First, let’s start off with the story. The boys of Bravo Company are back and bad to the bone, although at the start of the game you’re not sure since the game goes back to WWII to setup the plot. As the boys of B you’re off to stop the Scalar Weapon, which threatens national security. Along the way you fight through jungles, deserts and snowy mountains before you can get home and enjoy a little R&R (at least that’s what you think). The story is much better than the first game though it seems to have some pacing issues due to cutscenes constantly pulling you out of the action every few minutes. The story also lacks that epic feel even though the dust and the Indiana Jones type music tries hard to give you that experience; but in the end, it just winds up coming short. The story however is not without merit. It is greatly enhanced by the game designers decision to channel your progression in a more linear fashion while still maintaining that open world scale of allowing freedom of movement.

As far as the single player game itself, there is an abundance to appreciate though the campaign itself is over within 6 to 8 hours depending on your style of play. Bad Company 2 certainly demonstrates how destructible objects can not only change your tactical approach to a mission, but also increase your level of fun as well. Vehicles are also a huge part of the game and are extremely entertaining in every aspect of the single player campaign. The other improvement to this sequel is that missions don’t feel as repetitive. Nevertheless, mission-types did not give me enough incentive to change my two weapons of choice.

The characters in the single player game are well acted and feature humor that doesn’t get on your nerves like the last game did at times.  Your characters will also make cracks that are clearly aimed at Modern Warfare 2 – things like snowmobiles are for sissies and heartbeat sensors on weapons. However, while your in-game squad mates are full of personality, your in-game enemies severely lack it (even the main antagonist). They also lack variation in that they all pretty much look the same throughout the game. Your squad mates aren’t without fault though. In fact, they seem to have some A.I. issues in that, unless they are moving to the next staging area, they will wait on you and you alone to engage the enemy and to trip trigger points, which at times seem too artificial. My squad also appeared like they were occasionally firing rubber bullets at the enemy since their barrage of shots didn’t seem to match my one or two shots that finally brought an enemy down. Speaking of the enemies, as the game progressed, it was like the enemy soldiers were only firing at me. My squad could literally be in front of me and out in the open and I could be behind cover; and yet the enemy’s rounds were only directed at me. It’s like the enemy’s A.I. couldn’t see my team. This doesn’t happen throughout the game just enough to make you feel like you’re being picked on. Another issue I had with enemy A.I. is the fact that they could see you through all the dust and debris but you couldn’t see them. And no, they we’re not using thermal scopes or goggles.

David Copperfield Eat Your Heart Out!

Technically, Bad Company 2 is overall pretty impressive though not perfect. For example, while outdoor environments look amazingly detailed with realistic lighting, indoor environments are bland and boring for the most part. Weapons handle well and appear more responsive than the demo; and also include better hit-detection and feedback. Having said that, I experienced moments where my rounds did not hit my intended targets, but instead bounced off some apparent invisible barrier. The game also suffers from a few other technical issues like bodies floating in midair and parts of characters going through objects in the game like walls. Also, from a technical standpoint, I am not sure why certain objects in the game can’t be destroyed like wooden crates. One last technical thing – frame rate and network connectivity all seem good.

Why Won't You Die?

The best part of Bad Company 2 (BC2) however, has to be the online multiplayer game. Unlike Modern Warfare 2, BC2 not only offers a wide range of driving and flying vehicles, but it’s also a much more tactically shooter requiring strategy and teamwork. The game also offers enough multiplayer modes to fit whatever fancies you have. In addition, maps are well layout as they are large – maybe a little too large at times, especially for deathmatch. But if you love playing sniper, then you’ll love the multiplayer maps of Bad Company 2. Sniper is just one class a player can choose from, ranging from your typical soldier, to combat engineer, to field medic and to scout (sniper). Other than points and rewards, players can also customize their multiplayer character’s load out (field kit) offering over 15,000 possible kit combinations between the various weapons and gadgets.

All in all, Bad Company 2 is a huge success over its predecessor. Though its single player campaign is much better than before, it is still not as epic as Modern Warfare 2. Having said that, BC2’s multiplayer can stand on its own, giving players an incredibly experience only a Battlefield game can offer.  I for one am glad for the changes and additions DICE has made to the game. I am also thankful to have a new multiplayer game to play online, especially since I am getting a little tired of the same old maps in you know what. Now if I can only learn to fly that darn helicopter.

