Consider this a nice bonus

The Battlefield games have always been about the multiplayer, and Bad Company 2 is no exception. The story concerns a bunch of misfit soldiers who just want to go home, lead by a grizzled veteran who has seen it all. Sure, these are stereotypes, but at least they're backed up by some amusing writing.

Where Bad Company 2 gets it right is the lack of scripting. While missions are still mostly made up of a path to get from point A to point B, the soldiers you'll be fighting are limited in number. They won't just keep re-spawning until you advance forward. In one scene, I grounded a boat with a grenade launcher attached and destroyed most of a village before disembarking. In another I took a sniper rifle and cleared out a large area without setting foot in it. You can rush in if you like, but that will mostly lead to death. Even on moderate difficulty the enemy is smart, but fire fights can end different ways, especially with the destructible environments.

Your cover is a diminishing commodity

If a tank is coming and you hide in a house, a round from the tank's main gun can smash through the wall, leaving you defenseless. Keep pounding away at a structure and you can take the whole thing down. Even cement blocks can be chipped away with heavy weapon fire, and that means you need to use cover when you have it, but always keep an escape route handy. The enemy knows it can blast its way to you, and it takes advantage of that knowledge.

In one tense standoff I was pinned inside a house, fire coming from nearly every angle. My solution? I threw a grenade behind me, blew a hole through the wall, and exited, flanking my adversaries.

The single-player game does have some issues that hold it back from being perfect, however. The save points are few and far between, which can make death very annoying. Do I really need to get into a jeep and drive some place for five minutes again just because I walked into some bullets? Dying only to find you have to replay a long vehicle sequence or the past five firefights is just bad design. It can turn any game from a fun diversion into a tiresome slog.

Also note that some deaths feel very arbitrary. In one scene you have to avoid mortar fire, and if you run into the open, you die. Run into a building? It collapses on you. There is no easy way to survive the first time you play this part, and it's not the only cheap death. I'm not even sure how I finally got past it. I died, the game gave me another waypoint, and when I spawned I was moving to the next objective. Go me?

Another issue is going to be the use of smoke and particle effects. In multiplayer it adds plenty of realism; explosions will actually obscure your vision and give you cover. And when you're gunning in a tank and your driver fires the main gun, the smoke makes it hard to see to pick out targets. It's pretty neat. In the single-player game, the road ahead is often obscured by smoke or even snow effects, and it can make it hard to know where to go. In one case, a twisty road turned into something approaching guesswork.

There was an also a problem with the haze adding an odd level of brightness to some scenes, making sniping impossible. It was a strange issue, which no amount of fidding with monitor or GPU settings would fix.

The cutscenes were also "filmed" with a very annoyingly shaky camera. Not a big deal, but it was distracting.

Special note should be paid to the sound design of the game. The first Bad Company featured strong sound, but Bad Company 2 sounds even better. The guns crack, buildings explode, and you can listen closely to hear where the tanks are. Be sure to turn on the "War Tapes" audio selection from the options; it's not going to be for everyone, but it certainly turns up the intensity. Wait until you get into a shotgun fight in an enclosed space, it's just as amazing to hear as it is to see.

You can beat the single-player game in about 8 hours or so, and it's unlikely you'll want to go through it again. The story, about a very scary weapon that sounds like something out of War of the Worlds, is merely an excuse to get our soldiers into a variety of outlandish and exciting situations. You'll also catch the game taking some snide potshots at Modern Warfare 2, as one scene has a character who jokes that "snowmobiles are for sissies," and in another there's a joke about, and excuse my language, "special-ops douchbags with pussy-ass heartbeat monitors on their guns." It's a little classless, but worth a chuckle.

The single-player is perfectly serviceable, it's a good way to learn the weapons and vehicles of the game, and it keeps a good pace until you see credits; but there's not much fat here. Still, let's be honest: the single-player game is basically bonus content. On the PC, you're here for one reason only: the multiplayer.

Going online

Multiplayer is the meat of the game, and where you'll be spending most of your time if you purchase Bad Company 2. The game includes 10 multiplayer maps—as long as you buy new—and four game modes. Conquest, where you capture and hold key points on the map, Rush, where you attack defended positions to blow up M-Com units and advance your position, Squad Rush, which is Rush with only two four-person squads, and Squad Deathmatch, where your only job is to kill the other side.

You can play as one of four classes. Assault, Recon, Engineer, or Medic. Each class starts with its own weapons and abilities, but don't worry—you'll grow those as you level up.

