ic-games Review - Battlefield: Bad Company - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Battlefield: Bad Company - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Battlefield: Bad Company

Information
Reviewer: Andrew St.Denis
Developer: Dice
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Reviewed: Xbox 360/PS3
Genre: FPS/Vehicle
UK Release: 27th Jun 2008
Article Date: 04th Jul 2008
Difficulty: N/A
Retail Price: 49.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Gameplay:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 84%

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Pros
Fun with Tanks
Excellent Voice Talent

Cons
Dodgy AI
Limited Multiplay Options

Screenshots

2 of 5

The Battlefield name has been around for a little while now, and EA and DICE have brought the next gen Battlefield: Bad Company to the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles only. Digital Illusions CE (DICE) have been the force behind several of the Battlefield back catalogue and have this time brought the new Frostbite engine to the table.

What that means for the gameplay is that nearly everything can be blown up and destroyed. From mowing down trees with a heavy machine gun to blowing up buildings with heavy tank main guns: although you can't destroy the building completely, just leave an open shell, with very few hiding places.

Now in the previous titles it's all been about the multiplayer game, with the single player areas just being a training ground for that. This time it's been given a proper single player game and it's actually pretty good. perhaps the best part being the rather clever dialogue between team members. The team is yourself Preston Marlowe, Sergeant Redford, Sweetwater and Haggard, who seem to get all the shitty jobs in the US Army.

The storyline is that Bad Company get sent in to all the hot spots, because they are expendable, so you and your squadmates will be facing heavy resistance in a lot of missions. But there's no reason to be worried, since you not only have your squadmates but you have a trusty hypodermic with health injector which will bring your health back to 100%. Even death is not the end, because if you die you regenerate very close to your place of demise, plus any enemy already taken out, remain that way.

Weapons abound in the single player game, with all enemy soldiers dropping theirs which you can then either leave, take ammo from, if it matches what yours uses or swap your gun for that one. Vehicles also make an appearance, from Golf Carts to APC's to Main Battle Tank's and Helicopters there should be something for everyone. Although the weapons for the light vehicles aren't under your control, the auto cannon armed APC and the MBT can be aimed and fired by you, without swapping seats around.

That's not to say the single player game doesn't have it's problems, because it does. There are times when you question why there are four people out there in the boonies, because they seem to leave most the work to you. The heavy weapon specialist, who uses the rocket launcher happily against troops in a building can't fire them at armoured vehicles, thus leaving it up to you to take them out. The main point on this game though is the clever comments both in the between mission cut-scenes and the voice acting.

Music in game and on the menus is good and you won't be needing to go turning it off after two minutes. But for a very refreshing turn of events is in the voice acting and scripting in Bad Company, to put it simply, it's good, damned good. All too often these days the voice talent is left to the end of production, thus meaning the money isn't there for it, but it seems either DICE had a fair sized purse or budgeted well. Either way, you will be watching and listening to those cut-scenes for a change. Weapons fire has also had some work done above the usual, indoors and outdoors effects are vastly different and reverberation inside a room is very well done.

Graphically the game is looking very good, the destruction of so much of the scenery makes for good fun, whilst the animation and the whole look of Bad Company is high quality. There are still some holes in the Frostbite engine however, while houses can get the walls knocked down the spine of it will always remain and some objects no matter what, won't go. It can seem odd to get walls crumbling around you only to not be able to blast a wooden crate next to it.

Online play is what the previous Battlefield titles were designed for, and Bad Company will suit a lot of people in that way. There is only a limited ways to do battle however and that could well cause a lot of people to shy away from it. Goldrush is the name of the game here, one group defending the other attacking. The defenders have crates of gold, the more you destroy the more of the map you have open and the weaker the defenders get. Both sides have a limited number of respawns available to them, but more are gained by destroying those crates. There is talk of other styles of multiplay being available in downloads at a later date, while Goldrush can be fun, other styles should have been included really.

Now there are problems with the multiplayer action too, when you die you get a choice where to respawn, either near a squadmate or at the nearest base, now, pick the base option and you can end up spawning in some pretty odd places. Ones discovered so far include inside a closed building, leaving you no choice but to destroy the door with a grenade (thrown of fired) in order to get out; other places include in front of enemy soldiers, on top of houses; on the edge of a riverbank or cliff, that you fall down immediately and the like.

Overall the open sandbox style of gameplay and allowing you the non-linear gameplay to complete the mission in your own way works very well. The character interaction and voice talent is some of the best (even if it is cheesy in the extreme) seen in a while and is fun to listen to. Whilst the single player gameplay is pretty good the single option on multiplay and some of the odd spawn points do detract from it. Now Battlefield: Bad Company isn't a bad game, it just isn't as good as it could have been, certainly if fixes are made and extra options to the multiplayer game can be added, it'd be worth a few more points on the score. I feel it would be worth a rental before you buy however, but you should find some fun times never-the-less, no matter what.

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