Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review - Xbox 360

8

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Audio: 7
Multiplayer: 9
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Marlowe, Sweetwater, Haggard, and Redford from Bad Company are back, and again out to cause havoc. This time the quest for gold is gone, and they must save the world from a mysterious new weapon of mass destruction. The original Bad Company was met with some good reception for it's different approach to the modern warfare style FPS, and indeed we regarded it well here at Sliced Gaming (see here for our original review). Released shortly after Call of Duty 4, it gave it some decent competition in both single and multiplayer modes, and some in fact preferred the online action in BC over Call of Duty 4 at the time.

Gameplay

The much chagrined search for gold bars in the first game has all been thrown out for a more contemporary storyline involving Russian Terrorists and the small task of preventing the end of the world as we know it. Yes, it's still formuliac, but it is somewhat saved by it's epic final conclusion.

The love it, or loathe it humour from the first one is back again, with much of the game broken up by in-game interludes from your squad. There is plenty of banter between the characters, and while there is a lot of shooting involved, things are a bit more light-hearted than you'll find in most other FPS.

One of the advantages of Bad Company 2 as a shooter over it's competition is that the game (feels at least) a lot less linear than some others. There is no set angle of attack to finish many of the missions, and you can choose to sneak through areas, snipe from afar, or charge right into the heat of battle. This time supply crates are spread across most of the levels, allowing you to switch your primary and secondary weapons freely once you have discovered them. The approach gives some variety to the experience, and most players will welcome this freedom from the rigidity of most other FPS.

Weapons are very much repeated from the first game, with a large variety of rocket launchers, shot guns, machine guns, and sniper rifles at your disposal. Many feel a little similar with only subtle differences, so sometimes you have to ask whether it is really worthwhile having so many with so much crossover.

Destruction was one of the features of the first BC, and this time this has been cranked up somewhat with "Destruction 2.0". Now you can completely level whole buildings to the ground, and the things that can be shot up seems to be slightly increased. Again, this adds a great element to the standard FPS in either single player or multiplayer. You can no longer just camp behind cover and pick off enemies, as it's quite likely that cover won't be there much longer when it's blown to smithereens! This really should be the standard by which other FPS follow, as it's quite a great element when you get used to it.

The other large change is that the trajectory of bullets ...