by PK Hufford on December 2, 2008

For most of us that play first-person shooters, we’ve gotten used to the story lines; grim circumstances, fate of the world rests of your shoulders, blah blah blah. How about a story about you being assigned to a squad of expendable misfits, sent out on dangerous missions so the Army doesn’t waste their best troops, blowing up everything that gets in your path … and making a little extra cash? EA and game developer Dice deliver an excellent game concept utilizing cutting edge new game elements and a story taken straight out of Kelly’s Heroes. Welcome to Bad Company soldier!

You play Preston Marlowe, re-assigned to the 222nd Battalion, B Company after a “misunderstanding” involving you and a helicopter. Consisting of the Army’s undesirables, B Company is sent straight onto the front lines as “cannon fodder.” In your squad is Sweetwater, a jittery bookworm who enlisted in hopes of getting some money for college, Haggard, a good ol’ country boy with an unhealthy obsession with explosives, and Sergeant Redford, who’s just trying to survive so he can retire and buy a fishing boat. As you push into Russian controlled territories, you’ll discover that there’s a group of mercenaries in the area that, rumor has it, pays in gold bars. After the Army abandons you behind enemy lines, you and your squad decide it’s time to seek your fortunes on a wild and sometimes hilarious romp.

For those of you familiar with the Battlefield series, the same open game play formula has been brought to this game. You have a huge degree of flexibility in accomplishing your missions. The first is the vast openness of the game areas you’ll get to maneuver in. You can try to hoof it to get around or find a vehicle to get to your objective. The type of vehicle determines your tactics. Use a tank to blast your way to your objective or hop on a patrol boat and head down stream. Either way, you’ll face your fair share of enemy troops.

Worth mentioning is the amount of destruction you can cause. You can blow houses to pieces with grenades, rockets, or whatever variety of high explosive you have at your disposal. A well aimed shot from your grenade launcher can take out sandbag fortifications. Use a laser designator to drop a JDAM on a tank. The amount of things you can destroy also impacts your decisions on the battlefield. For instance, you encounter a couple of enemies in a house. You can try to just storm in through the front door, or shoot a box of high explosives and take out the entire side of the house. Or order a mortar strike and flatten the house to rubble. Either way, you can adjust your tactics to your situation. Honestly, you’ll probably enjoy running around shooting anything that explodes.

Battlefield games are known for their multi-player modes, and this one brings its own flavor, called Gold Rush mode, basically an attack/defend scenario. The attacking force’s job is to blow up crates of gold scattered throughout the map, which in turn opens more of the game map. The Battlefield standard, Conquest mode, is available for free download as well. Graphically Bad Company is good, but the sound is what really stands out. The sound engineers at Dice have done an outstanding job capturing the violence and realism of a gun battle. The dialogue can be hilarious as well. There’s nothing like watching Haggard and Sweetwater go at it with a game of roshambo or trade insults with each other.

On the other hand, the squad AI is a bit frustrating. They do a good job following you around the map, but you’ll end up doing most of the shooting. And it also appears that the enemies can pick you out easily, even if you exposed a single pixel, which can lead to some unbalanced shootouts. Thankfully, you have a health syringe you can use after waiting a short time for it to recharge.

Battlefield: Bad Company has put together a great gaming experience by combining some great new gaming elements and a fun multi-player experience, all the while delivering a story about the “lighter” side of war. Definitely give this game a whirl. It’s good to be bad.

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