Updated: 5/9/2010Where to start. I often don't review a game until I have either completed it or have played it for a few weeks first and have time to form a well informed opinion. In this case however, I purchased Bad Company 2 for it's multiplayer aspects and after just over a week I have already came to some rather harsh conclusions about the game. So for these reasons I decided to give my first impressions on the game. So I am going to break this down into categories to try and make it more reader friendly.
Overall Gameplay
The overall gameplay in BCS is actually not that bad and can be quite fun if your lucky enough to find a good server with decent players.
The various game modes are quite fun, Rush being my favorite and the one I play the most. You basically either play on either the attacking or defending team. If your on the attacking team, your job is to take out 2 objectives and secure the area before moving on to the next location on the map and taking out 2 more objectives. You do this until you have pushed the enemy team all the way back to their main base and destroyed the final 2 objectives. If you get held up on an objective too long by the defenders, and take too many losses, you will eventually loose the round.
If your on the defending, your goal is to do just that, defend the objectives and repel the enemy attacks and inflict enough damage to to win the round. Even though the maps are pretty well balanced, the attacking team often has the upper hand. However it is quite fun to play on both sides.
Some of the cons to the gameplay are weapon balance, class balance, and lag. Even though the maps are pretty well laid out, the weapons and character classes are not. I will get into the lag in a second.
The weapons in BC2 are what you expect from a "clone" run of the mill FPS. About as far from "realistic" as you can get. Tough it's not like the game clams to try and be all that realistic. It's far from ArmA or Operation Flashpoint. The sad thing is, they did not even balance it out very well. Without going into a long winded breakdown, lets just say that if you want to really rack up the kills, just use RPG's and rockets, and your set. No need to aim or apply any skill. Heck, there are many assault weapons that can take you out at the same distance as the sniper rifles. So if your going into BC2 thinking its weapons are balanced, your in for a surprise. Then again, most players don't care to be honest, or they have no idea what game balance is. This is proven over and over again with games like Modern Warfare 2. I was just really hoping BC2 would be different, in this respect however, it's not. It's just another "me too" game that really does not require the player to challenge themselves.
As far as the character classes go I really do have to wonder what EA was thinking giving most every assault weapon the M203 grenade launcher. This makes the assault class so insanely easy to dominate it's not even funny. Literally, no skill required, having played all the classes the assault is by far the easiest and offers up no real challenge.
The Recon class is by far the hardest to play. The sniper rifles in the game are not represented very well and even the final unlockable sniper is not a one hit KO. You can easily be taken out by the assault class at just about any range if your not careful. You better get good at the headshots is the best advice I can give. However, if you like your game to be more challenging, then play Recon, it's a lot more rewarding in my opinion. I will take quality of kills over quantity any day of the week.
Anyone can tear up in this game with just about all the assault weapons and the "noob tube" M203 or any of the other explosive weapons since its very simple to get splash damage KO's. So why not challenge yourself? Play with just your M24 and a sidearm? There is no greater feeling in the game than popping the heads of hordes of assault and support players. Just watch out for all the flying grenades.
So on to the lag. A vast majority of the servers you come across will have pings over 150. You will be hard pressed to find good servers with pings under 150. I happen to live in the Upper Midwest and am on a very high-end connection. My average ping coast to coast here in the US is 30-50. Yet I have a very difficult time finding servers with nice low pings.
If your lucky enough to find a good one, bookmark it! Though you will still have to keep an eye on player pings in the server. I can not even begin to tell you how many players you will run across with average pings over 200.
Game Stability
This is a HUGE con in my book. There are literally thousands of players who are having connectivity problems, random crashes, Punkbuster problems, and even issues just getting in a server to play. The game is very "buggy".
The biggest issue at the time of this review is crashing. Many players game either freeze or crash to desktop at random times during play, or when they try and join a server. I myself have this problem and so does every single person I know who plays BC2. I can sometimes go for hours without a single crash, and other times I am lucky to make it though two matches. So the game is not very stable at all for many users.
There are also connectivity problems, some of these could be a result of the crazy high pings you see, who knows. For the most part, connectivity is not that big of a problem for me, though like I said I am on a very high end connection. That being said, I have been dropped from a few games for loosing connection to the server. Only to be able to rejoin a few seconds later with no problems.
The Punkbuster issues are pretty easy to fix for most people. It just requires a manual update. Though there still are players having problems with PB heartbeat drops or a PB service failing to communicate with the server.
So you put all that together and you have a $50 beta test rather than a retail release. I am actually quite shocked EA would release a game in this condition. I am very glad this game did not cost me a penny, if it had, I would be far more upset at it than I am. As it is I can just enjoy it as is and I don't have to feel like I was ripped off like so many other players do at the moment.
