Gaming: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has no dull moment

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Read Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review below.

Platform: PC (Rs 999), Xbox 360 (Rs 2,290), PS3 (Rs 2,499)
Age: Rating: 16
Score: 8/10

Bad Company was the Battlefield series' first real stab at a proper single-player campaign. While past games have been heavily multi-player focused, the 2008 iteration tried to bring gamers the best of both worlds, but in doing so, ended up underwhelming on both counts.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 still aims to do the same. Only this time, they manage to pull it off.

The first noticeable change in Bad Company 2 is in the visual department. It is a massive improvement over its predecessor and easily earns its place amongst the best looking games around, especially when played on high settings on PC.

But the game looks equally stunning on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Developers DICE have also improved their Frostbite engine that makes environmental destruction a much bigger factor in gameplay than it did in the first game. No building or concrete wall can save your from an enemy barrage for too long, because it can all come down around you.

The single-player campaign is much more focused and well-scripted affair this time around. The set pieces are more intense, the level design is beautiful, and while it's fairly short, the boredom and the sense of aimlessness that crippled the first game, never sets in. Your B-Company buddies from the first game return, but they seem to have lost some of the sense of humour since the last game.

There are still some nice quips here and there, including not-so-subtle jabs at the competition (Call of Duty).

As with most war shooters, there isn't much of a story to guide you through the game; it relies on gameplay to do that. While the enemy AI is competent without being really challenging, the friendly AI is quite poor.

They fail to take any of the heat, which means the gunfire in an intense firefight is mostly headed your way. Sure, that gives you a feeling of accomplishment when you prevail, but it makes the presence of your squad members a little redundant.

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Even so, the campaign is held together much tighter this time around. At about seven to eight hours long, the single-player game is fun on the whole, and a significant improvement over the last.

But Battlefield games are renowned for multi-player, so unsurprisingly, Bad Company 2's campaign plays second fiddle to its fantastic multi-player component.

Unlike Call of Duty, Battlefield games have always been about team work. Bad Company 2 features squad-based multi-player battles with vehicles and aircrafts over massive maps.

Players can choose between one of four classes: Assault (regular grunt), Medic (can revive fallen team mates), Engineer (can repair equipment and destroy enemy vehicles), and Recon (stealthy sniper).

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There are four game modes, and each reaffirms the importance of teamwork. Environment destruction also plays a major role in shaping matches and can be used to your advantage. Most of the time, the map will be completely unrecognisable by the time the match is over, with tree cover completely wiped out and all man-made structures razed to the ground.

This level of destruction is aided by vehicles such as armoured SUVs and tanks, as well as air attacks via choppers and UAVs. You can also call in mortar strikes to completely obliterate an area of the map. So with large maps, vehicles, and environment destruction, there's a whole lot of strategy involved in this game.

As you play, you also earn higher ranks, and the higher your rank goes, the more weapons and gadgets you unlock. And with four soldier classes to choose from, the scope and replay-value here is almost limitless.

Things aren't quite as peachy as they sound though.

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While the multi-player component is endlessly fun, that fun is often short-lived due to several glitches and server issues. The PC version is worst affected and added features like support for 32 players (as opposed to 24 on the consoles) and the ability to browse through servers is nullified by the constant server issues, often rendering the game unplayable.

Even after several patches, the game still suffers occasional crashes, server downtime and issues with various other aspects, like the friend's list. The console versions are much better off, and though there were initial server issues here as well, it's nearly not as bad as the PC version.

There's no doubt that DICE will eventually iron out all these bugs. Even now, they've managed to eliminate the most crippling issues, allowing us to experience the game almost as it's meant to be. But after holding extensive public betas before release, these issues shouldn't have been there in the first place.

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If you were torn between the PC and console versions, I would still recommend the PC version for the added features and the lower price. Just be prepared to tolerate some of the bugs till the developers fix them.

With Battlefield: Bad Company 2, DICE have achieved what they set out to do with the first game i.e. creating a compelling single-player campaign, whilst continuing to offer an unmatched team-focussed multi-player experience.

Yes, there are issues, but you can easily look past them, because behind it all is a chaotic, explosive, and intense battle waiting for you; the kind that only a Battlefield game can offer.

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