As you may already know, Battlefield: Bad Company released earlier this week. Game developer DICE and publisher Electronic Arts have outdone themselves with this latest installment in the Battlefield franchise. But is Bad Company really bad?
Most first person shooters rehash the same concept: fire some rounds, hide behind a wall, reload. Rinse and repeat. That same concept is applied towards Bad Company, with one minor setback: that wall you were hiding behind might not be there for very long. DICE has set a new standard with their newly developed Frostbite Engine. It's been estimated that 90% of the environment in Bad Company is completely destructible. This changes up gameplay significantly, as you literally have to think on your feet, constantly being aware of the environment around you.
Bad Company also features a unique multi-player mode called Gold Rush. In it, both teams take turns attacking and defending crates of gold. The attackers must plant an explosive charge on one of two crates, while the defenders must diffuse it. Respawns are unlimited until your side's "ticket count" reaches zero. It is possible to destroy the crates with bullets, lots of bullets.
This new mode encourages teams to work together to achieve their goals, unlike in other games where each team fought the other for kills. With Gold Rush, all of the action is usually centered around the two crates. Whenever the attackers destroy both crates the map's boundaries extend and the defenders are given a new base, while the attackers are given more reinforcements.
DICE will be releasing the original Conquest mode in a free downloadable patch very soon after the release of Bad Company. In Conquest, each team fights to control areas of the map. The more areas a team owns, the faster the enemy's respawn tickets drop. Once a team reaches zero they lose.
In today's video games, graphics play a huge role on one's opinion of how good a game is; at least it does for me. Bad Company doesn't disappoint. Playing the game in 1326 x 768, I hardly noticed any choppy images, but when you consider how massive the areas are for this game, it's only fair to assume that there will be some slight graphical glitches.
Bad Company is the first one in the Battlefield franchise to offer a single player campaign. Three difficulty settings are offered: Easy, Normal, and Hard. On Easy you'll often wonder if the enemies even know how to fire a weapon, while on Hard you'll feel as if they have x-ray vision. Normal feels, well normal.
The characters for Bad Company were based off of actual human movement, as is becoming the standard in game development. DICE filmed actual actors wearing motion sensors to capture the animations that would be used on the fairly realistic models. During the single player campaign, whenever two of the characters started up a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors their hand movements were very fluid, and very lifelike.
Face it, we've all played games where the biggest gun you can use sounds like a muffled dog bark. That's not the case with Bad Company. Whether you're flying a helicopter or shooting an M-16, the sound is premium. The game makes great use of surround sound, and has actually saved me from time to time- whether I'm being pursued by a tank, or taking fire from an enemy sniper.
There are five classes to choose from in Bad Company, each one with a unique weapon set. A player is awarded points at the end of a match depending on how well he helped his team. Racking up kills isn't the only way to achieve points in Bad Company. Healing, repairing, replenishing ammo, calling in air-strikes, etc. are all examples of this. Sometimes the player with the highest score will have the least amount of kills. Whenever you gain enough points your level increases and you are awarded an unlock point that can be used to unlock a new weapon or gadget.
Vehicles can also be used. Anything ranging from tanks to boats, and with the destructible environments this changes up gameplay tremendously. The controls handle very well for both infantry and vehicles. The helicopter controls can take some getting used to but once you've mastered them it feels natural.
Occasionally your character will take damage. It's inevitable in a first person shooter. However, it's very easy to regain health. In the campaign you press a button to switch to your health injector (which you have an unlimited supply of) and refill your health back to 100%. There are times though, when you will die. You aren't severely penalized though, as you respawn at the last checkpoint- but everything you've killed or destroyed stays that way.
Bad Company is not without its flaws however. The ESRB gave it a rating of "T" (13+) for language and violence. I personally am not too worried about the violence aspect (it's a war game), but the language does bother me a bit. Main characters swear throughout the campaign, taking God's name in vain at least once. And you also have to take into consideration the motives that the soldiers of "B Company" (as they are referred to during the campaign) have for fighting in the war: personal gain. Several times your squad will disobey direct orders, putting others in harms way.
[SPOILER WARNING]Towards the end of the campaign, your squad realizes that they must put aside their own personal desires to help the greater good. They are rewarded, however, as they drive off with a truckload of gold, which is what they were originally after from the beginning.
Even though the main characters' motives may be misguided, they generally look out for one another, often putting themselves in harms way to protect their squad.
Bad Company has really set the bar for future first person shooters, and will supply many hours of enjoyment for me and others like me.
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