Sometimes the bad guys are standing right in front of your squad buddies and they still won’t do anything.
This is because they can’t think for themselves and love to cower behind cover while you pick off every last foe.
They are no fun to be around.ĭuring the loading sequences, the game was kind enough to inform me that they hang back “for a good reason”. I know the name of the game is ‘Bad Company’ but I didn’t expect that to refer so literally to the team. The only things that remain impervious to damage are your imbecilic squad-mates, idling while you inch forward into another scripted shootout. It should be exciting, but it gives the opposing forces- and their limitless supply of rockets and grenades- an unfair advantage. For all the bombast, it’s downright boring to play. The Frostbite engine allows you to tear apart whole buildings with explosives, while cover disintegrates around you during a gunfight. You’re funnelled up a canyon into one gauntlet later forced through a castle gate used to crush independent strategic thought in both medieval times and the modern era. One level in Bad Company 2 is set in a massive desert: three linear pockets of action on the periphery of a barren wilderness, which you travel between in a buggy that steers like an inflatable moon rover.
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Why bother creating such extravagant vistas if we aren’t free to explore them? Far Cry managed this in 2004, yet we’re still forced to take a guided tour through scenic Linearsville in a game that should have grander aspirations. Veering slightly off the level designer’s intended track leads to an often explosive demise while the game shouts at you to “RETURN TO THE BATTLEFIELD!”, in spite of the expansive surroundings. Maybe it’s actually chemical effluence masquerading as water, but it should be an environmental artist’s priority to draw attention to such hazards.
It’s riddled with inconsistencies: you can survive plummeting from a falling helicopter or being shelled by mortars, yet a small trickle of water in a canal can lead to immediate death in one level. You gradually gain access to a huge array of ineffective guns, differing only in paint job, that you’ll neglect in favour of your superior starting weapons. Collectibles are hidden in random buildings and don’t encourage real exploration or attention. Poor checkpoint placement forces you to replay large sections over and over again if you die (there’s no option to manually save your progress). All of the cardinal sins of the modern first person shooter are here: invisible triggers teleport enemies into the fray when you step on them. This game is so predictable, you’ll think it has formed a neural link and your dreams are manifesting as vivid combat scenarios. I know it’s easy to get excited at the prospect of playing a game in which you shoot guns and drive cars, but please do try and remain calm. You’ll travel to snowcapped mountains, jungles and the same decaying building site you previously besieged in Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. Your companions’ hobbies include disobeying orders and blowing things up while making sarcastic quips. So, it falls to you, an all-American Joe with no personality and exceptional firearms skills, and your squad of gung-ho special ops soldiers to go and murder the aforementioned Russians. I’ll bet you can guess the storyline already: the Russians are up to no good. What would happen if the firework display lasted for eight hours? You’d end up with something like Bad Company 2: a bombastic and ostentatious game with less actual meat than a McDonalds hamburger.
They are great at first: you marvel at how explosive and loud they are, then you gradually become dulled and desensitised until you’re just standing out in the cold watching repetitive chemical reactions. If life is like a box of chocolates, then life in Bad Company is like a box of fireworks. Is the whole worth more than the sum of its parts? Is the worthiness of one part sufficiently worthy to outweigh the unworthiness of the other worthless part? Rather than attempt the unenviable task of reviewing both games as one, I’ve split this review into two. The single player campaign and online multiplayer components, while superficially similar, don’t have a lot in common. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 doesn’t feel like one game.