The good, the Bad Company, and a hippy

Speaking strictly of single player, Battlefield Bad Company was a fun game.  Not an amazing, ground breaking game... but man was it entertaining.  I'm pretty sure I smiled through the whole thing, rather than frowning in concentration.  It was still a solid first person shooter, don't get me wrong, but it was no Modern Warfare killer.

But I'm not here to talk about that.  I don't buy a lot of games as soon as they hit the shelf (I'm po'.  Can't even afford the other 'o' or the 'r', but the apostrophe came free with any purchase) and even less in the first month of their release, so when I do it's kind of a big deal.  Bad Company 2 wasn't a straight copy paste with a new story line, but still kept most of the feel of BC.   It was a much darker tale, that touched on corruption in government, revenge, pacifism and what really drives soldiers to keep on fighting.

That being said, I still smiled through most of it.  

Vehicles seem a bit over powered, especially the heavy tanks.  I realize that that is kinda the point, but I feel like without my auto aim npc buddies, I'd have died multiple times just because it's difficult to see and hit little dudes with rpgs, but when enemy tanks show up they get a bead on me... through buildings.  With their main cannon.

Maybe I just suck.  Shrug.

Still, the weapon collectibles make a come back, and it's kinda fun to search around and weapon swap.  I found myself using the starter rifle more often than not though.  Again, might just be because I suck.  One addition that really made my day was the addition of supply drop crates, where you can change your load out to any gun you've picked up to this point.  They aren't everywhere, but are at most checkpoints.  One thing I missed were the happy face pins on the grenades.  Some overpowered things, like artillery strikes, were taken out, and demolition made a much smaller part of gameplay.  I blew out walls more often to make a window rather than to knock out cover, or in one case because I couldn't find the door.

There's lots of tongue in cheek references to Modern Warfare 2.  **Possible spoiler alert!  one level you race your squad on four wheelers, and throughout the race Haggard teases Sarge and Sweets.  Sweets says something like "If this was a snowmobile race I'd kick your ass!" and Haggard replies "Well it's not, snowmobiles are for pussies!"  There's other references, but that's the only one I remember well enough to quote.

Whereas the first one, it was like a constant joy ride, this time around there's a very serious story line.  I don't think I can reveal any of it without spoiling it, as it's a sort of keep you in the dark need to know basis kind of story reveal, but the first level had me hook line and sinker.  I'm a WWII guy, I love watching the history channel and reading books about it, so when the first level dealt with a Japanese scientist defecting, I had to know the rest of the story.

Anyway.  Battlefield has always been about the multiplayer, but Bad Company 1 and 2 has given them a strong showing in the single player story driven areas.  Are they top dog?  Not in this category no.  But are they up in the top ten, at least in my humble opinion?  Easily.

I have to give the one player a 9.5/10.  I'll try out the multiplayer and write a separate review for it, though I've heard it's stellar.