I held a great deal of initial interest when approaching this title. Finally, after a couple of years out in the wilderness Battlefield was coming back home in force. It seemed DICE & EA were ticking all the boxes in aligning this game as the spiritual successor to the studio’s strong PC pedigree of multiplayer titles.

However, I won’t be touching the multiplayer aspects of Battlefield Bad Company 2 (henceforth BBC2) in this review; frankly I haven’t allowed myself enough time to be engrossed in the competitive nature of the game.

‘But wait’ you say, ‘Battlefield’s always been a beast of multiplayer action! Why bother reviewing the campaign alone?’

Well, I respond to the rhetorical question that I’m sure is not an uncommon point of view out in the wider gaming audience, DICE/EA worked hard on both creating and promoting a ‘deeper campaign experience’, after all this is one of the primary motivations for the Bad Company spin-off brand getting off the ground a few years ago now.

Sadly though, your point is still valid. BBC2 still rests’ on it’s unique multiplayer offering; and thank Christ for that.

Now I’ve soured my review far too early, so let’s ignore I even said that for now.

BBC2 puts you in the role of a member of ‘Bad Company’, a unit of wise cracking quote generation devices at some base level meant to be personalities. Here’s my first problem with the game, the characters are completely forgettable. Having finished the game, I still couldn’t tell you who the central protagonist was.

The ensemble cast isn’t much better. Sure they each have a distinct look; from each other, but a side-by-side comparison of any popcorn action flick would quickly highlight the obvious similarities.

Not that this is a crime, or even really a bad thing. I just don’t really care for reading how much deeper the characters were explored. The scripting effort & delivery was shallow, but sufficient for what is in the end a popcorn action game.

After completing the opening chapter, of which I intend to restrain from spoiling (but let’s just say it feel’s a lot like a certain contemporary TV series about people stuck on a mysterious island), the game gets underway in a modern era, exploring the usual mechanic’s of run & gun.

Without needing to sell the narrative with a complex set of cinematic dialogue & production, Bad Company is tasked by a special branch of the US armed forces to track down a piece of hardware suspected to be a potential super-weapon. The US & Russia not surprisingly aren’t getting along too well, reason enough to ensure the Ruskies’ don’t get their hands on said weapon.

The campaign has you powering through a number of locals, taking in the usual sights of snow, swamp, over-growth & desert that you’ve probably become accustom to seeing by now. There’s no one particular environment that stand’s out as extraordinary, but each are more than up to scratch with an FPS standard aficionado’s have come to expect, even demand.

Giving credit where it’s due though, at least BBC2’s level structures provide the player small freedom’s to go about tackling sections however they see fit, unlike again a certain obvious competitors product. When faced with road blocks to my progress, it didn’t take too long to figure out a better approach to the situation: taking the higher route, using different cover, removing obstacles such as doors & walls. But then again I finished the game having only used 2 weapons, boo on me right? I didn’t have to play that way. But hey, I thought they were by far the 2 most useful & versatile guns available.

In a formula that’s also become standard practice in the genre, you’ll have the opportunity to take the reigns on a number of military grade vehicles including Abrahams Tanks, ATV’s, light water craft etc. One sequence as such goes well beyond the line of frustration given the window for success you are provided in combination with a limited view range and required control wrestling; when you get up to it you’ll know immediately which section I am referring to. 

It is somewhat unfortunate to say, but no less satisfying that BBC2 plays it right down a safely dotted line in providing the experiences your set to encounter within the campaign. It’s an all too usual fare by now, bound to become even more so by the clones destined to spawn following a certain competitors billion dollar generating franchise.

What isn’t usual about BBC2 though is DICE’s in-house developed frostbite engine which allows for a fair degree of object destructibility.

There are 2 important things to note about this feature – its’ immediately satisfying & the force of impact will effect the surroundings in a number of ways dependant upon the size of executed explosions.

Sound will drown-out, shaky cam comes into effect, blurred vision, smoke & particle’s kick up also obstructing your vision. You’ll always be thrilled with triggering the big bangs, yet may still come to regret it. And that’s a good thing. Despite your opponents’ ability to see straight through the obstructing clouds. It helps sell a little further the chaos of warfare. 

Unfortunately, this is the only case in which BBC2 sells the veracity of warfare. While the guns are well modelled, their kick & force doesn’t always click in the uncanny valley that is the ‘feel’ of your weapon as you squeeze rounds into the enemies’ collective faces.

The only other comment I need to make about weaponry, DICE why oh why did you not tell me that picking up a dead enemy’s weapon will unlock it for me in the equipment stash menus. Oh, you thought that was obvious?! It wasn’t. I got 3 whole missions in before I realised.

Downing the enemy is equally unsatisfying, in part because I keep seeing the same damn bastards over and over! Cowboy hat dude I totally shot you 100 meters back, don’t show up in my face again! Shot impacts result in a general cloud of blood appearing in front of the character model, near enough but obviously not localised. The wound’s your able to inflict across the board are quite tame, possibly due to EA’s status as a mega publisher.

Yet in the end, you have an objective to complete; usually running from point A to point B, at least until the last third of the game where maps finally open up for a brief moment. So who really gets caught up with the finer details of how enemies are dying, just so long as their dying!

It’s this sentiment that I draw on as I wrap up this collection of ramblings I intend to pass off as a review. Everything is ‘up-to-scratch’, in the way a Quality Inspector on a manufacturing line might look at a particular model of product they’ve just built a thousand of already that morning and says “yeah that looks near enough”.

BBC2 is near enough. Near enough to standards set by its immediately identifiable competitors in the market, but it neither sets out to nor accomplishes anything unique enough to draw attention to itself. It’s just plain fun (and that’s still a good thing!).

Love me some terrain altering, dust kicking explosions, but there’s only so many of them, too few & far between. Also, kudo’s to what I can only imagine was an intentionally cheesy ending taken from a Keanu Reeve’s film that was equally cheesy.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 – ***