It feels like it’s been awhile since a first-person shooter hasn’t taken itself too seriously. Constantly crawling in the dirt inside of enemy territory or navigating the gloom and doom of some alien construct can really start to feel heavy on the nerves. If there is one thing that
Battlefield: Bad Company provides, it is levity in big doses.
Unfortunately, the levity does not provide an enriching experience by itself.
Bad Company is a decent game, but not the great title some of us may have been expecting. The game feels as though DICE didn’t do enough with the tools it provides to the player. It may be great to laugh at the cut-scenes and exploits of the protagonists, but it’s not funny to struggle with the A.I., plot, or core mechanics of the game.
Hit the break and I’ll tell you more.
Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360)
Developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
Published by Electronic Arts
Released on June 23, 2008
The single player mode of Battlefield: Bad Company starts with a dramatic opening, with the playable protagonist Preston Marlow lecturing over the fine details of war. The stylized, sober moment is then interrupted by a series of funny dialogue exchanges with the men of B-Company. B-Company consists of three especially rambunctious soldiers in the US Army’s doghouse. Sergeant Redford is the outspoken, ready-to-go-home leader of the group who is followed closely by the timid, talkative Sweetwater and especially dim-witted, explosive-loving Haggard. Through a voice over, Marlow explains that he has been transferred to the B-Company for a mysterious reason that is never fleshed out or fully explained. But whatever he did, Marlow explains, the army could have killed him for it.
The real story of the game revolves around B-Company’s discovery of mercenaries who carry gold on their person while fighting Russians somewhere on Earth for yet another reason that is never explained. These mercenaries are from a group called the “Legionnaires,” a powerhouse organization with the ability to take over nations and pay their troops in gold as opposed typical currency. Once B-Company gets a taste of the gold, they follow its trail to a very abrupt and poor conclusion.
Bad Company functions like the previous incarnation of the Battlefield series. The play focuses on a player’s ability to drive and manipulate vehicles and weaponry scattered throughout the differing levels. The added twist to Bad Company is the environmental destruction. Practically everything in the game is destructible, from the trees and buildings to vehicles, fences and even garbage bags. The system works, and more importantly, the game is not necessarily guided by the ability to maim walls. At its heart, Bad Company is a shooter first, and a physics engine second.
The gunplay works well, although the hit detection is a bit questionable. I often found myself wondering if some of the animations the AI rolls through inhibits the ability to pass bullets through flesh. The AI is a bit schizophrenic to boot. Enemy soldiers will switch between being brutally adept and accurate on the field, to meek and dumbfounded at any point. This is a common phenomenon, and an odd distraction to see soldiers gleefully firing at walls or staring at the sides of a tank mere seconds after trying to take your head off. The great tradeoff in this process is that upon death, the game immediately chucks you to the last autosave point, but does not eliminate the progress made in terms of enemies killed. This is especially awesome after you spend twenty minutes killing a tank or a helicopter, just to get capped by a grunt.
There are a plethora of gadgets and guns available to boot. Laser designators, C4, rocket launchers, and power tools are all in abundance throughout the game. These support tools become a lifeline throughout the explosion happiness of Bad Company. The differing guns in the game can be found in much the same manner as everything else, as an optional “collectible.” Gold, guns, and tools are scattered throughout the large maps, awaiting careful eyes to grab them.
Like most physics-based games, Bad Company takes it a little too far in some scenarios. Trash bags and boxes have tendencies to explode violently, and the canned animations of the crumbling and flack can get redundant. There is also the added frustration of meeting an object that cannot be destroyed. This is the most apparent when driving a vehicle. The land vehicles in the game are great in concept, but possess very rigid controls. Getting stuck on the corner of a dilapidated building, or gate is commonplace. Considering that players can run over trees with reckless abandon, it is a bit disconcerting to meet a rock that a tank cannot get over.
