Battlefield: Bad Company

Battfield: Bad Company is a first-person shooter set in a current-day (or recent past) pseudo-East European theatre with a strong sideline in vehicle (HMMV, tank and chopper) combat.

The game, particularly multiplayer, is now superceded by its sequel (Bad Company 2) and is likely to be overshadowed by Battlefield 3 and COD MW3, which are out later this year (2011). As such, this review only focuses on the single player campaign.

The campaign sees you playing as one member of a four-man squad (3 other members are controlled by the computer's AI) of misfits looking after themselves and each other rather more than they look after their duties, or the rules. The story is a simple caper involving greed and opportunism during wartime with the player portrayed as 'the new guy' who's along for the ride as the morally bankrupt, but happy-go lucky team follow the lure of gold. The story is cliched to a degree, but the characters are well portrayed, simple and interesting enough. A modern day Kelly's Heroes.

The FPS gameplay is excellent and all of the required elements are here - a good mix of weapons with different handling characteristics, excellent environmental destruction physics, reasonable AI with the ability to take cover, flank and surprise. The maps are very wide open and choke-points/destinations can be approached from a number of different directions - some better than others.

The difficulty levels are a bit patchy with some set-pieces towards the end offering steep challenges combining large numbers of enemies with deadlines to hit. Fighting on foot against vehicles, especially helicopters, can be a bit frustrating - particularly as buildings offer scant cover. The AI feels just a little too good at spotting you too.

Overall the campaign was good value and worth participating in - with a real sense of achievement. The cut-scenes move the story along and focus on character interaction - don't feel forced - and have some humourous touches. The tone is consistently not serious - but attempts to retain some degree of realism rather than wandering off into fantasy.

Replay value is not strong, although there are gold bars and weapon collectables in each level, encouraging some exploration.

This is a recommended rental, and may be worth looking for a second-hand copy to experience the campaign.

LOVE THIS GAME THAT ALL I CAN SAY THAT ALL I NEED TO SAY ABOUT THIS GAME LOVE IT ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?

I don't play online, that should instantly rule out about 90% of most the gamers that the war based shooter is aimed at. Instead let me focus on the single player campaign.

Battlefield is lighter hearted than your usual shooter with a campaign that takes more from 3 Kings than Hurtlocker with its band of not so elite soldiers left to fend for themselves with a purely selfish set of reasons to chase after a bad guy.

The bad guy himself is nothing more than a couple of nasty looks to camera, this is all about how you get your squad to the next location and that's where Battlefield sets itself apart.

Rather than narrow corridors and enclosed playing fields BF:BC manages to literally give you miles of width and encourages you to work out the best way to get from A to B. Stealing a tank attracting too much attention? well try hitting the opposite side of your target on foot, too many bad guys in the building? well blow the building up! Oh yes, that's the other place its different. No sandbag, fence or wall is safe any longer. A well placed grenade or RPG can bring walls down exposing you and your enemies. Its one of those other things that change the way you play the game.

'm sure the online game is fun, but I didn't go in to it - instead I had a good 10 hours or so with a fun shooter that actually challenged the way I usually play.

i really enjoyed this game but not in the same league as call of duty which will take some beating

The missions in this game are too long and boring at times. Would have been better if there were more missions but shorter with some better objectives at times. Achievements dont stack, so you need to play the game more than once on different difficulties if you want 100%. The game is easy on any difficulty because of the healing and respawns and the multiplayer is still going strong. Good to rent if you want your battlefield VIP rank up and want a bit backstory of the characters after playing bad company 2.