out to Bad Company, which was a squad full of all of the armies rejects when they figured they'd try to get more use out of them instead of wasting a body. You are immediately introduced to the main characters, your fearless leader "Sarge" Redford, the mouthy Tech expert Sweetwater, and the dimwitted demolitions expert Haggard. It's a nice touch how the characters actions and banter helps to develop their personalities and really help the player to get attached to them. It was nice to play an fps that didn't take itself too seriously but still managed to be compelling enough to convince me that I needed to actually see what the outcome of the game would be. If this was strictly my opinion, I'd probably score this area higher, however I understand that not every gamer necessarily wants to laugh when they're playing games in this genre, so it'se definitely not for everyone.



Gameplay - 9/10

Here's where many people have a huge schism in their takes on the game. I'll admit that with my first hour or two of playing the game, I was somewhat put off by how many bullets it took to take down enemies when I was shooting them in the chest, but the more you play, the better you become and you'll quickly find yourself taking enemies out in 1-3 hits instead of wasting an entire clip. The important thing to remember about Battlefield games is that while they can be played at high level clan style, it's still a very arcadey experience at it's core. Bad Company does nothing to hide this, which is best learned by playing a few missions in single player before heading online. While many games rely on the regenerative health system that debuted in Halo, BC uses the more tradition HP approach, with health starting at 100 and going down for all the damage that you take. In the single player game, you have some needle that you can inject yourself with to recover health, while in mutliplayer the soldier class is the only one that carries this item on them. The games other amazing feature is the destructable environments, which really do help to change the gameplay and give you all sorts of crazy options from creating cover to making a snipers nest to even exposing enemies behind their own cover. As I previously mentioned, the Soldier class has it's own weapon set, but it's also worth noting that the game does retain a bit of Battlefields classic concepts with it's high focus on having a diverse team. The kits available to use are Assualt (assault rifles, grenades, and injectors), Demolition (shotgun, Rocket launcher, mines, and grenades), Recon/Sniper (sniper rifle, laser designator, handgun, and motion sensor), Specialist (SMG, c4, tracer gun, and grenade), and Support (MG, health kits, power tool, and mortar strikes). No class is the perfect class and everyone needs to be used in unison with another to create the perfect team. Had I wrote this review earlier, I would have probably dropped this down to a 7, but as of this date, EA has developed another multiplayer mode, the old school conquest as a free downloadable bonus in addition to the already provided Gold Rush mode. There's a limited number of maps, but thanks to the two modes and EA announcing a few more should be out for download soon, not to mention the large player base, colllectable dog tags and cool squad mechanic, it's a multiplayer game you'll be playing for a very, very long time.

Sound - 9/10

BC sports some incredible voice acting. As I stated in the story section, it's a really nice touch how each of your squad mates has their own distinct personality, which their voices lend themselves very nicely to. Sweetwater has a Northern US accent and tends to spend a lot of his time babbling about topics, from the bible, to myths, while the Sarge has to constantly remind him to shut up. My favorite character would easily be Haggard, due to his constant rambling about truckosaurus rex vs tanks, gold, etc, all done in a stereotypical southern drawl. There's Preston, who's voice sounds like the intelligent, calm and reflective one in the madness that's going on around him, with the person giving you intel, "Ms. July" being the angelic feminine voice that binds you tightly to your squad. The enemies you come up against speak in english, but have different dialiects so it's a bit harder to distinguish, but it's really useful when you're engaged in a firefight and hear them yell "Cover me, I'm reloading!" The soundtrack itself is kind of forgettable, specifically in the single player campaign. There's a lot of generic surf rock that you hear, which is odd for an EA title, but fits the environment. A nice subtle touch is the fact that you can change or disable the radio stations in the vehicles by moving the d-pad down, but you normally don't hear it anyway. Last, but not least, there's the sound effects. To sum up that in one word: Phenomenal. With destructable environments playing a large role, it's awesome the first time that you hear the wall or sandbags you were using for cover get hit with an explosive and listen to them fly away, as your hearing is dampered by the ringing of your eardrums. Each weapon and every weapon sounds authentic, with each gun sounding completely different from any other. The vehicle sound effects aren't too shabby either. Clicking the right thumbstick takes you to an inside look of your vehicle, which changes the sound of the engine to a more powerful one, but following in the pulled back chase cam is just as impressive. It's a nice touch that even the mortars and missed RPGs all have that shrieking sound as the fly towards or just past you.



Graphics - 10/10

This is simply an amazing title to look at. When you consider the size and scope of the environments, the thousands of things that happen at the same time, and during all of this, the game never slows down, it's plain to see that this is no easy feat to accomplish. The single player campaign takes you through 6 or 7 stages, each looking completely different from the last. I've constantly focused on the destructable environments, but it's worth noting that in addition to that, all of the foliage, fences, doors, windows, etc are all able to be knocked over or broken down, which will constantly have your mouth agape. The in game animations are all pretty well done and fits in nicely with any other high budget title. Character designs are fantastic, from the thick ghili suits snipers wear, to your squad in single player, and extending into multiplayer with the attention to detail that was put into making the soldiers look lifelike, it's obvious that EA invested a lot of time into giving this game some polish that others simply lack. The weapons all look just like they were taken fresh from gun store and you'll notice shells ejecting from guns and accumulating on the floor the feet of the person firing. There's muzzle flashes galore constantly erupting across the battlefield at any given moment, with tanks, jeeps, helicopters, and planes each looking just as impressive as the infantry combat. Even for passengers, if you zoom in while you're inside of a vehicle, you always get a unique view that's specific to that model of whatever it is that you're in. Buildings and the world you're fighting in also have just as much effort put into them, with the houses and factories the combat occurs in all looking different and fitting for whatever map it is that you're on. Even the water has that good ol' next gen shine! It's also woth mentioning that when you do destroy something, such as a rooftop or wall, the resulting explosion leaves a very realistic looking hole, a cloud of smoke, debris all around, and a smile of your face.



Overall - 7/10

Personally, I love this game and have wasted plenty of time playing it online, trying to improve my rank, unlock weapons, and collect dog tags, but it's not a game for everyone. For people looking for something a bit different from the norm, I would highly advise checking out Bad Company, but if you're not a fan of faster paced, slightly more arcade like gameplay in contrast to the slower pacing of games like CoD4 and Rainbow Six, you're probably going to want to stay away. For people that are interested in the multiplayer, it's fantastic that EA has prolonged the life of the title by releasing content occasionally and included a phenomenal single player game that I wish more people would experience. There's always a game to jump into online, and if you want, you could always make a squad (this games version of the party system) and invite people off of your friends list to come and join you. For the completionist, there's plenty of badges to earn, ranks to get, and even collectables in the form of weapons and gold in the solo game, so you're covered. All in all, the game is just a great experience I would strongly suggest anyone to check out if you've grown tired of all of these super serious war games.