The multiplayer of Bad Company is a stable and safe affair. There are only eight maps available and only one mode of play. The object of every match is either to defend or blow up several highlighted boxes on the map. Just like the single player experience, vehicles and turrets are vitally important. As the map grows when the opposing team takes a set of objectives, getting to the next set can become a hassle on foot. The helicopter often becomes the focal point of the match because of its refined controls and nearly limitless firepower. The tanks suffer from their inability to kill much more than other vehicles.
There are five classes of characters in multiplayer. Each has its own specificities and equipment. Despite the fact that the classes are wildly different, the nature of the spawning erases the need for two of them. Players can choose to spawn in their bases or behind a player that has progressed the furthest on the map. Spawning by another player usually means being engaged immediately in a firefight. The Recon, and Specialist classes are woefully underequipped for such a thing. Spawning in this manner, while costly, is definitely preferable than having to drive for three minutes to hit some action.
Aside from the default weaponry, players will have to unlock all the various guns in the mode either by leveling up or stroking EA’s cock. It is a bit disconcerting to boot up a game and immediately be drawn into a mailing list, then have to go to a website to get more access to guns. Thankfully, it is apparently only five weapons.
The visuals are nice with the exception of a grain filter reminiscent of Silent Hill 2. Instead of creating atmosphere and making zombie nurses scarier, it just makes my eyes hurt. The bloom from the explosives is a beautiful site to behold, and I especially enjoyed the detail work on some of the guns. Multiplayer doesn’t seem like too much of a step down from the regular game as well, which is highly refreshing.
Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company is an inspired game that stumbles over itself. The things that the title does right, it does well. Explosions are crisp, the autosaving is merciful, and the multiplayer is stable. Yet, there is a lot wrong with Bad Company. That list includes the driving, schizophrenic but miraculously expert marksman AI, plot holes you can drive a truck through, and signing your soul away for additional weapons. My suggestion is if you want a decent multiplayer experience, definitely rent Battlefield: Bad Company. If you want a single player experience, stay away.
Score: 6.0 - (Bad Company is a decent game, especially if you're looking for a stable multiplayer experience. The problems come from the lack of multiplayer modes, ridiculously adept or dumb AI , and poor driving. Definitely give this title a rent before you buy.)
Contest:
12:18 PM on 07.12.2008
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Way too harsh of a score for this game. The multiplayer is fucking stellar enough to get higher than a 6.
I mean look at Halo.
I've only been playing this game for a good three-four days so I'm sure you're more qualified to judge the game than I am Brad, but I do disagree with a few of your points.
Firstly I disagree that the driving controls are bad, I've yet to experience a problem with them as they are very reminiscent of the driving controls from BF2.
Secondly, I feel that the Single Player campaign is the best in the series so far and for me, is the reason to play this game.
I'm not wild about the multiplayer, like Yashoki mentioned, it feels watered down compared to BF2. However, I also agree with Zombian when he says its miles beyond CoD4.
For that reason, I would have given the game a buy it designation instead of rent it. Anybody who plays CoD4 online needs to check this game out, its superior in every way.
P.S. I can agree with the 6/10, good review.
The "massively amazing multiplayer" has one game mode and gets pretty repetitive after a while.
I was greatly disappointed in this game. I was surprised by the praise it received from other review sites.
I would almost totally disagree with the multiplayer impressions. You have to actually play the multiplayer for a few hours before you really start to get a good grip on what is going on and the rock paper scissors nature of it. I can certainly say that I have been able to kill infantry with tanks easily with the cannon and if you have someome riding with you in the turret then they are dead meat and that is really what this game is about..teamwork. It is 100% better online if you play with friends I will say that so maybe that is part of the reason this reviewer didn't have as much fun. Better than COD4...I would say for me..yes.
A better critique of the multiplayer, I think, would be as follows:
1)let you talk to more than just your 4 man squad with push to talk or something.
