Good, just not great
In the past the Battlefield games have been an enjoyable multiplayer experience and a single player campaign that is marginally enjoyable. Well this time Bad Company has a very solid campaign mode that is more than just training for multiplayer. First thing to notice is that this game looks really good and has very nice cut scenes. This is a real next gen version of Battlefield.
The single player campaign places you in a war with Russia in Eastern Europe. Eventually the game's story takes a turn and it's all about your squad's quest for gold. In the campaign you play in a four member team playing very large levels moving from objective to objective. The campaign allows you to play though a nice story and allows you to practice with some of the cooler weapons and vehicles found in multiplayer.
Where Battlefield really excels is how easy the match making system gets you right into the action and keeps you there till you've had your fill. There is no such thing as a lobby in this game, you'll join a new match already in progress or just starting after each match. There is really only one mode to play and that places you in the role of a defender or attacker. You will either need to defend the gold crate or destroy the crate. There are multiple crates per base and once all are blown up the defenders retreat to a new base and the pattern of play begins again. Most multiplayer maps have four bases to either attack or defend.
Like other online shooters there is a nice leveling up aspect of the multiplayer game. You will increase your military rank by getting kills, head shots, defensive kills, saving a teammate's life, blowing up a crate and getting a knife kill. As you level up more weapons become available to you. Battlefield multiplayer is a class based multiplayer so you can play as an assault, demolition, recon, support or blitz type character. The different roles determine which weapons are available to you. For instance the recon character is a sniper is a ghillie suit and the demolition character is a shot gunner who has an rpg as a secondary weapon.
Battlefield allows you to play how you want to play and based on the situation you can choose the best character for a give situation. When you die in a match you'll have a waiting period before you can rejoin the match. You have the option to change weapons or change characters while waiting to rejoin the match. This is really nice when the other team decided to roll up in a bunch of tanks so you can choose to be the recon character. It's also nice when the other team has a sniper in the hills and you need to snipe him to kill him.
I definitely recommend Battlefield: Bad Company as a fun multiplayer game. One very nice aspect is the matches are always fairly well balanced and there are no griefers online. Often I don't even bother wearing a headset because there is no communication in matches. We all know the objectives. The game will call out enemy troops if someone sees one. It really is the most pleasant online game I've played with strangers. I've not heard a single swear or racial slur online which is very uncommon in a first person shooter.
