Those familiar with the Battlefield series will know it for its revolutionary premise of pushing the boundaries of how a military shooter should be. You're not a one-man army, you are just a small cog in the machine, an individual member of a squad within a whole team as you contribute to your side's overall objective of winning. Battlefield has always primarily been a multiplayer experience designed around teamwork. What's different about the Bad Company spin-offs, and in particular this sequel, is the decent addition of a highly engaging single player campaign.
Whilst the single player is the antithesis of what Battlefield is about, restricting you to a linear sequence of events, Bad Company 2's is a surprisingly enjoyable and intriguing addition. Starting off in the closing stages of the Second World War, a United States commando unit is sent to investigate reports of a Japanese super weapon close to completion which could shift the balance. Returning to the near future, the geopolitical situation is that of a new Cold War and yep, you've guessed it, it's those pesky Russians who are responsible. Again. Clichés aside, you once more jump into the infamous 'Bad Company' quartet, taking the role of Marlow as you race against those dastardly Reds to recover the long lost super weapon. While short (you should be able to finish it in under 8 hours), the set pieces and storytelling, while cheesy and formulaic, is still compelling and fun. The dialogue is also fantastic as the banter between my team made me smirk more than a few times. The campaign is also very well paced, never lingering longer than necessary in certain environments or objectives. Further, even though the campaign is linear, it does offer room for experimentation insofar that you can hang back and pick off enemies from a distance, take the initiative as you move forward under covering fire from your squad mates, or even find a side route to flank the enemy while your squad absorbs the interest up front. This frees Bad Company 2 from some of the constraints that other shooters such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honour suffer.
Making full use of the game's stunning Frostbite engine, you traverse across many distinct environments experiencing beautiful vistas from the jungles of South America to the barren Arctic conditions of Alaska. (Why does this feel like an Ian Drury song?). However, what distinguishes these stunning terrains from other games is the wholly destructible environments, forcing one to consider tactical possibilities you might not bother with in other games. You are all too conscious that crouching behind a concrete wall might not necessarily save you if a tank decides to lob a shell your way. This forces you to take the initiative, rather than patiently camp behind an object and wait for someone to pop out their head above the parapet, only for you to be stood there waiting to blast them in the face.
We all know though that Battlefield is about the multiplayer, and Bad Company 2 doesn't disappoint. The general set up is the same; you select one of four classes (Assault; Engineer; Recon; Medic), with the more points you earn the faster you 'rank' up, allowing you access to new and improved weaponry. Whilst it is initially annoying to lose a sniper duel with someone who has reached the rank of General and is consequently better equipped than you, it is a small quibble which doesn't really affect the overall balance of encounters. Fast-paced and requiring tactical cohesion with your other team members in order to complete the objective, multiplayer matches can make for some of the most thrilling and satisfying moments ever experienced in a game of this type. All the standard capture the flag and deatmatch modes are present, but what is particularly neat is 'Rush' mode, where one team of attackers seeks to destroy the opponent's M-COM stations. While the maps are huge, the game only allows you to operate within a certain area until the attacking team destroys its objective before opening the map further for new objectives. This creates a bottling effect, where your whole team is in close proximity with one another, all vying for the same objective, thus emphasising teamwork over Rambo antics as paramount. The sense that you are fighting for something grander than merely your own personal reward is both gratifying and tensely thrilling.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 describes itself as 'defining online warfare', and this definitely holds up to close scrutiny. Featuring an engrossing single player mode and boasting an excellent tactical squad based online experience, with numerous vehicles and options on how you conduct your own personal style of violence, this is perhaps the most satisfying war experience a game has ever given me.
0 comments:
Post a Comment