Watered down' implies a less intense 'Battlefield' game. As if DICE only removed things and didn't add some very significant changes and additions too.
They may have lowered the maxium players to 24. That's down from 64. They may have taken out prone. They may have taken out clan support. They may have lowered the maximum of players per squad to 4. They took out the commander seen in battlefield 2. Planes are out too.
They added 'gold rush' mode, a big step up from the rather freeform 'conquest' mode. Especially if you are into having an actual 'frontline'. It ups the friction between opposing forces tenfold. It's a constant struggle between attackers pushing forward and defenders digging in their heels. Every 'gold rush' map counts for at least 3 conquest maps. Every time the attackers take 2 crates, the attacker homebase moves forward and the defender homebase is pushed back into an other part of the map. The map expands, as the attackers push forward. As the map changes, the game changes.
Let me give you an example. The first stage of the 'gold rush' map 'Harvest Day' is a wide open field. The attackers start off with two heavy tanks, two light tanks, a couple of buggies and trucks, in addition to an artillery gun. Defenders only got one heavy and one light tank, as well as a few mounted guns and rocket launchers. The first two crates are located in two seperate farmhouses. There are countless angles for attackers to blast open the gold crates from afar with their vehicles. The first stage of this map is focused on vehicles. The attackers have superior firepower at their disposal. Once the attackers succeed in getting the initial two crates, the map expands, spawn locations change, the spawning vehicles change too. In the case of 'Harvest Garden', attackers and defenders get a heavy tank each. Attackers get a buggy in addition to that. The arty might still be functional and manned too. They map already gets a little less wide. The crates can still be taken out from afar, but there are a lot less angles to do it from. The stage after that is an uphill battle. The map further narrows down. Ground control gets increasingly easy for the defenders. This is as far as the arty reaches. Also it's unlikely, that the arty is still functional and manned at this point. There still are some tanks in play. One heavy tank each. Attackers got a light tank in addition to that. Only one of the two crates has a reasonable angle to attack from afar. The second crate only can be attacked from close by. From the next stage on, there are no tanks respawning. Artillery fire doesn't reach that far either. Arty is out of play. It's down to infantry combat in a little rural village. Any remaining tanks are more or less useless at this stage, as they are easy prey for specialists in the confined spaces of the village center. Though they are an asset, that may come in handy in the final stage of the battle. The final stage of the battle is a hilltop ranch. If a heavy tank remains, you can start to attack the last two remaining crates from the mainroad. Engineers only can attack one. The second one is only vulnerable to tanks. The map is extremely narrow and very easy to control. So that's one 'gold rush' map for you. It starts with a tank centric, wide open map with tons of angles to play and gradually changes into an infantry centric, narrower map. Also, attackers start out with superior firepower, the defenders get strategical superiority the further they are being pushed back. A very rich experience! Every 'gold rush' map tells their own very epic warstory. They are real 'campaigns'. Grand!
They added vastly improved graphics and sound. I'd say, they got the most impressive surround sound to date.
They added very powerful tools to every kit. Support can call in a mortar strike on a cooldown timer. Recon gets a 3x sonar grenades to uncover nearby footmobiles and the possibility to call in a air to ground rocket strike versus tanks. Specialist can tag targets with his tracer gun. Engineer can shoot guided missiles at tagged targets. Every kit is a lot more powerful, than they were in pervious installments.
Last, but not least, they've added destructible buidings and ground deformation to the mix. This makes maps dynamic. Every kit has to adapt to the given situation and act accordingly. Every crater can turn out to be the perfect foxhole. Nothing like sneaking to a goldcrate as a recon, arming it, and then jumping into the nearest crater and picking of the defenders eager to disarm the crate. Pressuring the defenders by damaging a goldcrate from far away is only possible, because of destructibilty. Blowing a hole through a fortified wall with C4 to sneak into a base. Great. Hearing a mortarstrike coming in, jumping into a building, walls blowing into rubble all around you. Smoke. Deafening noise. Ears ringing. Explosions all over the place. Intense!
Bad Company 'gold rush' mode is more intense, than any other Battlefield experience was, before that. I've played them all, love them all. But Bad Company, I love the most. The one point I give critics, is the lack of clan support and the squad size. The most hardcore of battlefield players get shaftet, they can't play the game the way the are used to. Still, a four man squad can do a lot of damage. If the opposing side isn't up to task, a four man squad can break the opposition. I don't want to know, what a full 12man crew would do to most PUGs. They would destroy them. And there it is, the reason, why there is no clan support in bad company. I am sure, there are solutions to this problems. DiCE renting out official clan servers for example, just like Novalogic did with Joint Operations. Or adding a third type of servers. Ranked and non-ranked as in BC1 in addition to clan-ranked. In any case, I love the game as it is. Going against full 12man clan groups would be devastating for a PUG XBox Live user like me. I am good. Good enough to be a problem for a 4man squad. But nobody is good enough to stop a well-trained 12man force.
So, if you say, the lack of clan support is 'watering down' for you, because you are a clan player, then I get your point. But the gamedesign itself is a vast step beyond previous installments of the battlefield franchise. For example the commander. Most utility the commander had, has been redistributed to the different kits. More impact on the game for every single player. And the planes. Well, I never was playing a pilot nor did I like 'death from above' too much. But I guess planes are a total different beast than choppers, so their disappearance must suck for those, who are into flying planes. Other than that, Bad Company is total and utter win!
Bad Company 2 will add vastly improved destructibilty, improved viewing distance, more vehicles, improved vehicle physics, deadlier weapons, more weapons, customizable weapons, customizable kits, kit specialisations, more diverse maps, resuscitation and so much more. The chip damage alone! Chiping away at cover with bullets from my machinegun! Epic! Obviously - I am big fanboi and all. But it's true. 'Battlefield : Bad Company 2' will be the best online warfare game, when it hits the market 2010. The definitive wargame! And for those, who want to fly planes, Battlefield 1943 shapes up to be every pilots dream, with plane-centric maps and the new game mode 'air superiority'!
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