Battlefield is one of the longest first person warfare shooters on the market, alongside its younger rival Call of Duty. The series has spawned many classics e.g. Battlefield 1942 (2002) , Battlefield 2 (2005) and Battlefield: Bad Company (2008). The most recent release is the sequel to the most recent game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
Bad Company 2 from first looks is already a very visually impressive game, thanks to the Frostbite engine 1.5 and continues to show the capabilities of the engine throughout play. The ability to completely level a building or forest is intriguing in itself, but when actually doing so you feel like the game will have more to offer than most shooters.
For a start the single player campaign mode continues on from the last game, opening up a new story ark revolving around “The Black Weapon” which the Russians are planning on finding and using again the U.S. The familiar faces of Bad Company, Preston, Sweetwater, Redford and Haggard all return to provide there comical personalities throughout the campaign. The campaign (quite literally) drops you into multiple environments such as snowy Russia, the rainforests of Columbia and the urban areas of Venezuela, through a selection of thirteen well designed missions.
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| An example of the snowy environments. |
The campaign contains new collectible weapons also which you can find hidden or on from defeated enemies, there are also M-COM stations on each mission which must be destroyed by the player to earn an achievement or award. These collectibles add replay-ability to the campaign, and if you don’t happen to have access to the online capabilities, it gives you a chance to get the achievements you may have missed on the first play through.
Speaking of online……………
Online play is what most players purchase a Battlefield game for, or what they have likely heard about the most. Bad Company 2’s multiplayer has much to offer to the player, such as complete class customisation ranging from Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon. With these classes comes a range of weapons and gadgets for the player’s role e.g. Recon class has “motion mines” which can give you and your team a “heads up” to what enemies are in a location or objective. The player earns point bonuses towards their class and overall rank. There are an overall of 50 ranks, which take longer to proceed through, unlike other games such as Call of Duty. Each rank you pass through you will receive new sidearms, abilities and gadgets such as the tracer dart. All of the unlocks will give you a tactical advantage at some point in a match.
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| Conquest on "Atamaca Desert". |
The multiplayer comes with 4 game modes, Rush, which makes you and your squad, either defend or attack 2 locations with the objective of destroying two M COM stations, if the attackers are successful, two more M COM stations will be revealed pushing fourth the attack, until all are destroyed. The second game mode is your typical take and hold mode, where either team must raise their flag over three to four points over the map, the team with the least points at the end wins. The other two game modes are squad rush, where two 4 man squads, attack one point with either successfully taking it and finally Squad Death match, where four squads appointed with one vehicle, battle it out for the goal of 50 kills.
Though there are only four game modes, the matches last longer than other shooters, for the tide of battle can be switched back and forth many a time. The player has a much larger role in multiplayer, attempting to “lone wolf” your way through a map, will likely get yourself killed a fair few time, though if you join a squad, look out for each other, supply and heal one another, you are more likely to successfully take objectives. It may be a more tasking approach towards a shooter, but it also gives a greater sense of achievement if you so happen to clear an entire enemy base or successfully fend off the opposite team while planting a charge.
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| Players swarming an objective on Rush. |
If the regular features of Bad Company 2 aren’t enough for you, downloadable content such as the SPECTACT upgrades, which give the player new weapons, character skins and class challenges, or if you want to completely revamp your multiplayer experience, Bad Company 2-Vietnam is also available for purchase, this entails four new maps, 60’s period weaponry, vehicles and of course soundtrack.
Overall Bad Company 2 is a welcome change in the ever expanding web of FPS’, providing the most invigorating multiplayer many have experience to date, and yet again proves to be a worthy edition amongst the Battlefield Series. If you’re looking forward to the upcoming Battlefield 3, it would be wise to give Bad Company 2 a chance if you’re new to the series.
