Bad Company 2: A Lament
By Nadafinga 7 Comments
Let me start off by saying that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a great game. I love it, it's a glorious shooter that has sunk it's hooks deep in me. I bought it on launch day, and have logged over 190 hours into it. This might not seems like a lot to some of you, but I can honestly say I've never played a video game as much as this one. I have earned every pin, every insignia (except for one, grr!), every trophy, and gold starred 37 of the 46 primary weapons. Now, I'm by no means great at the game, I manage a measly 0.92 k/d ratio, but I try not to put too much stock in those stats since repairing, reviving, and spotting are just as crucial to winning as getting kills is. With a SPM of 195, I consider myself...decent. It's also worth noting that this is only my 2nd foray into the Battlefield franchise, with last year's 1943 being the first. So I'm pretty new to all this, and while I might not have the experience of someone who's been with the franchise since it began, I also can offer a unique perspective of someone coming to it without very many preconceived notions.
But the game has some problems, and after putting this much time into the game, I think I'm qualified to present some criticism. Many of these points have been brought up elsewhere, but I wanted to get my thoughts on them down. This is not a bug list, that would be a whole other blog entry (and a long one at that), these are major design issues that I feel would help make this great game even better.
1. A Compass
The lack of a compass on the minimap is the most inexplicable omission I can imagine. For a game strives for realism and relies on constant communication between squadmates, I am constantly frustrated by my inability to relay relative positions of enemies. Instead, I always find myself trying to describe the surroundings.Instead of "Hey you've got 2 guys moving in on your position from the North," it's "You've got 2 guys coming at you from the direction of that house....no the 2 story house, the one on the other side...no, the one with the red roof-" dead. The real kick in the nuts is that there is a compass in DICE's previous game, Battlefield 1943, a $15 downloadable game!
2. MCOMs blow up too easily
This has been a bit of a contentious point among the fans of the game. What players have figured out is that instead of arming the MCOM, you can just throw a pile of C4 on it and take out half it's life bar in one shot (the game actually rewards this by throwing a bunch of XP at you for it). One side says that "If you're good, guys will never get close enough to do that." This is the wrong philosophy though, and goes against what the Rush Mode was built for.As defenders, you need to hold back the enemy. If one guy is able to sneak through and arm the MCOM, the alarm goes off and you get a chance to fall back, find them, and disarm the MCOM. If you suck at defending, whole squads will get through, arm the MCOM, and hold you off long enough for it to blow up. This is the way Rush is supposed to be played. The way it is now basically requires you to be perfect at defending, because if even one guy gets through, he can blow up the MCOM in 3 seconds. It kinda ruins it, and requires you to basically camp to MCOM. I'm not against being able to damage the MCOMs, I think it makes the game more dynamic, but the C4 is just too strong. Here's my tweaks; I think there should be a set amount of damage C4 can do per trigger pull. One C4 does the same amount of damage as six C4. The other tweak is that you allow engineers to repair the MCOMs, at least partially, help offset the damage done.
In the end, the numbers don't lie: When attacking, my win/loss ratio is 3.82. When defending, it's 0.33. I'm at the point where I rarely play Rush at all anymore, it's not nearly as fun as it used to be when players use this exploit.
3. Atacama Desert Choppers
There are two helicopters in Conquest mode for Atacama desert, one at each base. It has become common practice for one team to race over and pick up the enemy's chopper, so that they have both at the same time. They then proceed to rape the other team.This is easily fixed. Make the spawn base of the enemy out of bounds (like it is on some other maps). There, done.
4. White Pass Rush
The recently unlocked Rush mode for White Pass is an absolute joke. The first set of MCOMs are in a concrete structure, and makes for some very fun and challenging battles. But if the attackers manage to take out those two, the game is over. All the following MCOMs are located n collapsible buildings. All 4 of them! It's ridiculous, you just need to spam a few mortar strikes on them and you win. It's a facepalm "what were they thinking" thing for me. This map is simply a travesty.That's the big stuff. There's always going to be little tweaks that you wish the designers would have made, but these are major issues that I feel could and should be addressed...not that I'm holding my breath. :)