• Single player campaign is the best in Battlefield series
• Focused multiplayer experience that is balanced and well thought out.
• EXPLOSIONS!  And building that collapse killing all those inside.
• Multiplayer promotes team play with squads and experience for non combat actions.
• Vehicles... they are awesome.
• Expertly designed maps which are emphasized in the exhilarating Rush mode.
• Leveling system with a fair amount of equipment and specializations to unlock.

Alex finds shelter in a building and returns fire!

• Single player game doesn't stand up to others in the genre.  Not enough vehicle sequences.
• Checkpoints are spaced too far apart
• Gun play doesn't feel as precise as some other FPS series
• Limited 12 vs 12 Conquest matches on consoles feel too small
• Not enough maps at release (more coming for free)

Battle Summary:

Well done Bad Company 2, you got me to play and really enjoy an online FPS game.  Online games rarely catch my attention, largely because I don't enjoy playing with strangers, because I usually have bad experiences with them.  Also I find it boring to play online team based games where there is little team effort.  Bad Company 2 enables teamplay with little to no voice communication.  I rarely hear people talking in BC2, and I haven't bothered to put on my headset because of it.  Yet rarely am I wondering what my teammates are doing, and more often them not I am working closely with them.  Experience is handed out for almost any action that helps teammates, so everyone is willing to work together.  I have written quite a bit about Bad Company 2 already, so read my other articles to see why I like it so much.

The single player campaign is fun yet frustrating at the same time.  The real fun is in the multiplayer, and this is coming from someone who condemns most online focused FPS games.

Battle Results:  The house collapses, killing Alex!

Spotting

I am unsure to what extent this system might be in place in other games.  I know in MW2 you appear on a map when you shoot or a UAV is in the air.  I believe in the first Bad Company, shooting someone would make them appear on friendly units' maps.  In Bad Company 2, aiming at a unit and pressing the back button (or select on PS3, or some key on PC...) will put a red marker over the head of the enemy for everyone on your team and place them on the map for a few seconds.  This leaves the task of reporting enemy positions actively in the hands of your teams.  There is one major problem with this.  The red arrow over the heads of enemies appear even if the person is behind solid, or not so solid object.  It is possible to kill enemies through trees based entirely on this red arrow, which while useful to you, is also useful to the enemy and seems a bit cheap.  This is the only downside I see to the spotting mechanic.

The benefits of putting spotting in the hands of players is the promotion of teamwork, especially because players receive experience for spotting units that are then killed by teammates.  Spotting an enemy and critically wounding him before a squad mate kills him will actually give you more experience than if you were to directly kill the unit yourself.  Almost constantly you have to make the strategic choice of whether to shoot or to spot the nemy.  Shooting will give away your position, but you may be able to kill the enemy, which will take an enemy ticket, get you experience, and possibly save a teammate.  If you give away your position and die, that enemy may continue on unspotted and your teammates may be unaware of is presence.  Spotting an enemy for a teammate in a better position to make the kill is often times a great decision.  Even tanks won't appear on the map unless a friendly unit spots it.  If you are on a terrible team that doesn't spot often a tank or two could rumble right up to the objective without anyone having a clue, other than the person that saw it and didn't spot it.

Spotting is so important, there are a few items that aid in this process.  The Motion Sensor of the Recon unit can be throw and will spot any enemies in a small area automatically.  The recon unit will get exp for any enemies spoted by this device.  The Spotting scope for the Recon unit will automatically spot enemies that the unit looks at through the scope.  Finally, the UAV whil able to call in and direct missles, is also primarily a tool for spotting positions of enemies in hiding.

Spotting brings a sense of unity to the team.  When you spot an enemy and receive experience when he is killed, you know that it likely took both you and your teammate to take down the enemy.  And you will feel thankful when you notice an enemy who has been spotted was attempting to sneak up on you.  Overall the system is well thought out.  It was apparently tweaked from the demo, where p[layers were spamming the spot button, and now there is a cool down delay to prevent this.  The only other addition I would like to see is that the red arrow above enemy heads be line of sight only, rather than a magic icon that appears through walls.

