Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review for Xbox 360

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review

            For Xbox 360

by Contreramanjaro (Sam)

            There are quite a few people familiar with the Battlefield series of games. These people are also  likely to be familiar with the name Dice. These people are largely PC gamers due to a shallow pool of Battlefield titles available on consoles. Only recently have consoles been able to stand toe to toe with PC's in the online playing field. With this evolution, Dice delivered a great Battlefield title for the masses as well as the core audience.Populating the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Battlefield Bad Company 2 delivers the classic Battlefield feel with a great modern user interface and level design. This is my in-depth take on the title. 

Physical:

            Packaged in an unsurprising green plastic case typical of Xbox 360 games, Battlefield Bad Company 2 possesses some of the most appealing artwork I’ve ever seen. Preston Marlowe, your single player character is shown walking in what looks like a charcoal drawing or an engraved stamp plate showing an orange glow on one side of his body. His lowered gun and stolid disposition reflect his frustration with the war in game.

Front of case

Plastic saving design

            Other than the main character on the front, the front cover is dedicated to showing off the multiplayer abilities in the game. Two helicopters, a heavy tank, a personnel transport, and a soldier are shown approaching, each one with a Gamertag or screen name above it. The Dice logo is front and center serving as much as an advertisement for the game as the rest of the box. Finally, the phrase ‘Defining Online Warfare’ is proudly displayed on the front of the packaging.

Menus and Navigation:

            The menu navigation is very fluid and shows some resemblance to the genius design of the Express Media Bar that is found on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Getting into a single player, or multiplayer match is extremely easy and very streamlined. It makes Call of Duty look complicated. Dice and Electronic Arts have done extremely well with the navigation in this game.

Single Player:

            There are 13 missions in the game with three possible difficulty levels. The first level is actually a throwback to World War II. The rest follow the continuing story of Bad Company. A group of more expendable soldiers, Bad Company is sent on the less desirable missions with somewhat high mortality expectancies. While it is a continuation of the first story, you will not lose that much if you do not play the first of the two games. This time you are not the cliché FNG of the group so there’s not quite the high school fitting in game you were thrown into in the first game.

            The difficulty of the missions is what veterans of first person shooters would call boring. If you are a gamer, stay away from easy. It is insultingly simple with enemies diving into bullet paths.  So starting on medium or even hard is not a bad idea. There is no achievement for playing through on hard except for the final mission, but if you find the game boring, step up the difficulty. There is some decent enemy AI hiding behind the difficulty settings barrier.

Playing through once is enjoyable enough, but trying to find collectible guns spread throughout the missions or destroying the M-Com stations can extend your experience if you are into achievements, however there isn’t much desire beyond that. For what it is, the campaign is enjoyable; however if you do not plan to play online, take a pass on this title. The online experience is this games defining feature. There are plenty of cut scenes scattered throughout the campaign, some of them enjoyable, others feel like forced comedy. The characters are unique enough however you never feel a relationship with them. It feels more like a movie.

In the end, I really enjoyed the single player campaign. I know that battlefield games are based around their multiplayer, so I can forgive the campaign's  briefness but it does not keep me from wanting more.

Multiplayer:

            This day in age, online multiplayer has come to define each console. If you look back to who was doing it first, chances are pretty good you’ll come across Dice and Battlefield 1942. They didn’t do too well with their move to consoles with Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. It was a solid game but never could take hold for consoles. They shook that trend up with this release.

Dog tags from stabbing victims

Building on where the first Battlefield Bad Company made it after several updates, the only missing ingredient to this game was players. This has never been a problem. Thanks to a full-featured multiplayer demo, this game has a great community and wonderful upgrade systems. This is what it felt like the downloadable title Battlefield 1943 lacked. If you liked that game, you’ll love this one.

Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, and Squad Deathmatch are the game modes you can play here. They all work great too. Plenty of maps let this game be fresh and familiar for every multiplayer game. Upgrading classes is really quite addictive. One may find themselves doomed to complete upgrades for all classes: assault, engineer, medic, and recon.

The maps are big and very well designed. I have yet to hear a complaint about the map design. It is also extremely innovative in the way that the environment is fully destructible. Often a heavy tank will level a building if an opposing sniper has tucked away inside.

One terrible thing that has happened to the online part of this game is the inclusion of VIP codes. They are part of EA’s attempt to increase sales of new titles rather than used. If you don’t have one, you are prompted to enter one every time you log on. If you do have a code however, you get access to free downloads so it is not all bad.

Controls:

The controls simply work. They divert a bit from the standard Call of Duty or Halo console controls but they work great and do not take any time to learn.

Sound Design:

Do you have surround sound or a subwoofer? If yes then owning this game has just gone from a option to a requirement. I have never been more impressed with in game audio than I have been in this game. The deep bass, wonderful sounds of normal things are perfectly replicated which may even cause a completely sane man to turn around to the sounds of a tank behind him. It’s hard to describe a sound in text but this game has come awfully close to perfection with this element.

Artistic Presentation:

Graphically this game does impress, and then you realize that it’s all destructible and it seems even greater. The various environment types used in this game all look great, from vegetation to snow covered mountains. This is built on the Frostbite Engine and it reproduces lighting and textures in a way that reminds me of a very stable CryENGINE 2. It feels like a more cinematic 24-30 frames per second but I have no complaints and rarely saw a frame rate drop. 

Conclusion:

The multiplayer is state of the art and the brief single player campaign is good while it lasts. There are areas where you can ask for more polish but overall it is a very fun game. The great controls, stellar sound design, fresh campaign and multiplayer with excellent graphics built on top of the great Frostbite Engine all lead to a great fun experience. That is what it is all about, right?

Buy Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox360™) at Play-Asia.com