While on your missions you will come across a range of weapons, from various machine guns to sniper rifles to shotguns.
Each can be picked up and used, and also ‘collected’ for the multiplayer. You also have rocket launchers, the ability to call mortar strikes, and laser guided missiles. It’s all super cool and spices up the game as there is no one way to complete a mission, and no one weapon for the job. You can also pick up tools with which you can fix vehicles up, which really helps if you want to keep your tank on the road. You can also patch yourself up as often as you like, but the healing kit has a cool-down period, but it doesn’t take too long. This may seem silly to those hardened shooter veterans, but the game would be impossible without it as your health drops too fast, and the enemy is too great of a shot. Thankfully, dying simply results in you re-spawning further back, much like in the online multiplayer. Enlarge this image
In multiplayer the aim is for the attackers to capture or destroy the gold crates of the defenders. These battles will take some time as the defenders are slowly forced back across the vast maps. Games easily take 20 to 30 minutes depending on how quickly the attackers are able to capture all of the points, or the defenders are able to whittle down the attackers. Here the defenders have the advantage, as they have unlimited respawns, while the attackers respawns will drop with each death and when it drops to zero it's game over. Another mode called Conquest Mode is due to come out sometime after the launch of the game, diversifying the multiplayer.
As Bad Company is yet to be released, we had trouble finding a good online match, as any game we joined would have been on the other side of the world. But despite this, games were smooth and a lot of fun from start to finish.
Now all this might sound like any other online game, but the deformable environments are where it's at. Each game will be unique as the environment is constantly changing and in flux. That means that fantastic sniping spot you had moments earlier might now be only the edge of a room with the rest of the house blown open by a tank or other powerful artillery. Enlarge this image
The different classes come into great use here, with teams having to arrange themselves into a useful task force of Assault, Demolitions, Recon, Specialist, and Support. Be it sharing out medkits or using rocket launchers to take out tanks, the classes all play vital roles as without their abilities being utilised it will be difficult to wrest victory from the enemy. This has the potential to become a fantastic game as people become specialised in certain roles and teams start playing as teams, rather than individuals. I found the support unit one of the most satisfying roles, for his ability to repair vehicles and also to call in mortar strikes on enemy positions. Not all maps will have all vehicles, and it won’t always be an even fight - different spawn points have different weapons so as the enemy is pushed back they may be able to access more weaponry (or less).
To help with the multiplayer the devs have included a range of movies with hints/guides to each map which will come in useful for anyone wanting to master the online mode. There are eight maps in total and they are made up of a nice range of urban close combat areas and wide open spaces. Again though, I feel the lack of a prone option in the multiplayer (as in the single-player) is frustrating. When what limited cover you have gets blown away by a pesky tank, it's unfortunate that you can’t lie prone in a building, however it does help remove the frustration linked with snipers continually camping with no real way of finding them. So its a trade-off, but one that I am willing to live with considering how fun the multiplayer is. Enlarge this image
Add into this 24 players per game, and you have one hell of a fight on your hands. You’ll also have a host of medals to collect for completing certain tasks in multiplayer, for example taking out two guys at once with a mortar strike. This doesn’t do much except give you something to brag about, which isn’t a bad thing.
Battlefield: Bad Company is an exceptional game. Its deformable environments will do for battlefields what Codemaster's DiRT and GRID have done for the racing genre. Having the larger part of your environment being deformable to the extent that it is in Battlefield: Bad Company is no small feat. It may lack the finesse in the single-player that some similar titles have, but it does a great job of making you feel the part as you roll into combat with guns blazing, your squad hooting and bellowing behind you. Add to this the multiplayer which is well rounded and realistic, yet big on the fun, and you have a great experience which could ultimately have you playing for months and months.
Needless to say, the Battlefield series is well on track again.