Battlefield: Bad Company

Cheesey title I know, but I speak the truth my friends for Battlefield: Bad Company is an action packed standout in a genre packed to the rafters with average titles. Offering a seriously fun Single Player Campaign and solid traditional Battlefield Multiplayer it's hard to find a good reason why this game shouldn't be in your gaming collection.

Firstly, lets go back in time a little. To 2006 to be precise, when DICE released Battlefield: Modern Combat. Their first real attempt at cracking the First Person Shooter console market, though the game failed for the most part it did offer us a glimpse of what Bad Company would be like. For Bad Company shares a number of characteristics with its older console brother. Thankfully, Unlike Modern Combat you can stand to play Bad Company for more then a weekend and is actually a very good game. DICE are renowned for their Battlefield series, with two of the most famous being Battlefield: 1942 and Battlefield 2, with many calling the latter one of the greatest Multiplayer games ever made. Yet despite all their knowledge and dominance within the PC Market, they had yet to make a truly impressive FPS for consoles, so after the disapointment of Modern Combat. DICE felt they needed to prove themeselves, so released Battlefield: Bad Company.

Battlefield: Bad Company offers a number of unique features to both the whole Battlefield series and FPS as a genre. From the first true, story driven Single Player Campaign to the often stunning destructable environments. But does it all work well together. The quick answer is yes, for the most part. BC does have its problems but is clearly aimed at the console audience and for that it does the job well enough. For the first time in a Battlefield game, BC features a story driven Single Player campaign. You play as Private Preston Marlowe. a new member of 222nd Army Battalion, also known as Bad Company because of all sorts of troubled, confussed or reckless soldiers who instead of being placed in Jail, are placed in this Battalion by the US Army.  In all respects they are the cannon fodder of the American forces. One of the great things on offer here is the story, though it can kind of feel a little three kings. It does a great job of offering a different perspective on the whole war thing done endlessly in so many games out there. Instead of a story based around you doing your job for the US Forces and being a good 'sir yes sir' type soldier you are out there in the middle of a sensitive war situation fighting for yourself. Fighting for beauitul gold to be precise and we all love gold don't we. So leads on a fantastic story, which features three of your fellow troubled and reckless soliders in Private Terrance Sweatwater (a soldier who hates fighting), Private George Gordan Haggard Jr ''Haggard'' (who loves seeing things blow up) and Sergeant Retford who actually voluntered for the place just so he could get his fishing trip a little early and is in truth the only real leader the squad as. All three are a delight to be around throughout the single player campaign and there is some fantasically written humour throughout. Another character worthy of great mention is the President of Serdaristan, Zavomir Serdar who is hillarious at times. The SIngle Player Campaign takes you on a fantastic adventure and though its not the longest Single Player game out there, you will still feel you got your moneys worth and is worthy of mulitple playthrough. The SIngle Player is also a nice introduction to many of the key learning points of the Multiplayer Experience. You'll drive numourous vehicles, fly and blow a lot of stuff up. Controls are solid, if sometimes clumsy. This is one aspect of BC that is very much like its older brother Modern Combat, as the controls can sometimes feel slow in the middle of a heavy gunfight and aiming can be dodgy from time to time. But Vehicle controls all work well, with great mention of the Helicopter controls which have been simplefied from the PC Version to handle much better with a control pad.  I have to admit that BC doesn't make the greatest first impression, if you experienced the demo of BC which was released a few weeks before the release of the actual game  you'll know what I'm talking about. The first level isn't great, both graphically and its general feel. But it gets better and better as the story continues and the games engine truly shines in the middle eastern levels and maps are surprisingly large and great to play around. This is a game that lets you take on the action the way you want to, be it crashing through a fortress gate in a gunpacked buggie or in a heavy gunfight. The games A.I does a solid job, and will kill the enemy from time to time though it clearly expects you to do most of the work. Your three team mates never die of course, and infact if you eventually lose health or don't get time to use the magical health injection which puts your health back to 100 you'll of course die. But thankfully it'll place you back at the nearest checkpoint and let you fight on. You'll probably die quite a few times, especially at certain points where you seem to be the centre of attention and endless gunfire comes your way.

But of course, you couldn't have a Battlefield game without having any multiplayer and thankfully those who love the battlefield experience will be pleased. Multiplayer features only one mode at the moment, that being Gold Rush but due to huge demand DICE have confirmed that the famous Conquest mode will return as DLC in a couple of Months. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of Gold Rush, its fun for the most part but no Conquest. It feels a little limited on what amazing things can happen as your often stuck defending or attacking the same spots, if you have experience Battlefield 2 you know what great amazing moments I speak of. Though I know friends who have enjoyed the mode a great deal but it didn't do it for me. So thank the lord that conquest is returning in the coming months. Also in great traditional Battlefield style you can unlock all sorts of weapons for your use in battle and all have a great sense of power to them. Speaking of guns, did I mention that Bad Company as some of the best sound effects and music in any game? well it does and its an absolute blast to listen to in surround sound. Gunfire as a real kick to it and theres some real nice explosive sounds throughout the game, it helps that despite a little bit of a iffy start to the single player levels the game looks great and shines on a large HDTV. Theres a few questionable textures on some of the larger levels but they are forgiven for the space on offer to mess around and blow up, the developers stated that 90% of the environment was destructable and I have to agree. Though we are not talking total destruction like Mercenaries where you could flatten a whole city here, most things still blow up with great sound and impact. Can't get into a building? then blow up the wall and make your way through. There are times where it can feel a little weird, for instance on occasion while driving the tank I got stuck on a little wodden stump and couldn't drive off, yet I was able to knock down many trees and other objects, it can be a little hit and miss. But it works and the game is deserving of its destructable nametag. So fans of the Battlefield series will get an enjoyable Multiplayer experience out of BC, even if its a little off compared to Battlefield 2 or even Modern Combat which did feature a version of conquest. But the single player is rich enough still to worthy a purchase for those that might not be to keen on the multiplayer mode.

OVERALL
DICE have finally cracked the console Market with Bad Company, though its no Call of Duty 4 its not far off which is great praise for the game. It offers enough that is unique to worthy its purchase and despite mulitplayer being a little hit and miss depending on your mode tastes it still offers a fantastically funny, action packed story driven Single Player Campaign that'll bring a smile to any gamers face. Go Blow stuff Up!

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Value: 9/10

BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY gets 4.5 STARS out of 5.