Recon Republic

Battlefield 2 Review

Written by m3ga0n3.

The next iteration of Battlefield is here in DICE’s long-awaited sequel to the first bad Company. There’s no doubting DICE’s expertise when it comes to multiplayer shooters. Its unique style with maps and vehicles puts it amongst the very best of the best. Unlike Halo and Call of Duty though, the Battlefield series is yet to amaze us with a good single-player experience. While Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and the original Bad Company both featured single-player campaigns, both fell well short of the kind of gameplay we’ve come to expect from Infinity Ward or Bungie.

Unfortunately, DICE still hasn’t improved with its single-player design in Bad Company 2. Unforgivable bugs, destroy a campaign that’s far from brilliant in the first place – even without taking the bugs into account, Bad Company 2 still plays out averagely. Gamers are brought from one set-piece to the next, through a storyline that neither immerses or engages you, with a lack of memorable moments that inspire you to keep playing. But I could target this sort of criticism at many FPS titles; the real annoyance comes from oversights that make me wonder whether the game has even gone through a full testing process.

Thanks to a system that occasionally makes it possible to simply run to the next waypoint on the map (regardless of whether or not you’ve killed all of the enemies) and instantly trigger the next part of the level, there are whole sections of Bad Company 2 that play out more like Mirror’s Edge than Battlefield.The problem isn’t limited to running between points either as, whenever stray vehicles come into the equation, it’s just as easy to jump in one of them and drive to the next waypoint. Problems with the NPCs, which don’t seem to know quite how to react when you run at them, also make this approach surprisingly easy and effective at times.

I’m not suggesting that every level in the game can be played out like this – far from it – but it was possible on a handful of different occasions during my playthrough and I’m pretty sure that a second playthrough would reveal a few more strange occurances as well. For this sort of thing to happen once in an FPS is unfortunate; twice suggests bad game design, but three or more times is just lazy on the developer’s part. It really does ruin a campaign that’s otherwise average at the very least and even manages to raise its head above the many problems from time to time.

Most of the best levels, where the squad have to defend an outpost from incoming men, are solidly designed and gripping enough to give the player a certain amount of tension. One particular sniping section – where gunshots have to be fired under thunder and lightning – also shows some innovation beyond the standard combat of plain cover shooting. A vast improvement in DICE’s Frostbite engine is noticeable as well, with more destructible environments than were present in the original Bad Company.

I struggle to find positives beyond that though. Perhaps it’s fair to say that vehicle sections are solid enough, due mainly to the fact that the vehicles are lifted straight out of the multiplayer and placed in action-packed sequences enough to keep the player interested, but that’s about it. Bad Company 2’s 7 or so hours of single-player are plain.
Although once you get to the multiplayer, this is where the game turns it around. As they have been delivering for more than 8 years now, DICE have given us more of the huge maps we expect from them, amazingly balanced classes and a sense of free will over a bigger amount of vehicles and aircraft than any other FPS out there. Conquest Mode and Rush Mode from the original game make a return. They have added other cool Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush modes, where they focus on infantry combat instead of vehicles. In fact, only Squad Deathmatch features one vehicle for the squads to fight over. These new modes are a welcome addition to the package while a large amount of upgrades, perks and unlockables add a long-term element to the multiplayer.

Overall, the game is a solid title that is ideal if you are starting to get bored of Modern Warfare 2. The single-player lacks any real memorable moments but the multiplayers mix of vehicle and infantry combat will make your purchase well worth the money.