Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360)

The AI for the sp game is rudimentary at best, the enemy provide a good amount of challenge but they don’t tend to use advance tactics though a tank will make pretty short work of you if you forget that cover can be demolished. So will any enemy manning a rocket launcher emplacement or something similar.

I guess the true game is still in the finely honed multiplayer that the Battlefield games are known for; they’re right up there with Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 in terms of rock solid multiplayer experiences that cannot be beaten. Whilst as previously mentioned there’s no Conquest mode for the multi as of yet, it’s in the works and Gold Rush is an attack-defence mode that allows one team to defend their gold caches and the other to destroy them.

There are all the tools of the trade at your disposal, team based classes that should complement each other and support classes that work well, able to repair broken vehicles and lay booby traps for the enemy. The two factions are well balanced and DICE has always been good at making adjustments to the balancing if any issues arise, so expect problems to be cleared up. There are no noticeable bugs on or offline, whilst the sp might feel a little short this is primarily a multiplayer game and there true longevity will be in ranking up your character in the online battles and unlocking the various toys to play with.

The classes are broken down into the following:

Assault: front-line general purpose soldier class, good with a wide variety of rifle weapons.
Recon: uses sniper rifles, this class is your classic sneaker and long range death-dealing class.
Demolitions: Explosives, shotguns and that’s about it. You want to blow things up? This is your class.
Support: Light Machineguns, this is the class if you want to suppress the enemy, pin down soldiers and cause pain.
Specialist: Another sneaking style class, more like the commando than anything, this class is for those who like Sub-machineguns and close quarters.

I should take a moment to rave about the audio in the game, the voice acting is especially good with some solid performances all round from the various characters. Haggard wins hands down being our favourite here and Sweetwater’s slightly nervous disposition coming in a second to the other two characters. The music is stirring and never overpowers and the weapons/effects audio are excellent. Add to this a solid graphics engine with no pop-in or noticeable glitches and the whole package is an all round great one.

If you’re tired of playing Call of Duty 4 or you just want something a little more destructive to get your teeth into, then Bad Company is worth picking up. It’s nothing very new but there’s polish and there’s enough meat on those bones to make it a worthwhile game.