Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review
- Posted March 16th, 2010 at 16:18 EDT by Steven Williamson
- 53 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 8.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 8.2
Summary
A polished entry in the Battlefield series, with a deep and engaging multiplayer component.
We like
- The outstanding audio and visual experience
- The action-paced single player campaign
- The deep multiplayer mode and maps
We dislike
- The predictable storyline
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
To say that the PS3 is inundated with first person shooters would an understatement of epic proportions; it's absolutely suffocated by them. With 49 games in the genre already clogging up the shelves, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 represents the latest entry into that sea of shooters hoping to set itself apart from the crowd. Though no one can question developer DICE's excellent contributions to the Battlefield series, the Sweden-based developer has had a rough time translating its PC success to its console iterations. The original Bad Company underwhelmed both critically and commercially. However, with two years and two console games under its belt since, DICE has taken another swing at it, and though Bad Company 2 occasionally falters, it finally manages to deliver a performance on par with its PC counterparts.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 once again follows the Bad Company, a ragtag squad of soldiers delegated to some extremely dangerous missions. This time, the B Company is tasked with thwarting a Russian plot to obtain a weapon of devastating power, codenamed “Aurora”. The Bad Company's final mission takes them globe trotting from Alaska to Columbia, toppling terrorists every step of the way.
Though the outcome is predictable, it's with this group of soldiers that the game's single player campaign manages to really separate itself from its competitors. The banter exchanged between the heroic quartet really helps to bring them to life and give them personality. They'll crack jokes about each other’s sisters and argue about what the coolest superpowers are, but their sense of camaraderie shines through it all, and you really can't help but become attached to them. That makes it all the more trying and immersive for you as the player when the game throws them through some dire situations. The charismatic Bad Company provides a much welcomed relief from the monosyllabic meat-heads of most contemporary military shooters.
And that's a good thing, because it would be awfully hard to care about the storyline otherwise. The narrative is weaved together from some of the most tried and derivative action clichés, more fitting for a B-tier 1980's anti-Communist potboiler than a turn of the century military epic. If Modern Warfare 2 is a Tom Clancy production, then Bad Company 2 is decidedly a Sylvester Stallone-directed action flick.
The story does facilitate a good six or seven hours of heart pounding action sequences, though. DICE has adopted a more scripted experience for Bad Company 2, and it’s largely the better for it. Whether you're tearing through a lush forest on the side of a mountain in Chile with an ATV, protecting a satellite in the midst of treacherous blizzard in Bolivia, or escaping an enemy encampment on the back of a rickety truck in Russia, the game is absolutely unrelenting in its pacing. The action packed set pieces are really driven home by the fully destructible environments, made possible by the latest iteration of DICE's Frostbite engine. Wooden fences splinter, concrete walls crack and crumble into chunks, and entire villages are reduced to nothing by prolonged fire fights. The wanton destruction is more than just window dressing, and actually gives you some tactical advantages. Instead of fighting a caravan of armored ATCs head on, for example, you can simply destroy the bridge as they cross over it. This added layer of depth makes the whole campaign feel quite dynamic.
The enhanced destructibility is not the only perk of the upgraded Frostbite engine, either. While the original Bad Company was a mixed bag in the visual department, Bad Company 2 is a huge leap towards the better. The environments are incredibly varied, and each location is a real treat for the eyes. The tropical jungles of Bolivia define the word lush, while impressive particle effects bring desert sandstorms in Chile to life. It's not without a few niggles here and there, the game is marred by some screen tearing on occasion, but it's definitely one of the better looking multi-platform games to date.
The visuals are also beautifully complemented by a booming sound design, completing the cinematic feel. Explosions will shake your house, lightning strikes electrify the air and the sounds of bullets ricocheting will have you ducking for cover. The orchestral soundtrack rounds it off nicely, and the ... (continued on next page)
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Comments
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_WarMachine_
- 12:23pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 1
I would love to play this game but my plate is full with FF13, GOW3 and MLB 10. I'll probably rent it one of these days.
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coverton341
- 12:30pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 2
Meh. Probably will never pick this one up. Too many shooters and I am not that big of a fan of the genre anyway.
Glad to hear it's a decent entry though.
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LfCpS3
- 12:34pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 3
8.5?
mw2 had a predictable story line and was still uglier and sounded worse than this game but got a better score?
lol, i guess FPS with the COD tag or MW tag will only get a 9+, or if its a exclusive title. Bad calculating for the score.
, either way still a good review but the score is bad, sounded like a 9.5 from what i read about what you said, if not a 9.
EDIT: ITS called conquest, not capture the flag that mw2 has. lo typical. CONQUEST and that is one of the main game modes, like rush.
