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Battlefield: Bad Company

4 Soldiers on one Amazing Mission…

Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: DICE Sweden (Digital Illusions)
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Number of Players: 1-24
Release Date:
US: June 25, 2008
Europe: June 27, 2008
Australia: June 27, 2008
MSRP: $59.99
ESRB Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Strong Language, And Violence.

Haggard: [after being threatened by the Army] Oh yeah? Says you and what army?
Sweetwater: What?!
Haggard: Well, I’ve just always wanted to say that.
Sweetwater: Why?!
Haggard: Sounds cool.

One of the passion(s) in my life, while playing video games, is to be the one causing most of the damage, whether or not the game is based on Stealth, Hand to Hand Combat, or Special Tactics. I always want to blow stuff up in every game I play. Playing the Battlefield 2 on PC was fun, not the best but was really fun. Not that much interested in PC Games as My hands get tired while clicking all these different keys (over 100 available) just to find the right Ammo, Weapon, Shot, Enemy, Getting into Vehicles, etc. and I can go on…But when Battlefield: Modern Combat was brought onto Playstation 2 / Xbox / and 360, I was pleased that finally they made something that I can play with 14 keys rather than 109 of them on a keyboard. BF: MC was their best decision yet since they went from a large desktop size to a small PS2 Compatible Size.

Nevertheless, DICE has always pleased me with their past collaborations with EA, and has done it again with BF: BC.

Overall Game Play:
You start out being the new recruit to the team of heroes that are ready to fight for their country…NOT! These four patriotic heroes, have taken out the patriotic part from their names, and are ready do kill anyone in front of them to get the billions of dollars of gold and wealth that awaits them in distance. Following you (Private Preston Marlow) are, Sarge, Haggard and the loving Sweetwater. Each are equipped with own personality and some awesome dialogues. Along the way of your “missions” as they call them, you will be having fun hearing to these three guys talk. They tell silly and outdated jokes, but still, the environment that you are playing in anything is a good joke even if it is over 100 years old!

Throughout the Campaign mode (Single Player) mode, you will find weapons, tactics, and plenty more things that give you enough firepower to blow big-ass holes in Buildings, Ground and even in some Enemy Troops. If you love games that give you big weapons like a Bazooka or a Cannon Launcher, or a truck equipped with fully Automated Missiles the size of your body, then you will like this one.

One of the other fun parts of the game-play are the health restorer or as I call it the Health Drug Injector. These small needles like things are what restore health back for Preston (You). So while you are running on the battlefield with low health, just whip out one of these small babies and press the desired button, and inject away. The first time I did this I thought…it looks like you are injecting some sort of steroids into your body to make yourself invurnable to any sort of bullet fire or attacks. o.O Guess my thought came out to be true, these needles restore your health back to full life, so if you or your friend is down with less life you just run over to him and thrust one of these needles into his chest or arm and they will be revived…or reborn. Something that US might need to think about giving their Marines and Soldiers that are in combat / battle, it will help them a lot =]

Another aspect of the game that I would like to talk about would be the ongoing battle between the Helicopters (Chopper) vs. Tanks. That battle is ongoing and it just gets better and better with every launch of Battlefield. The gunfire is more realistic, the damage is more realistic. And overall everything that you fight from the Tank or Chopper point of view looks amazing. One of the fun parts is to be in either and hunt down the other. It is really fun…

Lastly, the bad part about Battlefield: Bad Company is that when you hear the words Bad Company, you think well it ought to be co-operative play right? Well here is where my smile becomes a frown (makes me use more of my facial muscles). The whole Campaign / Story Mode is Single Player, even the Online play is single. well most cases it is single, but would it kill DICE to place in a little Co-Op Action into this battalion of Awesome Gaming? It would have been good…

Ranking: 8.5 / 10
The storyline is good and legible and the 3 commandos helping you as a 4^th member of their team is fun. The multiplayer action is good and far beyond what I had thought of for this release, but some places it huts as for not being able to play Co-Op Mode. A fun choice if you are up for it!

Graphics:

The destruction mode, where you go all out on an enemy vehicle or an enemy for the matter of fact, you will have fun while seeing the explosions, smoke, blood (not that much), and it is all good and great for this game. When you fire a weapon or throw a grenade, the fire impact looks realistic this time of the year. The blow up of the grenade is real, you get more a recoil damage from this side of the sideline than from the previous / past versions of Battlefield.

The part that brings down the graphics view of this whole game is the bit choppy and grainy effects in some parts of the game. Not everywhere but some places like when you are running or shooting different weapons you see some grain, but then again not every game can be perfect in every means now can it?

The destruction is what takes your eyes off all the other aspects of the game and makes the player / you focus more on destroying vehicles, blowing up tanks of oil, gas, explosives as DICE this time of the year has added more and more gas tanks and in places where one blows up and does a chain reaction to the hundreds next to it! It is just amazing.

Haggard: My middle name’s “Not Safe”…well, actually it’s Gordon..but errr…
[walks away awkwardly]

Ranking: 8.7 / 10
Destruction and Explosions are great as you will find from the second you begin the game play, few issues with grain filters being turned on and some other small glitches might slow down your interest in the game, but, if you are all up for the fun ride with the Bad Company then you will have the fun you deserve!

Music / Sound:
Probably one of the best war fighting games that I have played which actually had good sound and music to go together with the blowing up effects. The music that they use is the old battlefield music, with a new twist from the 21^st Century Era. The voiceovers are great in this version of BF BC, and so is the sound effects that are used to make the game play much more realistic than ever in the lines of Battlefield.

If you have surround sound, make sure to blast your speakers up to a level where every single wall in your house can hear you blowing up buildings, vehicles and enemies into dust and pieces…

Haggard: [when Preston dies] Anybody got a band-aid? Preston’s bleeding real bad.

Ranking: 10 / 10
Music and Sound effects are well done though there are some lines which are a bit cheesy and old as we say. Nevertheless if you are up for blowing stuff up and being able to feel the sound effects while you blow things up this is the game for you! The music is the best by far in any other Battlefield or War Fighting game.

Overall Ranking: 8.8 / 10
Nevertheless the game is a good collection of weapons, vehicles, music, sound and the realism factor, and it is better than any other war game out there so far. Battlefield Bad Company is different than Call of Duty as it does not focus that much on the war part of the game, but more on the story line as along all the missions that you go through within the Bad Company you will have fun along each and every path. And that is the beauty of Battlefield Bad Company!

Haggard: Oh look. New guy’s dead.
Sweetwater: Already? I was just about to learn his name.
Haggard: I think it was probably Joe. Usually is.
Sarge: His name’s Preston. Preston Marlowe. And he’s not dead. Right, soldier?

Written by: Zain Abidi