DICE has had some serious competition in the Shooter genre of games, and with the huge success of the latest Call of Duty release, they had to really up their game in order stand out amongst the competition. But have they done enough?

The game moves along from its predecessor’s World War II setting by taking the fight to modern times, with a new Bad Company team in the middle of a chilling Russian winter. The beginning scenes allow the player to get to grips with the controls and combat. What separated the original Battlefield: Bad Company from other World War II games was its sense of humour, and in general it returns in the sequel. Your squad’s banter remains as personal and funny as ever, and the game maintains this feeling of friendship throughout. Bad Company also featured an impressive destruction engine, something which is lacking in the Call of Duty franchise. The game not only shows off some impressive damage to buildings and more overt destruction, but there are also some subtle touches that bring a nice level of fascination to the experience. Building destruction has also been improved, as players now have the ability to bring entire structures to the ground by destroying their framework.

Although most of the game occurs in South America, Bad Company 2 starts its single-player campaign in North America. The game offers a range of environments, including snow, desert, jungle and urban warfare. The first mission begins by flying you over an enemy encampment in a chopper, gunning them down. With plenty of structures, explosive tanks and incoming vehicles, it really is an awesome way to kick off the game! Once the chopper has landed, the characters continue their carnage on foot. The first challenge is to eliminate a machine gun nest at the top of a hill. You flank the side, whilst the rest of your loyal team draw fire. A simple bullet to the back of the head takes care of the gunner. You then have to run into an office to steal some info, and the first urban battle commences, but I don’t want to spoil the game for you so that’s all I’m saying!

Bad Company 2 forces you to fight intelligently using some tactical skill, so you can’t just rush in with guns expecting to mow down everyone in your path, unless of course you want to die very quickly! Cover is pretty much a requirement with this game, and if there isn’t any obvious cover, you can make some of your own with the enhanced destruction engine. The online play is just as good. When you jump into a match, you get to choose your weapons – assault, engineer, recon, or medical – and you can change them when you respawn. Obviously all of the weapons are very powerful, and that firepower is going to play into one of the main selling points of the Bad Company franchise.

When the first online game started, all I could think about was blowing up houses and tearing apart tanks. The special effects that DICE have achieved are incomparable to any other game. Even the tiniest details, like bark flying off a tree as you spray a machine gun wildly, are noticeable. Finally, similar to other shooter games, when you kill someone or complete a challenge, you get points that then contribute to the points you need to level up.

+ Enhanced destruction engine makes gameplay incredible.

+ Amazing detail of environment.

+ Intense and fast paced gameplay. The rush mode (only one available in the beta) is super intense and requires strategic attacks and retreats.

+ Bullet fall. If you shoot a bullet over distance, it will fall. If you shoot a rocket over distance, it will most likely land about 20m short of your target, making gameplay a challenging experience.

+ Vehicle gameplay. In most games that you have tanks, you use it as a tank. In this game if you charge your tank in, you will lose it. This means that you need to play strategically.

 + Upgrades. Whilst upgrades and get new guns have always been available in the Modern Warfare series, Bad Company 2 has now introduced it as well and has you well covered with a vast array of perks, weapons and gadgets for you to use.

 - No Prone. Unlike many other shooter games, Bad Company 2 does not give players the ability to go prone.

- Knifing is next to useless unless the enemy is standing dead still because if they even flinch you’ll miss.

- No “tap-out”, meaning that if you have last stand, you cannot commit suicide, so if you only have a few bullets left, or want to change your class, you have to wait until you die!

By Peter Baumann Posted Monday, February 15th, 2010 7:17 pm