Squads

While squads can be found in other games, most notably the new Mag, it doesn't change the fact that this is an excellent design.  Up to 4 people can be in a squad and it is highly advised you be in a squad of 4 if possible.  Bonus experience points are awards when doing just about anything with your squad.  Healing, rearming, repairing a vehicle, assisting in a squad members kill, or spotting a squad members kill.  All of it will give you more experience.  If you complete an attack or defend order assigned by a squad member you will get bonus points.  This encourages squads to work as a team, and Modern Warfare 2 is a perfect example of why people need incentives for working together.

BC2 allows players to spawn right next to squad mates that are alive, regardless of where they are on the map.  This completely changes the pace of the game.  a really smart squad will have a recon unit at some sort of flanking position to the enemy base.  From there teammates can respawn and keep attacking.   There seems to be a conflict line held up by defenders in Rush mode.  This is where the defenders have set up defensive positions and the attacks have a difficult time breaching.  When one  single unit is able to get beyond this line and act as a spawn point for squad mates it throws off this defensive line.  It really gives and edge to the attackers and prevents spawn camping found in many other games.

Bets of all, it keeps you in the action and feeling like part of a team.  Depending on how good (and big) your squad is, sometimes you will never be spawning at your base.  The system is well thought out, and playing with a smart squad can make all the difference not only in the battle, but how much you enjoy them game.  Keep in mind that if all your squad mates are dead, stay safe for about 6 seconds and you will have 3 more soldiers ready to blow shit up.

I only have 1 thing to say "Fuck yeah!"

I haven't been interested in a multiplayer based game in a long time.  I have over 6 days logged in Modern Warfare, but the sequel frustrated me and I havn't played it since the first month it was released.  I played a lot of Medal of Honor 1, Call of Duty 1, and Battlefield 1942 multilayer back in the day.  But only Modern Warfare really grabbed my attention since then, and it is definitely due to persistent leveling system found in the game along with the precise gun play.

I believe I played a single player demo of Bad Company 1 and I was unimpressed.  The destruction seems limited.  The guns felt weak and inaccurate, a problem that I feel has plagued battlefield since the beginning, likely a side effect of the development team focusing heavily on vehicles.  I was disappointed that the Bad Company 2 demo would be multiplayer only, because recently I have had no interest in playing shooters online.  The MW2 community infuriates me, and I find a lack of team cooperation to be boring.  I tried the demo anyways, and I instantly fell in love.  To be honest I had no idea what the hell was going on.  Building were blowing up, people were dieing, I was being revived by the famous defibrillators.  I barely knew the controls but I was able to defend the bomb from a few enemies.   Even with my little effort I felt as if I was part of a team.

Continue Reading after the little link on the bottom right...

In the very near future I think I will start a segment highlighting elements of excellent game design  of games from under my "Currently Playing" list, starting with a couple features of Bad Company I think work together to make an excellent game. But for now I want to highlight the destruction.  First of all, anyone who uses 2.0 to describe anything should be slapped right in the mouth.  It is stupid and I can't believe anyone finds that vague term acceptable.  But despite the word being dumb, destruction 2.0 is great.  The destruction doesn't feel limited, and many building can be completely leveled.  Surprisingly, it takes a while for the battlefield turn into a heaping pile of smoldering rubble.

This free form destruction leads to battlefield that are dynamic.  I find the mounted machine guns around the maps to be very useful.  They are powerful, accurate, they shower the battle in lead, and there are a lot of them scattered in various windows and towers.  But all it takes is one well placed grenade and you will have to say goodbye to that mounted gun for the rest of the match.  I have only played rush so far but destruction plays a huge role here.  When placing or diffusing a bomb, walls are your friend and provide you safety from enemies.  But when enemies are within the building you need to decide if you want to create a gaping hole to provide easy access to the a hiding enemies back, or do you want to let the wall stand to give you added protection when you inevitably need to arm or diffuse the bomb.

Battles never seem to get old. I have yet to see anyone stay in the same spot as that spot will likely be reduced to nothing before long.  At worst you will see snipers finding nice camping spots in the woods.  Luckily, snipers worst enemies are walls, and they can't destroy them from a distance.

I can't say enough about how much fun I've had with Bad Company 2 in the past couple days.  I wish there weren't two heavy hitters coming in the next two weeks, because all I want is some precious time with my new favorite online FPS.  In future posts I will be discussing the squad system, the enemy spotting system, and how these contribute to a game that has everyone working as a team even without the use of headsets.