The Graphics
Bad Company 2 is a graphically beautiful game. If you crank all the settings up to max the environment is truly the best in its class. Though there are graphic anomalies and glitches you will come across, they are not that big a deal, and the rest of the immersive environment far outweigh the errors. Even at moderate settings the game looks very nice. The game has a very theatrical feel to its environment. In this respect, they did a great job, and it's one of the games saving grace's.
The environment is also very reactive. Most structures can be destroyed or picked apart with some serious firepower. Hiding behind a wooden fence will not offer a lot of protection as bullets will go through them. So this also adds to the games environment and is a big plus in my book.
The Audio
Two words, "War Tapes", enough said. This audio setting really adds a entire new level of immersion into the game environment. You combine that with the graphical detail and you get a truly great experience that makes you feel like your playing a movie. Though its hard to judge direction based on sounds with War Tapes on in some cases, the fact that it sounds so damn nice makes up for it.
The game also has a dynamic response system that will cause your player, and those around you, to react to your actions as well as others in the area, and its all automatic. For instance, the guy next to me takes a hit from a sniper, he will yell "There's a shooter out there!", and if you see the sniper and take him out, your character may respond "I think I got him!" followed by players around you saying "Nice shot!". Revenge kills are nice and can result in your character or those around you saying things like "How do you like now?", "Take that bitch!", and so on. It really does add to that theatrical feel of the game.
So the audio in this game is one of the reasons, even with all the issues the game has, that keeps me playing.
Glitches & Hacks
Unfortunately, just in the time I have been playing I have managed to find several areas in a few of the maps where you can "glitch". Areas your not supposed to be able to have access too and that give you an advantage over the other players, especially if they are not aware your there since the area is supposed to be off limits.
For the most part, you are kept in the battlefield by a minefield. If you venture too far off the map your given 10 seconds to get back or your killed and it registers as a suicide and thus taking away points. However there are spots, such as some hilltops, that can be reached by various means that I am not going to go into detail about. However, while up there, you still within the map boundaries and are able to score kills in relative safety. Its very easy to get a kill, hide, move a little, kill again and keep repeating.
Though it's very obvious these areas are supposed to be off limits and inaccessible, they can be reached and the out of bounds timer fails to get you in these areas. In many of them you can even look off map. So keep you eyes out, if your taking damage from behind and can't see your shooter, look up.
There are also spots where you can put your gun through an object and fire, though you cant see through the object, the second you scope in, you can. So your behind cover and kill and the only thing your target has the chance to see is the barrel of your gun sticking out of nowhere. Again, I won't go into details on where these are, just look for the muzzle flash.
As far as the hacks go, yeah, they are there. Just like every other game, there are hacks out there for BC2. Though you probably wont run across them that often. I have already ran into damage hacks and aimbots. Only time will tell if it will get better or worse.
Closing
I really have a hard time rating this game over a 7 out of 10. The only reason I do give it a 7 is for the fact that when it does run, it runs great. The game for all its balance problems and such, is actually fun to play. The main reason is the games environment as a whole. The graphics, audio, and reactive objects really do make for a truly immersive theatrical gaming experience. I just with EA had done a lot more testing before they released the game. It has a LOT of potential.
My recommendation is to save your money until the price drops. $50 for game in this condition is a bit steep in my opinion. If you have to have it now, consider yourself warned. Don't get your hopes up and hope to hell it works for you without a hitch. If it does, then great, it can be a really fun game to play.
Updates on my opinions of Bad Company 2 (5/9/2010)
I have to admit, that since I gave my first impressions on Bad Company 2, the game has come a long way to addressing the issues. I now hold it in a much higher regard than I did when I first got it home.
- The overall game stability has improved a great deal on my end. No problems what so ever.
- There are still hacks and glitches, but that's true of any game. Though some of the glitches I was referring to initially have since been patched. Some have not. But it's an overall improvement.
- Game balance seems to have gotten a bit better, though, that could be from the fact I pretty much only play Hardcore mode now. heh
- You still see a lot of players "lagging", but it's not so much server related anymore, as much as just players on crappy connections or computers. Who unfortunately think they are on good connections or computers. The server sided lag that was complained about for a while on forums now seems to be corrected.
Based on these improvements to the game, and others I did not mention, I can easily bump my new rating up to an 8 or a 9 out of 10 if I was to re-review the game. I am going to leave it at a 7 though since technically this was a "first impression" review. Now that I have been playing this game much longer, changing my first impression rating does not seem right. heh
On a side note, if you stand Bad Company 2 up next to Modern Warfare 2, it's rating jumps well over 10 by default for the fact that MW2 sucks that hard. If you looking for a good, fun, challenging FPS game. Get Bad Company 2, leave Modern Warfare on the shelf to rot in peace.
Rated: 7/10
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