Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

Battlefield: Bad Company Review

by Beau King June 25th 2008 1:03 AM CDT2 Comments

The Battlefield series has a special place in my heart, a place where most games I play have no key. The love affair started with Battlefield 1942 and onto its expansions, and then I further dabbled in Vietnam where I ended up somewhere amidst Battlefield 2. Of course my experiences were only limited to PC, but when I heard Battlefield: Bad Company was coming to the Xbox 360 I couldn’t be more excited. So excited in fact that I was first in line for the Beta, got my pre-order set, and played the demo upon the first day of its release.

With all of that background out of the way, let’s dissect this sucker. If we focus the lens on Battlefield: Bad Company (BFBC) just close enough to see its bare bones, it can be easily classified as a first-person shooter (duh). All elements are there both in campaign and multiplayer, but if you step back however and there’s so much more. Make no mistake about it; BFBC is a pretty open experience. While the campaign confines you to a certain area, the sandbox style of play persists.


Speaking of the campaign, the best way to describe the whole premise is in one, simple yet elusive word: gold. Yep, that’s it. Gold. A group of military misfits, aptly named Bad Company, are assigned to basically be the front lines doing all of the dirty work, risking their necks for no glory or admiration. Upon doing one of their more shabby of missions they stumble upon a group of mercenaries that get paid in gold bars. From then on all four: Preston, Sweetwater, Haggard, and Redford a.k.a Sarge go on a personal mission to track it. Predictably things get hairy and they receive more than they bargained for.

This search for gold combined with an oddball group of “soldiers” makes for a pretty immersing experience in terms of cut scenes and mid action quips. Unfortunate however, is that some of the gameplay the campaign bolsters can feel a bit lacking. Searching for gold and collectable weapons get old as you try to pace through the unrelenting gunfire and objectives spread throughout the map. More annoying is that the gunfire comes at all angles at predetermined times. As you traverse the map enemies seem to constantly pop out of nowhere to lay fire. They don’t just pop up either; they spawn. The indicator will show four blips but be assured, 1ten more lie in various hedges and divots. Luckily for them, they all have magnetized bullets that find you no matter where you hide. This in turn causes you to use the adrenaline shot once every five seconds or so, which is often an annoyance.

EA and DICE have put a large amount of effort in emphasizing the frostbite engine and destructible environments. So much so that most enemies must be dispatched by blowing shit up. I must say though, most of the campaign in thanks to this is a blast (no pun intended). Still, the game could use a bit of an upgraded to its AI. Shooting an enemy twice for a kill and seventeen for another is no fun at all, as there is little to no consistancy with the enemy actions and capabilities.


As bad as this all seems, enough variety in weaponry, vehicles, and setting allows for a solid single player experience. Each character engages you and makes light of each situation. Too bad it’s only single player though. Even two man co-op would make things infinitely better.

Having read this far means you’re probably interested enough to give the game a shot. Good thing your patient, because the campaign isn’t what makes a Battlefield game..well..a Battlefield game. The multiplayer component is where this game is at.

While team based play is needed for the likes of COD4 and Halo 3, but it's nothing like this. A good player or two is normally enough to carry a team in the aforementioned but in Bad Company, the whole team makes the difference. A well dispersed and varied team will win it every time. Enough of an arsenal exists for each person to be great at something.

Unfortunately most groups consist of a majority of pot-shot snipers and vehicle hogs who die within the first few moments of driving. These are also the same jackasses that don’t use a microphone and shoot down your helicopter just to giggle, and have a turn nose diving into the dirt. Other than uneducated teams, the spawning system is annoying as hell. Joining in on the squad and getting spawn killed is a common occurence. Squad spawns can work to a great advantage if one guy sacrifices to stay hidden as the rest of the team files out one by one, gets killed, rinse and repeat, but they are seldomly used.


Annoyances aside, multiplayer is the sole reason to buy this game. Each class is pretty much balanced and all of the vehicles exist in some sort of rock, paper, scissors type of way. And while killing the opponent can be done in a multiplicity of fashions, the best part is getting kickass rewards for doing so.

In summary, Battlefield: Bad Company is a game that doesn’t revolutionize the first-person shooter, but expands it into something most would find a hell-of-a-lotta fun. While there are issues present in terms of repetition, gun mechanics, and the campaign's AI, they are overshadowed by the variety of play and characters that keep you coming back. But as stated before, the game's online universe is where you'll get your money's worth: huge maps, vehicles, explosions, and some addictive gameplay can’t call for anything less than awesome.