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The Battlefield series has always had a strong fanbase dating way back to the days when PCs ruled the gaming world, thanks to its strong vehicle and hand-to-hand combat. Once “Battlefield: Bad Company” came out, hardcore console and FPS fans joined the ranks. While the first BC tried to balance individual and vehicle combat, BC2 achieves that goal much more effectively.

The game’s campaign structure has undergone major facelifts since the first. The story has matured significantly, but fans of the humor in the first will be happy to see it has returned during certain appropriate moments. Most shooters return you to a checkpoint after you die but the first BC instead moved you back to a certain respawn point and allowed you to die over and over until you wiped out all of the enemies. This almost seemed like cheating to me, so I was pleased to see that BC2 now has a traditional checkpoint system and, with it, raised the difficulty.

Another annoyance from the first game was the need to inject yourself with a healing shot to get health back, an unnecessary step given that you had unlimited injections. Just like most shooters, BC2 now slowly regenerates your health a la most other FPSs. Campaign levels are no longer vast open environments that take forever to traverse and have been replaced with a much more linear and streamlined experience. Destructible environments were the big draw from the first game and with BC2 they’ve upped the ante — the environments now include physics for overall structures so entire houses and buildings can be destroyed. When buildings and houses collapse you hear a slight creaking of the structure giving away before it all topples to the ground, which is quite an experience the first time you are in a building and you hear it starting to give.

Vehicles still make appearances, but the core of BC2 is now a squad-based FPS, so don’t expect to be doing much driving and prepare to be a gunner at all times. All of these changes have honed the campaign experience into one that rivals Modern Warfare 2 in both story and gameplay.

I have a handful of gripes about the game, namely in the few things that oddly did not change or get tweaked from the first. Knife kills always felt sluggish and broken in the first BC to the point that those who mastered it were annoying and those that hadn’t ignored the function altogether. Not much has changed in the sequel. Timing is still off – you find yourself stabbing air more times than not – and in campaign it should only be used to sneak up on enemies as they always seem to knife you first if you rush them head on.

Also, the targeting for vehicles is just a little too slow and sluggish in various parts of the single player campaign, especially in a particular chopper battle at the end, resulting in frustratingly slow progression. I still find it annoying when games give you large open areas but spawn enemies almost on top of you. At that point you find yourself rushing into a situation right after a checkpoint just to see who’s there, die, then begin your real assault. In the final levels of the game this technique is used all the time, which developers need to understand is not an ideal way to increase difficulty. Even worse, your attentive and helpful squad mates suddenly decide during these levels that they no longer want to follow you, want you to take point, and are constantly standing around.

All that said, while these problems are both annoying and frustrating, they are few and far between.

Multiplayer has also received a makeover, which is dangerous when dealing with a series that has been consistent for so long, but Battlefield fans should have little to complain about. Maps remain wide and open for exploration, but no longer have that vast feel from the first, which basically required you to use vehicles. The first BC had no regenerating health and required quite a few bullets to take down an adversary — this resulted in the endless healing of the medic class to be the most common and the most powerful.

In BC 2 it doesn’t take much to gun down an opponent and slow regenerating health allows people to play the class they want to instead of hiding behind a medic. Vehicles aren’t in abundance like other Battlefield games but a few tanks and scooters are on each of the eight included maps, although airborne vehicles are now rare.

Both conquest (base control) and gold rush (bomb detonation objective) modes return with the inclusion of a squad deathmatch mode. FPS players that aren’t used to the Battlefield series will probably feel more at home with squad deathmatch, but it as a fan of the series I preferred the classic two modes. Balance has been taken heavily into account this round as I felt no severe advantage or disadvantage with any one.

Battlefield requires more planning and strategy than most online shooters and it was refreshing to take my time instead of relying on twitch reactions. I also feel that the guns are a little more realistic and consistent over Modern Warfare — you will never go face to face with the same gun, shoot first, and still lose the fight. With a ranking system, unlocks, and leveling that has made contemporary shooters so addictive, BC2 has the potential to win over a significant chunk of the FPS crowd.

Graphically this game is beautiful, making great use of the different locations in lush and colorful detail. I did notice that some of the locales may have been recycled locations from the first game, but it was so hard to pay attention to the details of the first that I didn’t care. Destruction physics work wonderfully and all exploding walls, structures, and objects looked as realistic as one can expect from a video game experience. I also like the way the environment is realistically manipulative this time around. There were instances in the first where, for example, I could blow out the wall of a house but a fence was indestructible — this was rare in BC2.

Sound design is great, from the sounds of bullets whizzing past and rivers flowing to the distant conversations of your comrades about subjects ranging from God to 50 Cent. But still, I rarely paid attention to the background soundtrack except for moments when it would cut out and begin to replay again — probably not what the composer was going for.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is now direct competition to Modern Warfare 2. Instead of trying to make a high-budget clone that would have diluted the series, BC2 takes what has always made Battlefield great and enhances it with the best traits of contemporary shooters. As a result you have a complete package from the engaging campaign to the addicting multiplayer that will keep players hooked on this game for months, if not years, to come.

Gameplay: 9.0

Graphics: 9.5

Sound: 9.0

First Play: 8.0

Multiplayer: 9.5

Replay Value: 9.0



Overall: 9.0