Bad Company is a suprisingly great shooter that shouldn't dissapoint.
User Rating: 9.5 | Battlefield: Bad Company X360
Given that the last Battlefield game to come to consoles was Modern Combat, I was a little nervous to find Bad Company would do the same. Though, when I discovered that it would also include destructible environments, it seemed that this could be good. But I had my doubts as to whether or not blowing up everything would suck up the developer's time and make them stray away from the gameplay itself. I began to wonder if I was ready to dish out 60 dollars for a hyped up destructible playground. So I was pleased when a demo was released on Xbox Live. My first reaction when I played it was just WOW, it looks great. The grainy effect gives the game a kind of gritty feel that it's seen in most shooters. Character animations have also received a huge upgrade. Men move smoothly from cover to cover, and are very useful in a firefight. Environments seem fully fleshed out and natural. Even though the game is linear, you do have several ways to arrive at your objective. Even the way the ground deals with explosives impresses me. Whenever a grenade hits the ground, it will make a shell hole that varies in size depending on the size of the round. This feature makes a huge difference on the way multiplayer plays out. The combat mechanics play out nicely and have some very intense moments. Building blowing up all around you and shells burrowing craters into the ground all look beautiful and truly make you feel like a soldier.
But really, one of the most incredible features of the game is the sound. I have never played a game that sounded so good. The explosion effect is very reminiscent of the one used on the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. Bullets wizzing past your head, tanks rolling over the landscape and distant firefights all sound top notch. I recommend this game to anyone with a surround sound system.
The multiplayer takes all of these mechanics and lets you go insane with them. The new gameplay mode has players defending and attacking sets of gold crates. When the first set it destroyed, it opens up the one behind it, along with a new portion of the battlefield. Each battleground presents a new landscape and a new challenge for each side. If the defender can keep the attackers at bay at one position long enough, you can see the way the battlefield has taken damage.
The problems I have in this game is that the helicopter is incredibly hard to pilot. Maybe I just suck, but still. The game supports 24 players. This may be big. But this is battlefield. The maps are huge and require more men. In the single player, when you die, your charactor will respawn without any penalty at all. This is good, but for a player that wants challange, this isn't it.
Sorry that this review is so long. I just felt that I should give a reason behind why I gave this game a 9.5, rather than because its "good".
