Back in Bad Company. Somehow the gold disappeared and nobody retired, so Bad Company is stuck with saving the day. Saving the day? Really? Time to put everything in the hands of four guys with a severe case of butterfingers.
_ 1. Gameplay _
_It was extremely difficult to write that paragraph because, quite honestly, I had no idea what was going on in this game. None of it made any sense to me and it only loosely tied into the previous game. There is never any mention of the gold that Bad Company “acquired”, no mention of why Sarge has not retired yet (even though he was supposed to retire at the beginning of the first game), and no mention as to why Bad Company is now seen by the military as a primary special-ops force instead of a lowly band of washouts. _There’s also no mention of why the Russians would so desperately want an EMP from World War II when technology has made such massive changes in the past sixty years. Seriously, the game could at least do the player a favor and explain why the Russians want to go through the trouble of locating a tube-technology piece of junk that is almost certainly rusted to the core when they could just develop a newer, better, smaller, and more powerful equivalent on their own. _The terrible basis for the storyline aside, I thought that the best feature from the previous game, the characters and their interactions, was lacking in this game. There were some awesome conversations between the characters in the game, but these were so few that I was completely disappointed. On top of that, the few times that the characters did have amusing conversations, it was often punctuated with loud gunfire since I was shooting at the enemy, which caused me to miss most of the potentially hilarious lines. _Fortunately, there were some redeeming factors to this game. Not only was the friendly AI competent, they were often smart enough to move forward on their own and attack the enemy without my direction. While I was still killing the majority of the enemy force, I had to make sure to take my time and support my squadmates as they moved forward to support me. It was a nice give and take that I wish other games would take to heart. _The almost fully destructive environments are also back. Buildings can be blown apart with any explosive, exposing inside enemies and sometimes killing them in the process. This isn’t limited to wooden structures like some games. Every building, from the smallest outhouse to the largest concrete structure, can have its walls blown off. As an added bonus, almost all of the buildings can collapse if enough damage is done. If a building collapses on a unit, it will kill that unit instantly. It’s a very nice feature, especially in multiplayer. _Unfortunately, those nice extras did little to keep my interest. I was completely disappointed by this game and don’t expect to visit it in the near future. _
_There are a few decent DLCs that will increase the length of the multiplayer. The “Vietnam” DLC is very well made and definitely worth the money for someone who already enjoys the Bad Company 2 multiplayer. A true multiplayer fan will easily get hours upon hours of gameplay out of this game. _
_When a player is injured in a Call of Duty game, blood will cover the screen to the degree of damage that the player has taken. If the player is hit once, a few blood specks will be visible. If the player is damaged significantly, almost the entirety of the screen will be covered in blood. Bad Company 2 follows a similar system, but it’s subtle to a fault. A small ring of red tinge or small flecks of dirt along the outside of the screen evidently indicate a large amount of damage. There were over a dozen times in the game where I died because the damage indicator did not indicate strongly enough that I was taking a significant amount of damage. _It’s extremely important that the game tells a player when to attack and when to hide in cover since players cannot currently feel the pain that their characters feel. When that fails to happen, a player is much more likely to make bold, suicidal decisions without knowing they are suicidal. This may seem small, but it was a constant problem throughout both the single-player and multi-player experience. 2. Parental Notices _
_However, gore is never present in the game. Even with explosions, enemies will simply go flying like a ragdoll. _ There are some times when enemies can light on fire and may react to it. However, as there are no flame weapons I only managed to get a screenshot of a body on fire. I am not sure what caused the fire. _
_
_This goes from the prologue of the game to almost the very end. It’s always brief and almost exclusively in cutscenes, but it is present. _
3. Other Factors _
_
_
_Other than that, anti-law is not a factor. _
_On the Xbox 360 things seemed completely different. While the multiplayer was difficult, the matches seemed close and I had a much better kill / death ratio. Clans and parties were much less of a problem as the matchmaking system did a decent job in trying to keep everything relatively even. _Overall, if a player has a strong presence within a PC clan or is going to ignore the multiplayer completely, the PC version is the way to go. If not, pick up either the PS3 or the Xbox 360 version. _
_Some sections are almost a complete white-out. _There is one chapter in the game where the player has to traverse down a mountain during the middle of a fierce snowstorm. Since the player’s character does not have protection against the severe cold, the player can freeze to death if he stays out in the open for too long. The only way to prevent this is to warm up in houses along the way down the mountain. _There is one scene where the player is fighting against a large Russian force. After the player kills most of the ground troops, a tank rolls up. The player must call in an airstrike on the tank, which is within 100 feet of the player. While large airstrikes can be very accurate, especially with modern technology, I would not want to be within 1000 feet of the ordinance that could take out a tank with ease. Toward the end of the game, the player's character makes two very dangerous decisions, both involving jumping out of an airborne vehicle. The first involves jumping out of a helicopter to save the EMP device. The second time the player's character jumps out of a plane without a parachute. Fortunately, Sweetwater grabbed an extra one that the player has to shoot an enemy to get while mid-freefall. _There is also one scene where the player has to fast rope from a helicopter. It’s a very brief cutscene. _
_
At least one level featured soldiers held prisoner. They are chained to concrete walls, held up by their arms. The walls look like those classic “execution walls”. At first I thought that the soldiers were dead since they make no sound and don’t move at all while they are chained. However, I accidently found out that you can release these soldiers. The soldiers pick up a nearby weapon and begin using it against your enemies, but I couldn’t keep track of them and survive at the same time. Since they did not come up in any of the cutscenes or storyline-based events, I assume that they all died during our raid. _Weapons of Mass Destruction (EMP)
The storyline of the game revolves around this EMP device that is capable of firing a huge jolt of electricity that shuts down all electronics in a wide radius. It’s hardly a new concept, but for some reason Bad Company 2 makes it into something much more than what should be physically possible. When the device’s power was first demonstrated early in the game I thought it was some sort of nuclear weapon since it basically sunk a submarine and killed everyone on an island in the Pacific.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
Not sure what a term means? Read the definitions!
Not sure what a review section is about? Find out more information!
|