Game rating: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010)

[B33 ENN]

Game title
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010)

Category	Rating	Comments
Story line	5	The original game was a console only release, so this is the first time that the misfits of "Bad Company" have traded lead on the PC, even though the other games in the Battlefield franchise are well known PC exclusives. This is mainly because they are more involved and complex games which don't translate well to console play. In Bad Company 2's single-player campaign, the plot in which our protagonists exercise their talents is essentially the same as every James Bond film you've no doubt ever seen. There is a supervillain with his hands on a superweapon, and he is hell bent on "politics by other means". Enter "Bad Company" who find themselves in the role of reluctant-hero-cum-last-saviour. There are four of them, one of which is played by you. Together with your comrades, your task is to stop the bad guys from irrevocably altering the balance of power against the United States, and therefore the entire Western hemishpere. Whether you choose to accept it or not is irrelevant since your boss has already picked you as volunteers. The details of how you do this mission by mission get largely forgotten as background noise since what it all amounts to is kill the guys shooting at you before they manage to kill you and then move on to the next bunch. Oddly, it's actually quite relieving not to have to worry about the intracacies of puzzle solving and mission planning, and just focus on the thrills and spills of combat.
Graphics	8	The scenery in Bad Company 2 is one of its strongest features. The scenes are well illustrated with exceptional detail and diversity. However, the framerates are fluid as the game doesn't falter much even at highest settings on a typically well specified machine. You'd be forgiven for looking at stills and thinking this is like a version of Crysis that is actually playable. However, this is a clever piece of trickery. The environmental detail is an illusion that you discover on objects that are close up. The polygon counts are actually far lower than anything Crysis had, but the texture detail is equivalent. In essence, with some exceptions, whereas Crysis had "real" blades of grass and thick foliage to traverse; in Bad Company 2, they;re often just a painting on a flat polygon: the tree roots you walk over aren't really there. Further, whereas in Crysis you could travel to those hills in the distance; in Bad Company 2, you definitely will die trying... However, this doesn't apply to non-environmental objects such as vehicles, buildings and such like. They are as good as you will find anywhere else and, in fact, better by far. Unlike many other shooters, Bad Company 2 relishes in the detail of it's destructibles. The buildings have many ways of coming apart and it has to be seen to be appreciated as you run for cover only to have it disappear chunk-by-chunk around you! Additionally, depth perception seems to be more realistic than in some other 3D shooters. All in all, Bad Company 2 strikes an intelligent balance between rendering maticulously what needs to be detailed, and simply that which does not. Really, you don't notice any practical difference, but this may be aided by the fact that the playing area is pretty constrained by invisible walls and self destruct punishments for not playing by the rules.
Sound	9	The sound effects are utterly satisfying from the weapon firing to the explosive impact. Ambient effects from the howl of desert winds to the biting sweep of snowstorms subtly add to the feeling of presence in the environment. Most other accompaniments such as vehicles and movement effects are perfectly up to standard also. However, what sets Bad Company 2 apart from its peers has to be the voice acting and dialogue quality of NPC's, particularly that of your A.I. comrades who fight alongside you throughout the campaign. Their comedicly realistic chatter, effective use of regional vernacular and frequent off-topic discussions are critical to the games atmosphere and character development.
Game play	7	The structure of the gameplay creates a feeling of being in your own scripted war movie. The objectives of missions is ultimately to kill all the enemies in the area, as in all similar games. Occasionally, you must interact with a plot device and keep an eye out for collectibles. However, start and end of levels as well as predefined mid points lead to the all too frequent cut-scenes that spoon feed you the story so you don't really have to think for yourself or interact with the environment beyond moving, aiming and firing. Fortunately, the combat itself is a lot of fun and very addictive. Once you start a level, you pretty much don't leave until you have completed it. Later levels offer more interesting challenges such as guerilla style urban firefights of disturbing realism, and open warfare where you have to decide what loadout and tactic is really going to be most efficient. Inspite of this, generally the game is relatively easy to  beat for an FPS regular, so playing on hardest difficulty should be your default choice. In addition, even though there appears to be a wide choice of weaponry, it takes a only a few levels to realise one loadout will last you the whole trip if you know how to use it. What makes the journey worthwhile in Bad Company 2, however, is the buddy side of the gameplay. The way the developer has expertly crafted them and their part in your mission really makes this game. You cannot avoid forming an emotional bond with them, and when you have to do something without them, you really feel alone. You're constantly aware of the fact you are working in a team as a contributor and this is a vital point in making the plot more believeable: it isn't just one man against a myriad of enemies as per every other game. Even though your fellow team members are A.I. controlled, they behave pretty convincingly and provide clues and reminders of the safest or most efficient techniques. Certainly, it is one of the best working examples of this mechanic you will find. Apart from that, there are some standard turret sequences scattered about, most of which are actually a lot of fun and inserted at the right points to pace the gameplay effectively.
Replay value	5	The single-player campaign is pretty much a one-time-offer and once you beat it, you won't really miss it. You might miss some of the highlights of the buddy mechanics, but you'll really just wish that some of your other favourite shooters would have included that element. The developer's choice of gameplay mehanics is the critical weakness in the an otherwise successful adventure game that could have set a milestone in the military FPS genre. Even though the player is entertained by the invitingly endless vistas and thickly decorated panoramas, the game relentlessly stifles your initiative in a rather ill-conceived method of limiting you to a glorified corridor shooter experience. In most circumstances, routes to checkpointed arenas are funnelled by invisible walls. In others, they are curtailed by an imersion breaking mechanism that also serves as the limiting factor in the battle areas themselves. If you venture too far (which is actually only a few yards in most cases) the screen will change to greyscale and a countdown timer of ten seconds will begin with a warning message to turn back. Continue and it will blur out before killing you and respawning you at the last checkpoint. This is definitely the game's deal-breaker because it all happens too quickly and within a ridiculously small margin. Ten seconds is often not enough time to make it back, and worse the distances are too short to really feel like you could make the game your own. However, even as this is mostly true of the early levels, it must be pointed out that eventually as the game progresses the battle areas in some missions are quite large, comparable to Crysis' Korean levels even if the freedom around and between them is not.

