Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review - Gameplay, Online Multiplayer, and Storyline Review

Battlefield Bad Company has lived in the shadows of the infamous "Call of Duty" game franchise. The Fall season begins the gaming battle where many developers release their new games. Battlefield Bad Company 2 was released in March of 2010 and marked a new online gameplay experience for gamers. More gamers prefer to battle on Call of Duty, but Battlefield Bad Company 2 offers similar features that may be more appealing to people who enjoy more realistic gaming. This fall will bring Battlefield Bad Company 3 to consoles, but EA may fall short to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 once again. This review will give you an in-depth look at the Gameplay quality and may get you interested in the Battlefield series.

One of the major downfalls of Battlefield Bad Company 2 is that is solely single player, both campaign and online multiplayer. You also can't cook grenades or go completely prone, but you can crouch.

Gameplay

The campaign continues where the original Bad Company game left off. You play the role of Preston Marlowe, a member of the "Bad Company." The storyline starts off in the 1940's during the time of the hunt for "super-weapons." The campaign makes a transition up to modern warfare. Your journey starts in Japan and makes its way through Bolivia, Alaska, and other highly scenic parts of the world. The cut-scenes of the storyline give the game an aspect of a movie with the way the they present the situation of the mission then put you directly in the mix of the action.

Describing the storyline is a tough task to do without giving away spoilers to the plot. The graphics of campaign are high quality with even higher quality cut-scenes. EA does an amazing job at presenting environmental conditions for the surroundings of the missions. The physics engine of the game offers one of the most realistic destruction effects incorporated into a game. What I mean by this is that gunfire and explosives can do damage that you would expect to see in the real world. This includes bullets taking out small chunks of concrete as well as breaking off parts of tree's and various buildings. Strategically placed explosives can flatten entire buildings or take out a range of numerous portions of walls. The same physics apply to the various vehicles that you are put in control of. The campaign offers different sized areas with vehicles that correspond to the environment. The more powerful a vehicle would be in real life, the more powerful it is in the game. Numerous objectives throughout the storyline require you to drive your squad through the isolated rivers of Bolivia in a boat, travel to various compounds in the desert on an ATV, man the gun of a chopper while soaring over the jungle, or drive/operate tanks, jeeps, and other SUV's while having to travel great distances on complex terrains. Mortar shells from tanks can level buildings as well as the sole power of driving a tank into or over various destructible objects. This includes complete destruction of the gigantic trees throughout the environments of your missions. Destruction in the game can also give an earlier alert to enemies engaging attacks. If you are plowing down trees while traveling in your tank, the noise commotion and visuals of the treetops falling to the ground offering a realistic lack of stealth effect when engaging enemies.

Weapons

The campaign gameplay offers a wide variety of discoverable weapons that are dropped upon the slaying of your enemies or with ammunition crates located throughout each mission. Each addition of an attachment to a particular gun is considered "discovering" a new weapon. Once you have picked up a new weapon, a notification will appear on your screen confirming that the weapon or modified weapon has been unlocked. You can hold two primary weapons at any time. These include assault rifles, machine guns, pistols, RPG's, and snipers. Weapon crates are distributed throughout the level and allows you to change your primary weapons to any weapon you have "discovered." Aside from your two primary weapons, you will sometimes have special devices and explosives. These include c4, semtax grenades, an coordinate locators to control mortar strikes. You also have the ability to hold up to four frag grenades at once.

The weapons aren't exactly as customizable as they are in games such as Call of Duty, but discovered attachments includes red dot sight, scopes, and grenade launchers. A downfall of the frag grenade is that you can't "cook" the grenade.

Classes

The only way to play with multiple people is through online multiplayer. Multiplayer offers class customization similar to Call of Duty, but customization is much more strict. The classes are broken down into 4 major roles: Assault, Medic, Engineer, and Recon. Each role unlocks different weapons and abilities as you get more kills while using that type of class. The unique part about the game's classes is its relation to real life roles in military combat.

• The assault class is designed for storming the enemy at fairly close range with powerful short-range weapons. The assault kit can provide yourself, as well as teammates, with ammunition box's and heavy explosives.
• The medic class is pretty much common sense. You can heal yourself as well as teammates and eventually unlock special abilities that allow you to revive your teammates. Medics can unlock short range weapons that aren't as powerful as the assault weapons, but allows you to aid your teammates.
• The engineer class provides the same concept of what military engineers do. You can repair damaged vehicles that belong to your team or have been taken from the enemy. Engineers are equipped with light machine guns for close range attacks. The engineer class is also designed to disable enemy vehicles by using anti-tank mines and powerful RPG launchers. Higher ranked engineers can control vehicle delivery for your team.
• The final class is the recon class. The recon class is essentially a sniper class designed for secretive long-distance attacks. You can use motion sensors to detect enemy locations, which become available to you whole team. You can also unlock mortar strikes as a special ability. You have a pair of binoculars that can zoom in on a location and call in a mortar strike to be launched at the location. You are equipped with heavy-duty sniper rifles and a camouflage uniform to keep your recon status.

Each class can be customized based on that classes abilities. You unlock certain primary, secondary, and special abilities for each class. Having a strategically planned team could be the difference between a victory or a shameful loss.

Gameplay

After you understand the abilities of different classes, you can utilize their abilities depending on the game types. There is only a handful of different maps designed for different types of battle. You can play small objective type games that include killing the enemy, capturing bases, and offensive/defensive games that has require a squad to complete a task while the other squad does everything they can to keep their enemy from completing the task.There are also larger game-types that incorporate larger team objectives or multiple team battles. There are even game-types that allows several large-squad teams to play on the same map to prove the most organized and gruesome teams.

I felt like the online play was much more realistic and strategic than any other game that i've played. Enemies are easier to bring down, much like it would be in real life combat. The maps are large, but designed to flow the combat all the way across the map. For example, you'll start a game at one end of the map and slowly transition to the other side by the end of the game. I also like how your rank is based on your performance in game. Each class slowly upgrades as you get kills while using that class. One player could have an amazingly powerful recon class, but a weak engineering class. Experience earned in the game goes towards your total level and the class you use. Leveling may seem slower than in other games, but the benefits are greatly worth it.

The final unique feature in Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the ability to join squads within your team. At the beginning of a game, you are asked if you would like to join a squad. Squads allow you to interact more clearly with your teammates. Squads also allow for you to spawn next to someone else that is still alive in your squad. You can choose to randomly spawn or spawn with a squad member. You can also choose to "parachute" into action once you unlock the ability. Instead of spawning on the ground, you will be dropped out of an aircraft and parachute your way into combat.

I conclude with highly recommending Battlefield Bad Company 2. The features provide a unique gameplay for a first person shooter in modern wartime. I also recommend trying it out because the sequel to this game will hit shelves this fall and so far (from trailers/demos) Battlefield Bad Company 3 looks much more thrilling than Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. The sequel to this came offers "movie-like" graphics, squad controlling, and the incorporation of realistic crawling and improved destruction to environments.

I played this game for Xbox 360 and I must say that the achievements are pretty easy to get. I unlocked most of them without even trying while playing campaign. A few of the online Achievements are difficult to get, but most of them are fairly easy.