While Bad Company 2’s multiplayer is clearly the star of the show, its schlocky campaign still holds up as comfort food for players
with nostalgia for that era of shooters. The story is a paint by numbers military tale and the characters are living embodiments of genre tropes, but it is all pulled off with a wink and a nod. It is a kindness for the game to forgo the usual self-serious, jingoistic tone of modern warfare shooters for goofballs and overarching cynicism. The game knows that the story and characters just grease the wheels of what players are really here for, wanton destruction.
And Bad Company 2 delivers, offering up perhaps the most thoroughly destructible environments in a Battlefield game, let alone its peers in the genre. Everything blows to bits at a moment's notice, including a player's cover. It is immediately immersive to have all of your cover blown away in an instant, sending you in the frantic search for more. The campaign seems tailored to provide a multitude of ways of experiencing this core loop. Add the impeccable sound design and a wide variety of good feeling weapons, and its easy to get caught up in the experience. And overlook the fact that your adversary is entirely mindless.
Boneheaded enemy AI is not the extent of the campaign’s flaws either. The most glaring issue it has is the odd scripting it uses at times, in which events trigger to unfairly kill the player or leave them in a lurch because enemies spawned late when the player is advancing out of cover. It is also an extremely linear game which makes it abundantly clear that the player is almost always being directly funneled to the next thing. And while the variety of guns are enjoyable and provide different distances by which players can engage enemies, the solution to every problem is to start the firefight.
This explosive, breakneck ride is the tailored experience Bad Company 2 has to offer though. And, for its flaws, it is still a hell of a ride if you have fond memories of its brand of campaign. Just be sure to go in with expectations set around what it wants to be.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that the multiplayer is just as enjoyable as it ever was. All the strengths of the campaign find their way into the multiplayer, with the improvement of playing against real people, generally with brains. Unfortunately, finding a full match can be hit or miss, but generally at least a partially full lobby can be found.
A further author’s note: the score is taking the whole package into account. If scored separately, the campaign would be at 4/5, multiplayer 4.5/5.
with nostalgia for that era of shooters. The story is a paint by numbers military tale and the characters are living embodiments of genre tropes, but it is all pulled off with a wink and a nod. It is a kindness for the game to forgo the usual self-serious, jingoistic tone of modern warfare shooters for goofballs and overarching cynicism. The game knows that the story and characters just grease the wheels of what players are really here for, wanton destruction.
And Bad Company 2 delivers, offering up perhaps the most thoroughly destructible environments in a Battlefield game, let alone its peers in the genre. Everything blows to bits at a moment's notice, including a player's cover. It is immediately immersive to have all of your cover blown away in an instant, sending you in the frantic search for more. The campaign seems tailored to provide a multitude of ways of experiencing this core loop. Add the impeccable sound design and a wide variety of good feeling weapons, and its easy to get caught up in the experience. And overlook the fact that your adversary is entirely mindless.
Boneheaded enemy AI is not the extent of the campaign’s flaws either. The most glaring issue it has is the odd scripting it uses at times, in which events trigger to unfairly kill the player or leave them in a lurch because enemies spawned late when the player is advancing out of cover. It is also an extremely linear game which makes it abundantly clear that the player is almost always being directly funneled to the next thing. And while the variety of guns are enjoyable and provide different distances by which players can engage enemies, the solution to every problem is to start the firefight.
This explosive, breakneck ride is the tailored experience Bad Company 2 has to offer though. And, for its flaws, it is still a hell of a ride if you have fond memories of its brand of campaign. Just be sure to go in with expectations set around what it wants to be.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that the multiplayer is just as enjoyable as it ever was. All the strengths of the campaign find their way into the multiplayer, with the improvement of playing against real people, generally with brains. Unfortunately, finding a full match can be hit or miss, but generally at least a partially full lobby can be found.
A further author’s note: the score is taking the whole package into account. If scored separately, the campaign would be at 4/5, multiplayer 4.5/5.