2)fix the crappy servers quick and sort out all the connection issues during peak hours of play
3)auto-kick a player after they team-kill more than 3 or 4 times in a game.
But seriously just about everything Brad mentioned I have not had issues with in multiplayer. This game is definitely worth more than a rent for those of you who like online shooters and a good competition.
x2 man, x2.
After playing BF2 for like 50 hours this game fell extremely short of my expectations.
Maybe I just suck, but I found it very hard to tell the difference between friend and foe at times. And only one game mode on maps that are kinda similar seems pretty inexcusable these days.
Doing that shit online for the additional guns actually pissed me off. I understand that they're extras, but come on! Now I'm going to get shitty e-mails from EA for the next five years.
NO. see theres something called DLC. its a magical invention that allows people with internet connection to download more multiplayer modes.
yea there are none out as of yet. but they are coming out with one new team deathmatch mode and there seem to be many more to come.
as for the rest of you. bad company is not the most amazing single player game. but neither was gears if you think about it. its all about the multiplayer.
i have to say, many have agreed that its multiplayer beats cod4's and personally, i think cod4 was too generic. i couldnt get past the first couple single player missions. i sold that shit to get orange box.
bad company gets a solid 8/10 in my book. not phenominal, but a damn good buy. it just feels so damn good to get those in game trophys in the multiplayer.
I liked Spider Man 3 :D
Call me old fashioned, but I like to have a full game when I pay $60 for it. Not part now and part sometime later on when the developer feels like getting around to it.
Dumb consumers suck!
lol I love dtoid
That's not incredibly above the metacritic average so it's not complete horseshit probably.
yr calling some console gamers dumb but atleast they buy the games. most pc gamers burn copies than complain about the state pc gaming is in.
The multiplayer could potentially be better than Cod 4; because as far as i can tell, Cod 4 multiplayer has pretty much become retarded frag fest after retarded frag fest, and objective games are just more interesting than that (not that frag fests arent fun; they just arent fun for more than 15 min or so at a time).
I did enjoy the characters, though.
And there's a randomness to the matches that I really like. Once, I took cover behind a wrecked tank on a place that otherwise is missing cover and the smoke coming from the tank obscured my figure so I could just sit there and lay down fire for a good minute or so.
CoD4 in MP is nothing we haven't seen before already. Its Quake really. But in BF, you're a part of something bigger and you just try to make yourself useful anyway you can.
Easy choice.
For some reason...i think people forget about taking into account how much fun a game is playing with friends ( AT YOUR ACTUAL HOUSE ). Sure halo might not be all that fun alone...but come on when you get 3 of your friends online fighting on one screen it fucking rocks.
You suck at writing reviews. Stop.
From, Me
I've played approximately 70+ hours of BF2 and still have trouble getting away from it. This game unfortunately, just doesn't have the same pull that either BF2 or CoD 4 have.
That is due game modes and maps. BF2 has region-sized maps, CoD has a bunch of different modes and is faster paced. it just won't bring the old BF players in or convert the converted CoD4 players.
I agree with your general assessment. Especially since even when you do feel tired of multi-player and you want to play the single player campaign you can't, cause it's pure shit. Entertaining, but crap nevertheless.
Sure the single player is there, but thats not what the game is about. Basing strictly on the multiplayer I think the game deserves a buy rating and a slightly higher score as well.
I noticed that this review is now 2 days old, which officially makes it an old review, and as we all know, old reviews are OOOOLLLD.
ok i don't know where I was going with that, BUT, I did play the single player demo of this, thought it was confusing and clumsy compared to Cod4, and left unimpressed.
THEN, i randomly decided to give the multiplayer a go yesterday, and found myself playing it all night. I didn't think i'd have so much fun with just a demo, but there you go!
to me the multiplayer felt a lot more deep than COD4, and the range in kits, vehicles and multiplay goals was awesome. I'll probably play the demo some more to see if the "newness" wears off quickly, but if it doesn't then I might have to pick it up soon.