The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Battlefield Bad Company 2

Video games are like roller coasters, they have a lot of ups and downs. It is impossible to make a perfect game that is attractive to all audiences, all developers can do is put their heart and soul into a game and hope for the best. This week in The Good, The Bad, The Ugly we review Battlefield Bad Company 2.

The Good
Thank god Battlefield Bad Company 2 turned out well because it has helped me kick my Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 habit. As much of a MW2 fanboy as I am, I must admit I need a break from the in-your-face gameplay.

The thing that is going to hit you right off the bat is the game’s updated graphics. BBC2 went from weak PS2 looking textures and animations to graphics that are comparable to the better looking Modern Warfare 2. The 2 years in development was used wisely because the graphics aren’t the only feature that was updated.

A few mechanics were tweaked this time around, as well as some that were tossed out completely. The most noticeable element that has gone missing are the very annoying “health shots.” No longer will you have to juggle between laying down fire and healing yourself. Taking its place is the ever popular magic health, as seen in the recent installments of the Call of Duty series, where you regain your health after a fixed amount of time. I will come back to a few of the other changes in The Bad section below.

When it comes to action, Battlefield Bad Company 2 exceeds the original by leaps and bounds. Hands down Battlefield BC2 has been the best FPS campaign mode I’ve played since the original Bioshock. Not because it has a fascinating story (it doesn’t) or because the gameplay mechanics are revolutionary (once again, they are not), but because of its charm. Right about now is the time when you can call me a hypocrite, because just earlier this week I said I thought the series lost some of the charm the original had. Perhaps I made that statement a little too prematurely. While the characters were a little flat in the beginning of the story, they soon fell into their old ways and back into my heart by the conclusion of the campaign mode. Not a feat easily achieved by a FPS. You’ll laugh, cry, and laugh some more during your time with Haggard, Sarge, Sweetwater, and Marlowe.

I am not going to go into great detail on the online multiplayer because there’s so much that can be said for it. But all you really need to know is that the online multiplayer portion of BBC2 is its main attraction, as much as I had fun engaging with the characters from the story mode, I’ve had double the fun in its multiplayer. After this outing BBC2 can claim the title of best online tactical multiplayer. SOCOM doesn’t have anything on this game. So squad up gamers and join me on the battlefield! More on BBC2 online multiplayer here.

The Bad
Linearity seems to be a problem that occurs too often in first person shooters and although the original Battlefield avoided this issue by creating a wide open environment for its players to do battle in, its sequel did not. It’s really a shame that BBC2 opted for a more straight forward path for gamers to travel because it took away from the freedom you had to plan your assault strategies like in the first. In the end the choice wasn’t the worst they could have made, it did seem to intensify the action in some scenarios at least.

The Ugly
This is more of a personal complaint than anything else, but it is a point that needs to be addressed none the less. While part of the fun of Battlefield’s multiplayer is the inclusion of vehicles, sometimes they can sway the tide of battle a little too much. The main culprit being the tank. On Conquest maps, tanks seem to come crashing through the battlefield one after another. It distracts from the objective at hand and is only enjoyable for the one rolling around in the steel behemoth. I love taking out the occasional tank and often find myself manning its turret gun, but the key word is occasionally, not always. Hopefully in a future update they will increase the time between tank respawns to make sure that Battlefield’s tanks don’t become Modern Warfare’s kill streaks.

Want some tips to help boost your kill count in Battlefield Bad Company 2’s online multiplayer? Fint them here.