The boys of Bad Company are back for another adventure and DICE has improved upon the original Bad Company title in almost every way. The game is absolutely beautiful and the campaign has pretty good variety ensuring that you won’t get bored on your journey. The multiplayer is fantastic with a variety of different modes to keep you busy for a long time. Additionally, if you buy the game when it first comes out you will get a special “Limited Edition” which will give you a VIP code. This code will entitle you to upcoming downloadable maps at no additional cost.

While I did have a great time going through this game it is definitely not perfect. There are way too many graphical glitches in the game. If you happened to kill an enemy by a wall or a similar type of object it was a frequent occurrence to see them fall through the wall and/or object and you could stand there and watch them glitch through the environment. There were also times when weapons would go through walls. There was a specific instance where I was in cover trying to regain health and one of my AI partners stuck his weapon through a wall to shoot at the enemy. There was also a cinematic where one of the characters speaking didn’t have all of his hair. He wasn’t bald or anything, the hair texture just wasn’t there. None of these things break the gameplay itself, however, it can briefly take you out of the experience that they are working so hard to immerse you in.

With the above being said there is a lot to really like in this game. The locales that you will visit during your adventure range from a tropical location to a mountain range and more. There was one instance where you were caught in a blizzard and you had to quickly rush from building to building before you froze to death. It was a fantastic segment which had a good bit of intensity as you were trying to prevent freezing to death while at the same time taking out enemies so you wouldn’t die of lead poisoning. There were also times where you would have to drive a vehicle, take the gunner’s seat while the AI drove, take out enemies from a helicopter and more. I appreciated the variety in the gameplay as it helped to keep things fresh. I didn’t ever feel that something was getting stale because there was usually something new around the corner or, at the very least, a different way to do something familiar. The environmental destruction is also back and it looks better than ever. It is a really satisfying feeling when I shoot some gas canisters that are placed near a building and then I stand and watch as the entire building crumbles. The audio in the game is also really well done and the chatter within your squad is fantastic. There were quite a few moments where I was chuckling about a one liner someone said. They even took some shots at Modern Warfare 2 while simultaneously borrowing some of their ideas. The length of the campaign falls in line with other shooter titles. It is a fairly short campaign which I’m sure some people will be disappointed to hear. There are however a bunch of collectibles to find and some secondary objectives to complete so that could potentially add to the replayability of the campaign.

A lot of people will buy this title for the multiplayer and they won’t be disappointed. Following the tradition of the Battlefield series the multiplayer in Bad Company 2 is fantastic. You have a few different modes you can choose from depending on what mood you are in. You have Conquest mode where you have to focus on the capture and control of flag points. Then you have Rush mode where the team that is on the offensive must break through the enemy line to destroy M-COM stations. If you are on the defensive side of things then it is your job to make sure the opposition doesn’t succeed. Then, of course, there is the Squad Deathmatch which should be pretty self explanatory to anyone who has ever played a shooter. You also have a bunch of things to unlock in the multiplayer mode such as new weapons, gadgets and specialization equipment such as a red dot sight. To unlock these things you must the prerequisite score for the item. If you want the red dot sight then you need to get 14,000 points in the assault class. The way that you get points is by playing games in multiplayer. Obviously if you are on the winning team you will get more points than if you are on the losing side of things. During my multiplayer games everything ran really smooth and I didn’t experience any lag at all. I was able to jump into games pretty quickly and I didn’t have to wait very long to respawn. I also liked the feature of being able to choose your respawn points. There is definitely a strategic element to that and it helps you immediately get back in the heat of battle after you get taken out.

Overall Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a fantastic title. It does have its share of bugs and glitches, however, the package as a whole is fantastic. I had a lot of fun going through the campaign and have started to go through it a second time to try and find everything I missed on my initial run. The multiplayer should keep shooter fans busy for a very long time. The trophies/achievements are also done really well and if you are one of those people who likes to get all of the trophies/achievements then you will be kept busy for a little as well. If you are a shooter fan then you need to definitely give this game a try. Fans of the original Battlefield Bad Company should really enjoy all of the improvements DICE made to this sequel while newcomers will have a blast figuring out why this is such a beloved franchise.

Score: 9/10

Originally posted on Totally Gaming Network