Map Rotation

"Estate" Multiplayer Map

First, let’s talk about Map Rotation. I realize that the amount of time spent in a particular lobby, whether or not the lobby resets and so on – will all affect which map is selected. However, there seems to be (at least for team deathmatch) a few maps that always appear. The one that comes to mind the most is Estate. I don’t know how many times I’ve defended and assaulted this mountain home, but in my opinion, it’s been too many times.

Team Balancing

Second gripe deals with Team Balancing. There have been an excessive amount of times where one team not only had more players, but they also had players who were of higher rank. For example, you’d have one team with 5 players (three sergeants, 1 captain, and 1 lieutenant colonel) against a team of 7 players (3 generals, 1 captain, 1 sergeant, 1 major, and 1 prestige).  And if the game does give you an even amount of players on both sides, it still has the teams unfairly stacked with more high-ranking players on one team. Now, I realize that coming in with a friend or playing with a clan tag, does force the game to keep them on the same team, but the game nevertheless has team balancing issues.

Weapon’s Range

Third thing that needs tweaking relates to the weapon’s range. My major gripe is with the Winchester 1887. While this famous level-action shotgun designed by John Browning in the late 19^th century and early part of the 20^th century, was and is a great weapon; my contention is with its effectiveness to take a person out with one shot firing over 40 yards away akimbo style. In other words, I have no doubts this weapon can mortally wound a person, but at what range? In verifying my facts with a local gunsmith friend whose great grandfather owned a Winchester 1887, he confirmed that on “soft” targets, a 10 gauge with lead buckshot or slugs would be effective at 25 plus meters and devastating within 15 meters; and with a buckshot from size 4 up (or a slug), a person within 40 yards without body armor would be seriously to mortally wounded.  However, the aim required wouldn’t be casual (i.e., as in the akimbo firing position used in the game), rather it would have to be centered on the upper torso. Bottom-line, I am okay being killed 15-25 meters away in the game by this weapon, but not 40 plus yards away as players are easily able to do in multiplayer. Of course, by the time you’re reading this, both the Xbox 360 and PC will have been patched. Funny how the PS3 got this fix first.  Another minor gripe is with Frag grenades. The effective kill range of a Frag grenade is 30 meters. However, in Modern Warfare 2 – the range seems to be more like 15 meters. Case-in-point, you know an enemy is in the room next to you, which is about 10 meters wide; you lob a Frag grenade through the door and it lands near the wall opposite of the corner your enemy is camping in; but, instead of dying, you walk in to be immediately shot.

Care Packages

Fourth gripe is with Care Packages. I realize care package crates need to have some real physics behind them to allow them to bounce, roll and even kill someone if they’re standing below them when they fall from the sky. But do they have to have such realistic physics to where I lose them all together? I mean, can’t they roll off the top of the plane, if they happen to land up there? And why doesn’t the physics behind them, not allow me to use the concussion from a grenade to make them drop? However, my biggest lies in the decision to make it where they never go out of bounds. I am sure some of you can relate to my frustration. You’re playing a big match and you get a cool care package like an air raid or stealth bomber, to only see it sitting on the other side of some fence. Hey, if Infinity Ward can prevent me from walking through certain bushes and not being able to break certain glass to serve as boundaries I can’t cross, then why couldn’t they have made a rule to keep my care packages from going outside those invisible boundaries as well?

Server Errors and Lag

Fifth and final gripe that needs addressing is with serving errors and lag. I know there has to be a billion people playing this game, but using their genius minds, it seems Infinity Ward could have optimized the network code to prevent issues like this. The last time I had issues like this was with Call of Duty 2. I can understand this happening every once and a while, but in my experience, this is happening way too often.

I know the game has already been patched, but the update doesn’t seem to address any of these specific issues, other than dealing with the Javelin exploit. In fact, the 1.06 update seem to have created some new issues. According to IGN, these new issues include allowing players to join private matches they’re not supposed to be joining. Here’s hoping that Infinity Way does some more tweaking and fixing on their part with their 1.07 patch. Especially since Modern Warfare 2 is one of the best first-person shooters of all time.

Update 1-29-10:

New Patch coming (now available for PS3/360 undergoing certification with the following fixes:

- Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.

- Fix for “infinite care package” exploit.

- Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry.

- Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.

- Improved player collision removing cases of getting into geometry and ‘elevators’.

- Fixes to prevent various XP hacks.

Update 2-12-10:

Xbox 360 patch now available fixing the following issues:

- Infinite Care Package Exploit

- Care Package, Emergency Airdrops, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized

- Sentry Guns now have improved placement detection preventing inside geometry

- Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling

- Prevention of various XP hacks (including negative XP)