Multiplayer is where the game finds its voice. Where Modern Warfare 2 focuses on kill streaks, Bad Company 2 makes it clear that you are one soldier in a larger battle. You gain points for killing the enemy, and as a Medic you gain points for healing or reviving the other soldiers on your team. From taking objectives to acting as support for your teammates, everything you do to advance your side's cause will gain you points. As you level up you'll gain new abilities and new weapons. As you gain levels and weapons you'll obviously have an advantage on the battlefield, but even a low-level medic can be effective on the battlefield by simply dropping health packs near the big firefights.

Matches may have as many as 32 players, the max is 24 on consoles, so there needed to be a way to organize all that chaos. The game allows you to link up with your friends using four-man squads. Being in a squad gives you multiple advantages: You can spawn near any members of your squad that are alive on the battlefield. If you heal or give ammo to a squad mate you get bonus points, and if you hit the "socialize" button while looking at an enemy you can point them out to everyone, allowing them to see both infantry and armor on their map.

There are also pins and awards to earn, such as healing seven people in a round, getting a killstreak, knifing a certain amount of people—as you explore the four classes and level them all up, you'll earn many experience bonuses simply for playing. The game constantly gives you rewards and unlocks for doing well, and the rewards always give you the feeling that you've earned it, and that there is another one right around the corner.

You'll learn to drive tanks, and how to ride shotgun as an engineer to jump out and repair your tank as needed. You can fly helicopters, or operate as their gunner. One weapon allows you to tag vehicles with a homing dart, giving soldiers equipped with rocket launchers a better chance of hitting them from cover. Communication is key, as is learning how to use each of the classes to their utmost.

Bad Company 2 also doesn't feel quite as arcade-like as similar games. Bullets have travel time, and they drop with distance. You can't run very fast, which makes deliberate movement and vehicles a must. You'll have to bring up your iron sights to aim well, and taking a knee improves your accuracy. Learning to fire in quick, accurate bursts is a skill you'll need to master quickly. In many cases, positioning and the element of surprise will mean more than what weapon you're holding.

The sense of teamwork and cohesion is what sets this game apart from other multiplayer games. You'll need players with a good mixture of the classes, and they need to learn how to work together to win; voice chat is a must if you're facing strong opposition. Calling in the tank to blow away buildings or using C4 to collapse the structures holding the M-COM stations are high points. Areas begin each round looking pristine and untouched, and very soon buildings will be blown apart, cover will be chipped away... it looks and feels like war.

In conclusion

Personally, we found playing on hardcore servers with the increased weapon damage is the most fun, but that's a taste issue. The single-player game isn't much of a selling point, although it's good for some laughs and a few exciting moments, even if it seems like it merely exists to set up the sequel.

The multiplayer is why you need to buy this game, however. On the PC the squad system almost requires you to play as a team, and after you've built up a friend list and have some competent teammates who join online every night, the game opens up and shows just how tuned all the classes are. The game already has its controversies, including the use of C4 to blow up the M-COM stations, the damage modeling, and some other balancing issues, but it's already great, and the community will find ways to deal with what some see as cheap strategies. Patches will also help balance the game once players flood the servers.

Let's not worry about the future, though. The $50 game included on the disc is already amazing, and DICE is promising more content in the days to come. It's hard to judge a game this early in its life, especially with only 40 or so players on the servers before the game is launched, but the beta was enough to rekindle my interest in the Battlefield community I'm used to playing with. I've been dutifully logging on every night to play my final copy, even after I had enough playtime for this review.

If you enjoy a multiplayer shooter, and you want a game that rewards teamwork, then this is your lucky day. We'll see you online.

The Good

• Single-player game features funny dialog, interesting scenes
• Takes advantage of your PC's hardware
• Multiplayer rewards teamwork, each of the four classes is needed and balanced
• Dedicated servers, server browser, friends list. YAY!
• Sound design makes use of your speakers
• Great selection of weapons
• Vehicles are fun to drive, take skill to master
• Even at the first few levels, players can contribute to wins online
• Being able to blow through walls and take down buildings makes firefights fluid and epic
• Squad system gives you bonus points for helping your friends
  

The Bad

• You have to rent servers, no server client to run on your own
• Single-player is over quickly
• If you don't buy the game new, you'll need to pay $15 for the extra maps and content
• The mist can be a little heavy at times
• Death can be cheap in single-player
• Higher level characters can have a huge advantage
  

The Ugly

• The constant reward and unlocks means that this game gets its claws into you very quickly... if you're married or have kids you need to start building up some goodwill points now for the long nights of gaming in your future.
  

Verdict: Buy