Final thoughts
This game has the hallmark of being designed primarily for online co-operative play and is likely a different animal under that light. However, the merits of that side were beyond the scope of this analysis, which makes the attention to detail of the single-player A.I. buddies so much more impressive. Compare it to the similar mechanic in Left 4 Dead's four person team in single-player mode, and it will become quickly apparent.

In terms of the single-player campaign, Bad Company 2 is a game that you should definiteyl play if you have not played this architype before, namely titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Medal of Honor as recent contemporary examples. Among them, it is probably the better game; however, if you have played those, you are not missing enough here to warrant the current retail price.

However, when it eventually gets markdown in sales, anyone who has seen and enjoyed movies like Kelly's Heroes or the Dirty Dozen, will feel right at home keeping some Bad Company too!

[deadman1]

Very nicely written BN  :-X, I take it that you don´t play BFBC2 online? Here´s my view of the game  ;)
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=1866.0

I do play it online and it´s immensly fun. ofcourse I have the added bonus of playing on a server where the majority of players are people who would right at home here on OWG  :)

[fragger]

Another excellent review! Thanks for taking the time, B33 ENN :-X

Maybe you should be OWG's resident reviewer ;D Your critiques are more succinct, descriptive, balanced and competently written than just about any I've seen anywhere. Well done, here's a thumb-up :)

[Art Blade]

 ;D yep  :) :-X

[B33 ENN]

Very nicely written BN  :-X, I take it that you don´t play BFBC2 online?

No, I don't play any games online at the moment. I did do a bit of online racing years ago, but dodgy net links and mixed bag of mentalities made me lose interest. I tried Halo online on the old xBox with a friend a couple of times, and that's it really.

Just doesn't appeal to me right now., but I'm sure with the right people it's a huge amount of fun.  :)

Another excellent review! Thanks for taking the time, B33 ENN :-X ... Maybe you should be OWG's resident reviewer ;D

:-() Cheers, it's good to know they are appreciated. I do try to be objective and look at it from the point of view of people with different tastes than my own. It's actually harder than I imagined rating a game, especially when you realise you are judging the hard w@&k of so many people! However, I do like putting it down on "paper", so to speak, as it gives me a chance to wax lyrical without interuption  ^+-+

[Art Blade]

I like a lot what you do, and it is fun to read, too :)

Everything aside, what I like additionally and particularly is finding hints of British humour and expressions in your texts  ;D

[PZ]

...However, I do like putting it down on "paper", so to speak, as it gives me a chance to wax lyrical without interuption  ^+-+

There is something magical about organizing your thoughts as you compose for others to read.  Not only does it allow one to "gel" their thoughts, new impressions often emerge as the writing takes place.

You do write well, B33 ENN, and we'd be pleased to read your impressions as many times as you'd care to share.

