Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Hands On Preview

25 Jan 2010 at 14:00:20 by

The Battlefield franchise has long been a staple of PC FPS gaming and, with Bad Company, developer DICE attempted its most complete console crossover to date. The first Battlefield game to include a conventional single player game, Bad Company added some faces and names to the series for the first time and proved to be a surprisingly engaging tale, depsite a few bad jokes here and there. As I walk into Dice's studio in Sweden, I'm keen to get some much anticipated hands on time with the new single player campaign, as well as dive into some of the new modes and maps for multiplayer.

The recent multiplayer beta on the PS3 was well-received, with a wealth of positive feedback for the developer. Not only does the game look cleaner and sharper, but the significant work on the weapon weight, mechanics and vehicular modelling is clear to see, or feel if you prefer. The game looks complete and, in turn, the environments are varied, engaging and beautifully rendered; you always feel like something new is happening. And this is probably because the game is now set across South America, allowing the developer to explore everything from snow-capped mountains to arid deserts and everything in-between.

And your squad is back too, stronger and more intelligent than before. One of the main criticisms of the first game was the AI, or rather the lack thereof. The newest iteration takes care of that and, although the enemies aren't the most intelligent, they're clever enough, and you'll see them flanking and regrouping in a constant effort to foil your plans. Because of this, you feel the pressure of completing objectives and pushing forward, and when you're surrounded by enemies who are tanked up, or infantry pouring out of transporters, you start to feel the panic and confusion which I can only imagine is a fraction of what real troops feel on the ground. It's disorientating and you will find that you'll be regrouping your thoughts and strategies when you're huddled behind cover in a bid to regenerate your health.

Yes, the health is regenerative, but this is no Modern Warfare 2. Bullets are a lot more damaging, so one shot could very well kill you. Equally, if you're the one doing the killing, make sure you take physics into account too, and by that I mean specifically gravity and bullet penetration. Bullets will drop in flight because of gravity, and some weapons might be worth using against buildings in order to flush out the enemy troops hiding in there. And it's this feature that makes the game so engaging, and more intense while trying to hide, than anything else out there. It's the destruction of cover, and the damage of buildings which keeps the game fun and fresh at the same time. And it's not only cover you can chip away or blow to smithereens, it's vehicles (of course) and buildings too. Dice has really honed the Frostbite engine to deliver the most impressive destruction mechanic I've seen to date, and it's always a pleasure to destroy buildings and scenery with whatever I can.

There are loads of vehicles to take control of, ranging from choppers to tanks, sea vehicles to land buggies. Each vehicle is supposed to feel different, but I found that the different classes of vehicles felt pretty much the same to me. Of course, that could be for ease of use across the game, so if you're playing the Russians, the Hind helicopter feels no different to the Apache, but this is a minor niggle, and is probably only applicable to me...because I'm a freak.

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