Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Is a Blast
For the last few years, Activision's "Call of Duty" series has dominated video-game warfare. The latest chapter, "Modern Warfare 2," was the best-selling game of 2009, and it still leads the list of Xbox Live's most-played titles, joined in the top five by two earlier "CoD" releases.
But Activision did not exactly invent the war game, and almost every major publisher in the industry is competing in the genre. Electronic Arts may be the most aggressive, with three franchises -- "Army of Two," "Battlefield" and the rebooted "Medal of Honor" -- taking on the champ this year.
"Battlefield: Bad Company 2" (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99) has a good chance of dethroning "Call of Duty." It looks terrific. Its single-player campaign is more entertaining, and coherent, than that of "Modern Warfare 2." Its developer, Sweden's DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment), has been refining team-based online combat since its 2002 landmark, "Battlefield 1942."
"BC2" isn't quite a sequel, since it pretty much ignores the events of 2008's "Battlefield: Bad Company." But the characters are the same: Weary veteran Sarge, jittery techie Sweetwater and chatty redneck Haggard round out your squad. Stereotypes all, but their conversations are often quite funny and provide a genuine sense of camaraderie.
Your own character, Marlowe, is the strong, silent type, and since he is such a cipher, he can accommodate any style of play. I like to hang back and snipe enemies from a distance, but you can play Marlowe as a run-and-gun berserker. The artificial intelligence of your squadmates is impressive, and they will back up whatever strategy you prefer.
The guys are racing against the Russians to find a mysterious weapon of mass destruction. (You know, the Cold War never ended in video-game land.) The pursuit takes place mainly across South America, which offers a...
Posted: 2010-03-08 07:05:44
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