The Battlefield series has been a long and fruitful one, dating all the way back to 2002 with Battlefield 1942. The series has done a great job of bringing large-scale chaos into the player’s home with large maps and a variety of vehicles. Now that the Call of Duty series has become the popular-sensation that it is, DICE and EA have promised to up the ante with their latest game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Have they delivered? Or have they made promises that have fallen flat?
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 features the same group of ragtag soldiers you had the pleasure of fighting beside in the first game. This time around you are not out for gold, however, as your group is sent out to stop the Russians again, this time from unleashing a deadly weapon called the Aurora. The guys in your squad are all portrayed pretty well, with solid voice work and a decent but occasionally corny script. The story is paced just fast enough not to get stale, but never really pulls you in. Unfortunately, while the campaign mode has its moments, there really just aren’t enough epic moments in the single-player campaign to make it stand-out.
The single-player portion of the game starts you out with a prologue mission back in Japan during World War II where you are first introduced to the weapon Aurora. From there, you start on your campaign spanning over 13 varied missions. You will visit plenty of different settings during the game, from snow to jungles, giving the player a taste of everything. By far, my favorite mission was one where you actually had to move from house to house trying to avoid the freezing cold that would consume you. Besides just your mission, there are collectable guns to find and M-Com Stations to blow up during your missions, which both add a bit of replay value. Once you have found a gun, it will then be available throughout the entire game through the occasional resupply crates, which offers a unique spin not seen in other FPS titles.
One of the big letdowns with BFBC2, like most shooters, is that your friendly AI isn’t helpful in most situations. It’s not that they should do all of the work for you, but for once, I wouldn’t mind them actually killing an enemy standing right in front of them. It is also funny to find that my friendly AI partners are bulletproof. I watched them several times get completely shredded, only to pop right back up and continue the fight. Hoorah! Just like your partners, the enemy AI also has its own hiccups, sometimes standing right out in the open asking to be shot.
Just like the first game, everything is destructable, and this can be good or bad for you. You will find plenty of opportunities to take down a building, laying waste to anyone inside. On the flip side though, no hiding place is a good one, as the enemy can also bring down the house you’re in. This whole dynamic makes for a wonderful orchestra of chaos and destruction as you battle your way to each objective. You won’t have to run everywhere though, as there are plenty of vehicles for you to make use of, though most of your time will be spent on foot. The vehicles handle really well, and you definitely feel a sense of power when driving a tank. Hands down though, the best vehicle by far is the 4 wheeler, especially when you’re driving through the desert.