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Firefox
- 1:12pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 7
Good review but..Taking a nod from Modern Warefare 2 for character progression? LOL Does the reviewer know how long Battlefield has been in the business?
Also I think PSU should just give up on scores and focus on text only reviews (like Kotaku for example) since when you look at their reviews accross the board one cannot help but feel that they don't actually have a system to determine a numerical value for games.
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joeymetalgear7
- 1:19pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 8
@3 and 5, well maybe mw2 got a higher score because it was one of the best games of last games. Your obviously blind if you think mw2 can beat bf2 technically and im goin warrant a guess an say that u\\\'s both suck at mw2 online, hence the reason for the trollin. now that my trollins over, im very dissapointed with bf2 singleplayer, i liked the sandbox approach of the last game and here way too linear but the online more than makes up for it, classic DICE magic!
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Free_Agent
- 2:54pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 12
I don't know, I played the demo and wasn't that impressed. Granted, I didn't play it very long. I am a HUGE BF2 fan though. I played that game for years, and still do sometimes. It's too bad they haven't been able to translate all the elements of that game to a console. I still might pick this on up, I'm just not in a big hurry.
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hood
- 3:02pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 13
I think that games should be given 2 scores one solely for multiplayer and one for single when brought k2 i went straight online when i brought mw2 i went straight online when i brought res 2 i played the story when i brought fear 2 i played the story when i brought rainbow 6 i went straight online. Online is where your going to spend a majority of your time the single player shouldnt have as much of in impact on certain games. Story vs Story id give it to MW2 Online vs Online BFBC2 for me that makes it the better game,
People arent being trolls when they say this game is better than MW2 they are just voicing their opinions. Opinions that you can choose to agree with or not. Im my case BFBC2 blows MW2 out of the water MW2 cant even touch BFBC2
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RugerRellP89
- 3:09pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 15
Wow, an 8.5. It's at least a 9 in my book. I'm liking it a lot more than MW2. The only thing MW2 has on this is Spec Ops.
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alrightiwill333
- 3:42pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 16
and mw2's storyline was a well written masterpiece with no plot holes? can't see how story could bring a game down 1.5... but i guess when people always say "i only care about gameplay" then are just lieing
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Powder-RocKer
- 4:14pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 17
MW2 online is the best FPS created yet. They did an amazing job with it, and BC2 cant compare. The maps are nice and big in BC2, but the quality of the guns and the detail is nowhere near MW2. Sorry, but Infinity Ward has a easy win here.
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Brokentusk81
- 4:18pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 18
It's hard for me to believe this game doesn't warrant a score closer to 9 or 9.5 from PSU, but then again in this game isn't as realistic or awesome as Modern Warfare. In Bad Company 2: you can't ninja-run faster than bullets and knife people; you can't run around with dual-shotguns like most real life soldiers do; you can't sit in the corner of the map and kill a friend on the opposing team over and over to get a nuke. So I guess I understand the score. . .
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LfCpS3
- 4:29pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 19
@9
LOL are you a moran? seriously?
I NEVER SAID MW2 DOES NOT HAVE CAPTURE THE FLAG, i said bfbc2 has conquest, that is not like what mw2 has, which is capture the flag!!!
@ everyone else
LOL are you kidding me? I agree i am not the best(who is?) but i am good enough to get lots of kills(check my stats) and i can honestly say mw2 does suck harily balls. Its rubbish and just run n gun,. The story line is unorginal. OMG RUSSIA TAKES OVER USA, NEVER SEEN BEFORE !! The story line is rubbish. Just because i do not like agame does ot mean i have not played it or am bad at it.
mw2: guns all feel like **** and is obvious a 10 year old made them. No skill needed. Graphics are bad for the size of the game. The game has nothing that would decrease the quality of graphics which is why it sucks. The online is buggy and full of 1 shot Q scope snipers. The online is broken. Nothing is fair and balanced. Also for a game that made billions of dollers you would think that the first batch of DLC would be free, but nope. Not even $10 ITS FLIPPEN $15 FOR 3 NEW MAPS AND 2 OLD MAPS that will look similar to the ones in mw1(graphics wise) It will not do what killzone2 did woth the old maps, like increasting the quality. The maps suck and theres no destruction!!!!!
Im high so forgive my bad english and bad words :)
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urbullethere
- 4:47pm EDT - March 16th, 2010
- 20
Yes the singleplayer sucks in this game, but that's not what it's made for.
As far as comparing online to MW2, the destuctible enviroments alone are enough to blow it out of the water. Then there's the fact that online is incredibly team based, something eons ahead of MW2's online. BC2 doesn't need a Spec Ops mode, teamplay is perfectly integrated into every other mode (this is something PSU really should have emphasized a little more)
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