CNHI
Live Oak —
By Cody Webb
If there's one thing missing from the amazingly popular Modern Warfare 2 and the Halo series, it's that thrill you get when you know that the building keeping you safe isn't indestructible. Only the Battlefield: Bad Company series seems willing to jump onto this particular trend and even improve upon it with the new Bad Company 2. Just think about it: one stray shot from a tank or a jerk with a grenade launcher can send your shelter tumbling down on top of you.
Now, if that didn't excite your inner action junkie, you should probably stop reading. While Bad Company 2 does a great job of improving upon the first game's foundation, Modern Warfare 2 just feels more polished. So if you don't want to worry about dodging falling buildings, you should probably just stick with MW2. Though, from what I've seen, there are still plenty of jerks with grenade launchers.
With that little side note out of the way, let's continue on. We'll start with the single-player campaign, which is the low point of this game. While this is nothing new to the Battlefield series in general, the original Bad Company did a decent job of crafting an amusing and serviceable story. Unfortunately for fans of the original's story, the one presented here isn't quite as good.
Sure, everyone's favorite squad still spouts snappy dialogue, but this time they seem more serious than they were before. I realize that's a side effect from becoming an "official" military company after the amusing ending to the first game, but it just doesn't suit these guys. The story feels disjointed and rushed at times, trying hard to cram lots of action into the few levels there are. The difficulty will also randomly jump all over the place, from cakewalk levels to unfair sections that require multiple restarts.
The voice acting and sound effects are as good as ever: Sweetwater and Haggard continue to argue as much as ever, while Sarge continues to complain about his retirement never coming. Every gunshot has a satisfying crack to it, and bullets whiz by and thud into the dirt terrifyingly. And of course the explosions are window-shakingly big and loud; if you aren't playing this in surround sound, you're really missing out.
Thankfully, however, Bad Company 2 continues to improve and shine in multiplayer. Honestly, this is where you'll spend most of your time if you buy this game; which is by no means a bad thing. You'll spend hours ranking your character and unlocking new equipment and weapons, just like in MW2. There's just something about being in a big open level with a couple dozen other players and all the weapons and vehicles you could ever want that excites us shooter fans.
BC2 has improved on everything that was in the first game; from the graphics and gunplay to the level of destruction. Instead of just being able to destroy walls and small buildings, players can raze entire towns to the ground. Everything about a building can be destroyed: the roof, the walls, all the way until it collapses into a pile of rubble. Preferably on top of the other team.
The classic Conquest and Rush modes return, with a slight tweak to the former "Gold Rush" mode, alongside several new and incredibly fun modes. "Squad Rush" and "Squad Deathmatch" forego huge teams for small four-player squads pitted against each other. These two modes encourage teamwork and staying together, because wandering away from your squadmates usually results in you catching a bullet with your face. A recently-released mode, called "Onslaught," mirrors the popular "players versus waves of enemies" trend that we're seeing in recent shooters.
So would I recommend Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to fans of the original, or just fans of online war games? I would, most definitely. The single-player won't keep you interested for very long, but that's never been the point of the Battlefield series. I'll give Bad Company 2 a B; now get online and start fragging some buildings, you never know just who may be inside!
Cody Webb lives in Live Oak.
