Battlefield: Bad Company
Electronic Arts
Xbox 360
Review by Simon Kemp
5 stars (out of 5)
Bad Company is the second of the Battlefield franchise to appear on the Xbox 360.
The first was a sort of console adaptation of the PC version of the game: basically an online multiplayer blast fest with a ropey single player mission tacked on.
It is also one of my favourite games - good looking, great maps, balanced gameplay - basically everything you want from an online shooter.
So I have been looking forward to a follow-up for, well, ages.
It was not without a hint of apprehension that I opened the box and shoved Battlefield: Bad Company into the trusty 360.
Especially as I had just read the accompanying press release which told me all about how this was a completely new Battlefield game, built using a brand new game engine developed by Swedish development company DICE specifically for this game.
The promotional blurb had also promised a deep single-player campaign loaded with dark humour, intense combat and deafening destruction - this was not sounding like a Battlefield game at all . . . but, being a true pro, I forged onward and watched the cutscene introducing our hero, Preston Marlowe.
Along with three mates, Marlowe makes up the Bad Company - a division of the US Army where they throw the misfits and troublemakers, etc, etc.
Cutscene over, I was off . . .
In true Battlefield style, I was expecting to give the token single-player game a cursory once over and then concentrate on the multiplayer.
However, an hour later Sarge, Sweetwater, Haggard and I were still battling away, shooting bad guys and stealing their gold.
OK, it is not Dickens but the story is good enough to keep you interested.
The characters interact well, often joking with each other while the bullets are flying, maybe that is why you seem to do most of the shooting.
It does seem at some times that they are only there to make up the numbers; they man the turrets and pick off a few baddies every now and then, but do not rely on them to watch your back ! The re-spawn system and unlimited health boosters may make the game a bit easier than it could have been, but it is still really enjoyable.
One of the things that is evident from the first moments of the single-player game is that the new game engine, Frostbite, is very, very good.
Everything is pretty smooth, the frame rate is excellent, the enemy AI is mostly good and the sound effects are some of the best I have heard.
Gunshots echo off walls, you hear bullets fly past your head, tanks rumble past - it is all there, and together with a great orchestral music score, makes for one of the best-sounding games I have played.
But Frostbite has one, special piece de resistance - you can pretty much blow up everything from buildings to trees.
Now this might not sound like much, but once you get into multiplayer it makes a massive difference - you cannot hide.
No longer can you crouch safely behind a wall with your sniper rifle and pick off people at will.
As soon as someone sees you, a well-aimed grenade will demolish the wall and leave you battered and exposed.
It is not perfect - some things, especially crates, refuse to break on occasion - but it makes a massive difference on how you play the game.
The multiplayer itself has only one variation, Gold Rush, a team-based 24 player game in which you take turns to attack and defend crates of gold.
Eight maps, five classes of soldier, vehicles, special abilities unlocked in the single-player game - it all sounds good, and it is.
The maps are excellent, the balance is perfect, it is quite simply one of the best multiplayer shooters on a next gen console.
EA have promised that more multiplayer games will be downloadable soon and if they are all as good as this then Battlefield: Bad Company will be stuck inside gamer's consoles for a long time to come.