[nexor]

That was excellent B33 thanks. I Installed and started the game yesterday, was playing it the past three hours then decided to take a break from it so I logged on and found your rating on the game, what I don't like about the game so far.......there is no time to strategise or take a breather to look around at the sceneries, as from the word go! you shoot at everything that moves and if it doesn't move, you kick it until it moves then you shoot it, that is if it's not shooting at you already................... :-D 
I guess if a person is someone who likes the fast moving ..... kill or be killed .... eyes fixed on the screen .... no need for planning type of game then  BBC2 is the game to play........... >:D

[Art Blade]

sounds good, nexor :)

[B33 ENN]

That was excellent B33 thanks....I guess if a person is someone who likes the fast moving ..... kill or be killed .... eyes fixed on the screen .... no need for planning type of game then  BBC2 is the game to play........... >:D

Thanks very much, Nexor!

Yes, it is a very "don't think; just do" style game. Great fun for when you don't want to get too involved in the script or story of a game, but just shoot and blow stuff up. Quite therepeutic!  :-D

Truth is, as you probably know, it is really all about the multiplayer, and I was surprised they bothered to put even that much detail into the SP campaign. The new Vietnam DLC just came out, which I was interested by, but unfortunately there is no single player extra in it at all, just new multiplayer maps and equipment.

Still, I think it is a quality game, nevertheless.

[nexor]

I'm busy getting a few screenshots and video clips together, will post them as soon as I'm done.

[PZ]

I'm busy getting a few screenshots and video clips together, will post them as soon as I'm done.

That would be great - I'd love to see clips of the action.  :-X

This is another of my son's favorites, but unfortunately my ability to do true online gaming is seriously limited due to my Internet connection (satellite).

[nexor]

I tried to upload a few onto youtube, but getting unknown error messages for failing upload, so I posted a few clips and a few screenshots directly on OWG......

http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2659
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2653
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2657
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2656
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2655
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2654
http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/MGalleryItem.php?id=2653

[Art Blade]

I tried to edit your post, nexor, but I have no idea why your vids won't embed even if you use a proper code. So I didn't edit your post but tried it here instead, hit the QUOTE button to quote this post, that allows you to see the code I use to display your images/vids.

Have a look, If you want to display an image, you may do it like this

[smg id=2659 type=link align=center width=400]

If you want to display a vid, you'd usually do it like that: (but for some reason, my preview caused an error stating that the vid can't be found, which is nonsense)

[smg id=2658 type=av]

To w@&k around that problem, I used hyperlinks to the gallery (strange, can't see any menu then, so either close that window/tab or hit the BACK button.. strange..) - I see that in your post you have one link twice, probably because you had a random order, I did it numerically and by that avoided double entries.

This is the code how you'd do hyperlinks:

vid 2658
vid 2657
vid 2656
vid 2655
vid 2654
vid 2653

For some reason, the first three vids are nice and neat, the last three vids go way beyond the forum's boarders.. too big.. I see that you keep using "flv" or I believe you used "avi" as well as file format/extensions. If possible, I recommend mp4 (that's what youtube vids normally use).

However: To avoid "exploding" formats, use the vid code as described before and additionally the spoiler tags.. like that, the post and board remains within its borders and will only "explode" on clicking the spoiler:

Spoiler

[smg id=2654 type=av]

[nexor]

Thanks Art, For some reason I could not upload my vids onto youtube and that's why I posted them here, bad choice.......... :D

[Art Blade]

don't worry about where you uploaded your files.. I was more interested in showing you how to achieve a better result displaying them to others :)

[nexor]

yes i'm aware of that and also appreciate it, .. :-X  the only snag, all that jargon is too cleaver for me, i'm still trying to decipher what you said .. ????      :D

[nexor]

Art, you can remove those three clips, I could not find a way of removing them myself....I will re-post them in mp4 format......I also discovered why their sizes are different to the other three, I did not change the output video size in the converting software when I converted them......the other three was done at a later stage....... (;\....... :-))

[Art Blade]

we can keep it as is, and cool if you can change the format (as in YT upload) - easier to use/watch with a browser such as firefox :)

[nexor]

Yes, the software I have does the conversion in a few seconds, so all future ones will be in MP4 format :)

[Art Blade]

 ;D :-X

[nexor]

My second time around, enjoying the game more than the first time, getting used to the game play......think I was too used to the tempo of FC2.......... :-D

BBC2 10

[Art Blade]

glad you're enjoying it  :) :-X