The First In The Bad Company Franchise, Is Still Enjoyable Since It's Release
Haggard loves explosives and explosions, and blew up the Officers latrine and was punished by being sent to Bad Company, while Sweetwater released a virus into the military computers, and damaged the entire system. His punishment was the same as Haggard. You as Preston, are sent to the Company as punishment for stealing and damaging a helicopter at your base. So for a Battlefield franchise title, Bad Company goes in a different direction to the rest of it's franchise.
This new dynamic plays out with Haggard and Sweetwater constantly arguing like children, and making childish insults and remarks about one another. Haggard is also the comedic release of the Company, going off and literally invading a neutral nation in pursuit of gold and big explosions. You are all forced to go after him and bring him back, this is all played out in quite a simple story. Bad Company has gone AWOL after discovering a mercenary army is assisting the Russian military in the current war, and the mercenary leader is known for paying his soldiers with gold bullion bars, and obviously Bad Company wants the gold for their futures. You are left with no other options after the U.S. military demands you all to hand yourselves over, for court martial.
The combat of Bad Company is fun, erratic yet controlled like any well-balanced FPS title. You can deploy many weapons and tactics to fighting the mercenaries and Russian army, as Bad Company employs the best feature of the entire game; destructible environments. That's right in Bad Company and it's sequels you can literally blow holes in the sides of buildings to transverse through, or to get to an enemy who is out of reach due to their cover. To do this you must use explosives, everything from C4 to under slung grenade launchers will do the job, and destroy pretty much walls, windows and cover used by the enemy.
So bursting through a wall with a grenade, and switching back to full-burst on your rifle to take out of the enemy on the other side is thoroughly enjoyable. Not only enjoyable, but it also lets you live out some military fantasies you thought of as kids or teens; wanting to blow up a wall and enter like Special Forces to take out enemies. This can be done over and over again in Bad Company, Sometimes with funny one-liners from Haggard or even Sweetwater about their personal experiences, or just enjoying the explosion.
Bad Company for most is good, because of it's online Multiplayer experience; and for me it cemented my loyalty to the Battlefield franchise for my online gaming over Call of Duty for it's realism, and destructible environments.
The Good:
- A new, different direction for a Battlefield title with a simple yet entertaining plot.
- Graphically for it's release it was of the highest level, but even now a few years later it's still quite beautiful to watch when you blow up a building or cover.
- Good selection of weapons, and equipment you can use to get to your enemies.
- Tactics of getting to an enemy are almost endless, from destroying their cover to even calling down an airstrike on their position.
- Fun combat, both fast-paced yet playable.
The Bad:
- Single-Player Campaign is too short, under ten hours.
Bad Company is perfect to buy now with the console change-over coming in a few months time, as it's as cheap as £2.50 when I bought it only recently. That's very cheap for a fun, enjoyable game that I know is already good - and a good price if you're saving your coppers for the new consoles coming out.