A Solid FPS that Loses the Humor of the First
Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a solid first person shooter that improves upon the first game in the series in almost every way except on the story aspect. Ironically it was the story from the first game that really drew me into it. At the end of the first game our heroes drive off into the sunset, literally with their new found treasure. This second game picks up though the our protagonists back in the army, trudging it out in the mud again for some unknown reason. At no point is it explained to us why our heroes didn't disappear with their gold. Also notably absent from this portion of the game is the funny character interactions of your companions. While it is still there in some capacity, the overall tone of the game is much more serious and grounded. It lost a little bit of something from the outrageousness of the first in the series.
Mechanically the game is as solid as ever with all of the Battlefield tropes right in place. The weapons felt good, the vehicles worked well, and the fire fights felt great. The maps felt a lot smaller this time around and I honestly didn't feel like I had the full range of motion for tackling a scenario like I did in the first game. In many respects it felt like the series was trying to respond toe Modern Warfare a bit in its story telling approach.
As with most of these types of shooters much the strength of the game is in its multi-player and the sequel does step it up a notch. Introduced is a more robust upgrade system for online play and overall more diverse gameplay. All the pieces are mostly there, but I did feel that the way they structure the upgrade path was unfriendly to new players. Having started the online mode much later (a year) after everyone else, the rest of the players were fully decked out with the best kits, while I was still struggling to get the med kit for my medic class a couple of hours in. It makes the new player feel a bit worthless, especially when they are getting mowed down because they are unfamiliar with the maps and the pacing of the online gameplay.
Overall this is a very solid shooter and I still love the Battlefield series for the size and depth of the maps they offer.
