Battlefield: Bad Company

That barrel they're standing next to is explosive. This should be good...

Private Preston Marlowe has been demoted to the infamous "B Company", a rag-tag bunch of army washouts.  They find out that there's a pile of gold bars waiting to be stolen and go on a hunt to find them.

Welcome to Bad Company.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 14 10 Xbox 360, PS3 Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 7 5 3   7 0 3 1 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 0 4 4 5 0 1

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 7

The Battlefield series of games and I have had a spotted history.  I loved Battlefield 1942 but hated Battlefield 2.  When this game came out I was initially skeptical, but was surprised to find out that it had a full story-based single player campaign (something the other Battlefield games lacked completely).

You are Private Preston Marlowe and for some reason you ended up in B Company.  Evidently Marlowe damaged a general’s limousine while joyriding in a helicopter, and for that he got stuck with the worst of the worst.  B Company, aka Bad Company, is a compilation of the washouts that did something horrendously bad, but are still useful enough to not get rid of completely.

This should be fun...

This game is meant to be satirical.  Think of it as The Three Stooges meet Three Kings.  The members of Bad Company find out that there’s a mercenary unit in the area who are paid in solid gold bars.  Eventually Bad Company finds its path crossing with the mercenaries, and they go on a gold hunt.  Disobeying all orders and accidentally single-handedly invading a foreign nation, they have to try and make it to the gold without getting caught and without getting killed.

Harder than it sounds. Much harder.

The personalities of all of the members of Bad Company are well developed.  Even the main character, who in most games would be a silent killer, is shown in a way that gives him life and depth, even compared to the other characters.  Their personalities are relatively unique, they're amusing, and they're the kind of characters that don't get on my nerves after five seconds of hearing them talk.

Which is a good thing considering they're with you almost the entire way.

Storyline and characters aside, this is a very well-made game.  One of the biggest features is the destructible buildings and objects.  The marketing campaigns for this game claimed that 90% of the environment was destructible, and some of this held true.  The outside walls of almost every building were completely destructible (meaning that if you shot it with some sort of explosive round or rocket, it would collapse or be destroyed).  Every tree could be rolled over (assuming the vehicle was large enough) and even terrain could be pockmarked by artillery.

This might bring down the property value a bit.

However, while explosions could decimate buildings, I did find that they lacked oomph against enemies.  Enemy humans could sit right next to a round from a grenade launcher and survive while explosive barrels did almost no damage to them at all.  Artillery and rockets were fairly effective, but only if they were almost dead-on accurate.  Even a small miss and an enemy would be alive enough to return fire.

The enemy I was shooting at survived this.

The ending battle was a tad difficult.  The player has to take down a helicopter with either a shoulder-mounted unguided missile or a semi-guided airstrike.  Even though the game is designed to make it easier to take down the helicopter with the unguided missile, I ended up giving up and using the airstrike because it was far too difficult to line up an accurate shot before the helicopter would move on to another location.

Overall I was definitely pleased with what this game had to offer.  It’s the kind of game that was definitely funny enough and entertaining enough to warrant a second playthrough in the future.

• Length - 5

The single player campaign is decently long with a few extras to find throughout the game.  It will occupy a thorough player’s time for a week or two depending on how often the game is played.

There is also an extremely popular multiplayer mode for this game.  From what I played, the community was very civil and everything went exactly the way that it should.  It was quick and professional, everything one should expect from a mature gaming community.  If players want to give a crack at the multiplayer capabilities, it will add on another week or two at least of good gameplay.  It’s not exactly the best multiplayer game I’ve ever played, but it’s definitely different than the overplayed Call of Duty standard.

• Frustration Factor - 3

As I mentioned before the ending battle was a bit frustrating.  It was doubly frustrating because you can’t attack the final helicopter until you reach a specific platform that has zero cover to hide behind.  I didn’t know this though, and attempted to call in air strike after air strike before I figured out that they were completely ineffective.

Sometimes the enemy tanks can be a bit annoying as well.  Since they have the ability to blow holes in the buildings, it can be difficult to get a sight on the tanks long enough to fire explosive rounds or call in an air strike before the tank is shelling you through a house at close range.  And the friendly AI hardly ever help at all.  They’re only really useful when they’re in a vehicle.  On foot, the friendly AI might as well not exist.

There was one thing that was absolutely aggravating.  It was the sound that the "power tool" made.  The power tool is used to repair any vehicle, but it makes a high-pitched screeching sound every time it's used.  I had to mute my TV every time I repaired a vehicle just to keep myself from going insane.

You'll learn to hate this tool very quickly.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 7

This is a war-based first person shooter, which means that the player will have to fire shots at hundreds of live enemies.  However, I was surprised to find that there is zero blood or gore involved.  Seriously, this game is less violent than the Halo series.  Yes, this time the player is fighting Russians and other human lifeforms, but the lack of any sort of blood makes this game appropriate for a much wider variety of age groups.

Nope, no blood here.

The most violent parts of this game were when artillery and other explosives were used on vehicles.  The vehicles would explode into great plumes of flame and smoke and any units in the nearby area would be instantly killed with their bodies sent flying.  The ragdoll effects made these and any other deaths more like a puppet getting its strings cut than a person getting shot or blown up.

Big bada boom!

• Sexuality - 0

Sexuality is not a factor in this game.

• Substances - 3

In order to heal, the player has to make use of a sort of healing epinephrine pen.  The player takes out the device, points the sharp end at himself, and impales, instantly healing all wounds.

This might hurt...

Supposedly there was alcohol in this game, but I definitely missed it if there was.  It might have been that Sarge said that he would be sipping a beer while fishing.  Either way, it was so mild it was unnoticeable.

• Gambling - 1

There are a few references to betting, mostly with the characters taking bets on how long the player’s character will survive.

Rock, paper, scissors, anyone?

• Mods - 0

There are no mods available for this game.

• Religion – 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

• Anti-Law – 4

The premise of the game is four American soldiers who go off on an unsanctioned adventure to find the legendary gold of a leader of a band of mercenaries.  They go AWOL.  So yeah, there will be some anti-law involved.  Fortunately, there isn’t any anti-law outside of that.

Gold!

• Online Community - 4

The online community for this game is mature and still going strong.  The players are pretty good and the online play can get fast-paced and hectic, but everyone does the best they can.  This is all the more important because friendly-fire is not turned off, meaning that players can kill others on their own team (even by accident).

• Extreme Sports - 5

Vehicles play an important part in this game.  The player will constantly be moving around, and using vehicles to cross large areas or destroy enemy vehicles is a vital part to winning the main campaign.  While these vehicles move at more realistic speeds than most games, there are still plenty of spots to drive off cliffs or perform other driving maneuvers that would not be possible in real life.  If kids were ever going to be driving tanks or APCs in the future, they might not want to use this game as an example of what a heavily-armored vehicle can do.  However, since I don’t expect many children to grow up to be tank commanders, this shouldn’t be a real issue.

Where else can you drive a golf kart into a warzone?

• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

• Miscellaneous - 1

Kidnapping?

I put a question mark for this one because the game (purposefully) leaves it rather unclear.  In one mission you are charged with finding and “extracting” the president of a nation you accidentally invaded.  When you find him, it turns out that he wants to go with you willingly because his troops are holding him hostage (kind of).  But after he goes with you and gets captured by the enemy, he seems to try and appeal to the enemy leader by acting as if he had been kidnapped by you (only to beg you for help later on).  It’s really confusing, but it’s meant to be confusing.