The multiplayer has four game types on offer – Conquest, Rush, Team Deathmatch and Squad Rush. There is also a Hardcore mode on offer, which trims down your health, removes certain elements from your HUD, turns on friendly fire, and makes everyone think they are snipers and act like idiots. Noticeably, all the game types available are team-based. This can mean that the game’s greatest strength can also become its weakness. If you are in a squad that’s working together and playing as a part of the team, there is quite nothing like Bad Company 2. However, if you get stuck in a squad/team of wannabe snipers, it can also make the quite frustrating.
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Lastly, the lack of any tutorials for the multiplayer can be an annoyance to those who are new to the series. There is no explanation on how the different game modes work, there is no option to learn the ropes by playing offline, nothing that teaches you everyday game functions like how to spot enemies or how to open your parachute, and the game manual is as spartan as can be. So even something as basic as learning to fly a chopper is a trial by fire. This being a game that is more complex and team oriented than your run of the mill twitch shooter, you can’t help but feel some sort of ice breaker would have been nice to draw in the new crowd.
Graphically, and in the sound department, the game is fairly impressive. It looks good on both the consoles, but put it on a decent gaming rig, and it looks absolutely phenomenal. The smoke, dust and ice particle effects are truly outstanding. Some of the interior textures might not be amazing, but the sheer amount of stuff that can happen on screen (especially due to the game’s superb environment destruction) can put almost every other shooter out there to shame. It also doesn’t take a lot to turn all the dials to high and run it at an acceptable frame rate, provided you are willing to turn off HBAO. The user interface is also easier to use on the PC. Add mouse and keyboard controls, the ability to browse and pick servers, etc and it would be very easy to recommend the PC over the console versions. It would also be very wrong.
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While its still (in technical terms anyway) better than the console version, the PC version has a few bugs that need to be mentioned here. At the time of writing, there have been two major patches, and while they have addressed some of the more critical game breaking, issues there is still some minor things that need to be tweaked. Ironically, one of the more annoying things about the PC version is the auto updater (you cannot manually download patches) itself, which can often be a source of anguish (random crashes while patching the game and no resume mode for downloading patches). Aside from the auto updater, the main game itself has some other minor annoyances. Adding servers to your favourites list doesn’t always work, the auto balance feature still needs tweaking, there are times when you cannot see your ping in the servers list if you don’t launch the game with administrative privileges, and the friends list works as often as it doesn’t. While none of them are game breaking flaws, DICE still needs to work on these issues before the PC version can be called the best of the lot.
Conclusion
Fortunately, none of those issues plague the console versions and in all the time I spent playing it, I never really had any problems. But despite whatever flaws you can find across platforms, this is such a team-focused game that buying it on the platform your friends are buying it on is the only advice I can hand out. All in all, its a fairly hearty recommendation. This is one of the best multiplayer games to come out in recent times and every one should give it a go. Watch out for engineers with drills though; those guys are jerks!
(+) Fantastic, well-balanced multiplayer
(+) Great maps
(+) Looks and sounds great
(-) PC version is buggy.
(-) Average single-player AI and story
Title: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Developer/Publisher: DICE/EA
Genre: First-person shooter
Rating: 16
Platforms: PC (Rs 999), PS3 (Rs 2,499), Xbox 360 (Rs 2,299)
Reviewed on: Xbox 360, PC
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