Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review PC

The Battlefield series has come a long way from its roots in World War II combat similar to the Call of Duty series, a futuristic combat game, and most recently its Bad Company signature series. Battlefield Bad Company 2 takes place after the events of the first Bad Company with a few brief scenes from World War II and the mysterious weapon being built by the Japanese under the codename Operation Aurora. The squad’s duty is to secure a device related to Aurora and end up having to protect the United States from an imminent Russian invasion. The story for Battlefield Bad Company 2 is definitely an improvement over the first one, although the humor has been toned down dramatically, leading to a more serious atmosphere throughout the game.

The Battlefield Bad Company series has always been graphically superior to Call of Duty. Environments were very destructible, from trees and vehicles, to the walls of buildings. In Bad Company 2, the destruction is taken one step further with the introduction of what the developers call Destruction 2.0. Destruction 2.0 allows players not only the ability to destroy building walls, but to destroy the supporting pillars as well, which leads to an interesting view of building floors pancaking down upon unsuspecting enemies for a gratifying kill.

The voice over actors from the first Bad Company are back to reprise their roles again in the sequel and do a good job of it. The only complaint is that this time around, the comedy that made the first one enjoyable is almost non-existent and the story has taken a darker more serious tone. The one funny guy gets killed a bit prematurely, just when the player begins to like him. On the other hand, the story is actually interesting this time and not just a training run for players to enter the multiplayer.

The single player campaign consists of thirteen fairly short chapters with average sized levels that allow the player to either rush in Rambo style or sit back and tactically snipe at enemies from a moderately safe distance. Enemy AI could definitely use some work, as some would see their comrades dead within their line of sight and not react at all, while others would magically see the player through a wall and start shooting.

Multiplayer consists of 4 modes: Conquest, Rush Mode, Squad Rush, and Team Deathmatch . There are 10 multiplayer maps including the DLC, which is free for PC owners, but available for purchase for XBOX 360 and PS3 owners. The multiplayer maps are large, and allow for quite a bit of strategic maneuvering to satisfy most gamers. Player limit is set to a maximum of 32 players. Ranking is similar to the first Bad Company, where players gained experience for winning and for kills. The major difference is that now, users will gain experience only for the individual class they utilize, rather than across the board. On the PC, multiplayer servers are created by users rather than run by EA, which in the near future, will most likely open up to player run mods.

Overall, Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a welcome sequel with plenty of great multiplayer maps and an interesting single player campaign. The game is well polished and a much better game experience than Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I highly recommend this game as a purchase to any FPS fan out there, but out of all the versions, I would say purchase the PC version just because the DLC is free rather than pay for it on the XBOX Live Marketplace or the Playstation Store.