Battlefield: Bad Company (BFBC) the game is almost as turbulent an experience as the pre release scandals and media attention that it received for EA’s initial plans to sell weapons already on the disc as downloaded content. With that situation fixed, and the Beta well behind us, we are left with the final result of Dice’s first release on the current generation of consoles built from the ground up on the Frost Bite development engine. BFBC is set in the not very distant future and focuses on a rather rag tag group of soldier in the US army dubbed B Company aka Bad Company.
Throughout the story your comrades will keep you company and often entertained. Reoccurring jokes and continuous themes run through the storyline and gameplay action. Your actions "the new guy" are frequently commented on by your squad, sometimes to humorous effect, and at other times it is just a repetitive voice recording intended to be in jest that loses its appeal after the fourth time you hear it.
The lighter attitude to this game will not suit those looking for an immersive and realistic battle simulator. Not only is that aspect quashed by the writing (which I happened to enjoy for the most part) but also by Dice’s penchant for placing exploding barrels and boxes in every plausible location through out the entire game. At one point the sheer number of explosive map elements made it feel like they were more important to shoot than the AI trying to take me down. The reasoning behind the addition of all these red barrels is obviously to showcase the destructible environments that do play a very important role in the games flow. The terrain deformation however might as well have been left out, it made no noticeable difference to how I played and to the amount of satisfaction I gained from playing.
Almost every object you will encounter throughout the game can be blown up. I might not be a teenager anymore but destroying sh#t is a pastime that most males seem to be able to appreciate regardless of age. Most walls can be removed with the blast of an explosive charge as well as smaller structures which can be completely removed from sight. Cover can also be removed such as sandbags and concrete barricades. The ability to destroy cover with the vigour of a grenade launcher meant that I was able to eliminate pesky enemies that wouldn’t poke their heads out for me to shoot.
Despite the very praise worthy addition of destructible elements, the amount of barrels became off putting and could be dialled back to good effect. As with previous games of the Battlefield franchise Bad Company contains vehicles. The helicopter in game is easy to use and I enjoyed the break away from foot patrol. The armoured cars on the other hand drove like tanks on ice and the tanks drove like slow tanks with training wheels calibrated to prevent effective turning. The boats although not used often handled far better than the wheeled vehicles bar one – the super high tech modern form of transportation for tomorrows elite soldiers, the trusty golf cart. This again typifies the less formal approach the games story and characters, but it is also fun to drive.
Bad Company has some of the best sound effects ever produced in a video game. The resonance of gun fire and explosions gives the game a depth that is lacking in many shooters. Sound is affected by your surroundings in an almost tangible manner. While inside a building echoes are more pronounced and add a noises more immediately imposing than the sound of a single sniper round being fired on a hill side which carries a more drawn out piercing sound. The depth of explosions is bassy and the after effect give a shell shock effect that while present in other games often feels out of place without a meaningful blast. Beautiful beautiful sounds.
Enemy AI is adequate however there were a few glitches and inconsistencies. When you shoot a man on a turret or mounted weapon he will pop out and away from the gun by 2 feet before dropping dead. I also came across a few enemies that got stuck in one place and wouldn’t face me, I shot them in the head, just like I shot the soldiers that crashed their armoured vehicle into the water and tried to swim to shore. There are no infinitely re-spawning enemies to annoy you but bodies of enemies do disappear and in retrospect I didn’t notice any real blood effects.
The multiplayer is typical Battlefield fare with classes and vehicles. It is best played with a group of friends or at least team mates that are willing to break out of their stereo typical antisocial mind-set and communicate using descriptive words and sentences. The range of tactical options means that when a good team of people is assembled there are a lot of possible scenarios that could eventuate. The objective based aspect of the games can be easily lost on a new player and as such a little time spent learning the game flow and tricks of the systems will allow for a more enjoyable experience. The destructible cover plays a large part of how you formulate a strategy in area’s with lots of buildings and also can help in evasion of enemies almost as much as it can in killing them.
Other than the incredible sound quality and destructible/interactive environments BFBC is a fairly run of the mill experience. People looking for a polished team based game will definitely enjoy it and the single player campaign is also well worth the time invested. I can’t see many people not having fun with the components that Dice has put together to create Bad Company. Did I mention that it sounds bloody fantastic?
