Student Reviews: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
by: Andrew Mauney ‘11Like I have said in previous articles, 2010 is the year for sequels with Iron Man 2, Halo: Reach, and Dead Space 2 coming out in the coming months. The year of sequels continues with the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
All I can say is “wow” when playing BC2. The Frostbite© engine which ran the first game and allowed for the copious amount of gorgeous cut-scenes and destruction has been reworked and has improved the game ten-fold. In the first Bad Company it was possible to blow out all the walls of a building but the building would remain standing; in BC2 it is now possible to completely raze buildings in single- and multiplayer. The level of destruction ups the ante in strategy that keeps the game fresh.
The single-player campaign this time around takes a darker turn than the first game that was lauded for its great comedic writing and lampooning of the shooter genre. Don’t get me wrong, BC2 is still extremely funny but the game’s focus isn’t on the funny moments; war has its light moments, but it can also be rather dark. The story of BC2 does not focus on gold like the first game; instead it has Bad Company trying to thwart the Russian invasion of the U.S. and the Russians’ use of a WMD. Your squad-mates shoot a little better than in the first game though it is still mostly up to the player to kill the Russians and cowboy-hat-wearing mercenaries. Looking at the single-player campaign as a whole, it is much more story-driven and polished than the first game, which makes it both enjoyable and highly re-playable.
Multiplayer, though, is where BC2 really shines. The idea of ranking up and unlocking certain guns like in the Call of Duty franchise exists, but ranking up only gives the player handguns, certain “perk-like” specializations, and a few “all-class weapons” like the G3 and SPAS-12. To get primary weapons, a player has to earn so many points in each class; for instance, if I want to unlock Anti-Tank Mines for my engineer or the M60 LMG for my medic, I have to play as those classes and get points by killing players and doing class specific things like repairing vehicles or reviving fallen teammates. Plus, the same physics engine is used in multiplayer, so there is realistic bullet-drop and one can make a building collapse and kill enemies.
There is only one beef I have with the game: EA’s “Project 10 Dollar.” “Project 10 Dollar” is EA’s way of forcing players to either buy the game new, which includes a VIP code so that one can play online and download items through an in-game store, or buy the game used, which forces one to have to buy a VIP code from EA that can cost between 10 and 15 dollars. EA used this first with Dragon Age: Origins and then with Mass Effect 2; it is EA’s attempt to cut into the market of used games rather than a way to offer “premium downloads” like EA promises.
Bottom line? If you like blowing things up and watching buildings crumble after calling a mortar strike on it, then I would heavily suggest purchasing this game and join the best multiplayer experience one could want. You can ask almost anyone who has played BC2, especially me, it is far better than COD: Modern Warfare 2. Period.
Rating: 9.5/10 Happy-face Pinned Grenades.
- Andrew Mauney ‘11
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