Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Is it any real surprise that EA has made a conscious effort to go after Modern Warfare 2 with the launch of DICE’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2? Let’s not forget just how big a launch it was for Infinity Ward and Activision. The industry as a whole is still reeling from the enormity of it, and if you want to blame anybody about the many subtle changes that DICE has made to its action-oriented tale of the blundering B Company then you need look no further than the current top spot of Live.

Guerrillas in the mist.

But, to really understand what exactly it is that makes Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a lesser game when compared directly to everybody’s favourite modern war sim, you really have to look at the two contrasting directions that the development teams have headed in. From tight, linear set pieces to open, destruction-based antics, make no mistake: the differences between the games shows exactly how unique the two studios’ approaches really are.

Firstly, though, we need to point out, as we did with the Modern Warfare 2 review, that this score only takes into account the single-player portion of the game. With that out of the way, we’ll jump straight into the action, much like Haggard and team do. The original Bad Company marked the long-overdue debut for a DICE FPS not centred around the quick thrills of multiplayer mayhem. Its focus on character and story set it apart from previous entries, and while it could sometimes feel like the multiplayer maps had been recycled with bots and a few cut-scenes added in for good measure, it was a promising first attempt. Unfortunately, while it’s clear that DICE has made some strides to improve the formula, Bad Company 2 feels like a dated and stifled effort.

Things start well. The opening has an air of seriousness, and a surprising WWII prologue creates an impressively grand atmosphere. With a story that centres around an immensely powerful doomsday weapon and scheming, back-stabbing double crosses, you’d think that the action would have more invested in it than it does. Wires have been crossed, however, and where Bad Company was once a satire on the action genre in general, with po-faced dialogue played with tongue firmly in cheek, here it’s shocking to see that any hint of lampoonery has been removed. It’s almost as if DICE forgot to include the heart, and Modern Warfare’s influences are everywhere, which is confusing because the development styles of the two companies are poles apart.

I was nine years old when the Blackhawk helicopters came to my village.

Bad Company 2’s levels have been on a diet and now feel depressingly linear. This is only further confounded by the truly gorgeous visuals and hugely impressive tech that’s employed. You’ll trudge through some amazing locales whose size occasionally balloons to offer a bigger playing space, but all it really allows you to do is run around a building in a different direction to the enemies. Unlike in multiplayer, vehicles have their own special sections – one desperately dull and open desert level aside – and though the story comes thick and fast, the flow is continually interrupted. One of the reasons why MW2 works as well as it does is Infinity Ward’s ability to string together set pieces organically throughout a level, without breaking the flow. Here, frantic firefights are constantly paused to load a new section or vehicle, and rarely does it run together. That the characters are continually referencing Modern Warfare and those “pussies with snowmobiles” only reinforces the inferiority complex.

… continued