With a story that promises to be part Three Kings part afterschool detention, you play as a member of a group of misfit soldiers sent to an end-of-the-line squad that’s used more as human shield than a highly regarded regiment. Finding out that the enemy’s hiding away gold, you decide that there’s more to life than dodging bullets for your country and a wartime goldrush is set in motion. The game's playful, joking cast and its offbeat premise points to a title built around fun that may also have some insightful commentary hidden away in the folds of its humour and mayhem.
Oscar the Grouch goes postal.
If you like breaking things this new Battefield should get your blood pumping. The destructible environments that were promised by titles in years gone, such as Red Faction, are now a reality and from what we’ve seen it’s incredibly fun to watch the havoc you can reap upon Bad Company’s virtual landscape. The demo gives a great taste of how much of this world can be torn apart by rpg’s and machine gun spray. Trees tumble and brick walls, once useful as cover, explode, leaving behind a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust when hit by ballistics carrying enough force. The result may be visually stunning, but it also promises to prevent firefights from becoming static events and instead allow the action to roll on as new protection is sought. Unfortunately for originalities sake there are a few clichéd explosive barrels your foes have scattered around for some unknown reason – one can only assume it’s to allow themselves bigger and brighter deaths – but here’s hoping that the game’s over-the-top rambunctious storyline and action can make these arcade infused inclusions feel more like inspired additions than contrived explosion triggers.
Teamwork in Bad Company’s single player will not be a complex tactical Rainbow Six-like experience. Squad members appear to be made of adamantium, or a similarly indestructible material, and will not lay down and die no matter how much fire they come under. Similarly when hopping in and out of vehicles they will appear beside you to avoid you being distracted from the action at hand by errant squad members who simply don’t want to escape a firefight. All this should make for a fast paced, action based experience.
Oh @*#!.... I thought this was knife fight.
Knowing that DICE’s finest moments have been when focusing on multiplayer opportunities we were eager to get into some online matches, and from what we’ve seen so far, it’s all scrubbing up quite well. Learning from both its own titles and other developer’s online games, Bad Company’s multiplayer looks to be offering up some great ideas that aren’t overly complex, allowing for a reasonably accessible experience. The aim of the multiplayer in the demo is to protect, or gain access to, stockpiled gold, depending on what side of the battle you are placed on. More modes are planned on release. As we’ve come to expect in DICE’s games, there are different classes available to the player, such as the typical assault class and the ghillie suit wearing recon class. Just as in former Battlefield games and Call of Duty 4, there will be unlockable weapons gained by scoring points in-game. One of the features that may prove most welcome is the fact that rather than choosing spawn points, or having the game arbitrarily choose where you emerge into the gameplay, you’ll be able to choose between spawning in the safety of your base or with your squad on the field of battle. Both of these give you a camera view of where it is that you’ll be dropped to prevent you from unknowingly appearing next to tank or similar danger. What DICE seems to hope this all amounts to is a multiplayer experience that has as few boundaries to enjoyment as possible.
The cheeky tone of Bad Company’s single player portion, along with DICE’s pedigree in multiplayer shooters, point to a game that will be incredibly engaging, yet not so heavy as to bring you down, or cause you to wake up, sweat soaked, from nightmares of the front line. If the demo’s any indication of the full game, it looks like there’ll be yet another console shooter worth adding to the pile of the already great list titles from which to choose from.
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The demo of Battlefield: Bad Company is available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. Battlefield: Bad Company will be released on Thursday for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
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