Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review (PS3)

Hey guys, it's been a while so I thought I'd start off with one of the newest features of this blog: reviews.

Now I know a great many people are all up on the Call of Duty franchise. It seems everywhere you look, everybody is all about Black Ops. Personally, this series has been going on for too long and no longer has the appeal it once did. For me, a far superior FPS series is the Battlefield: Bad Company games.

Granted, I am not big on online play for FPS's so I can't comment on those. However, I love the Bad Company single player more than the CoD campaign. In the Bad Company franchise, the story is semi-realistic, being just a bit campy and over the top. And the banter between the characters is realistic enough to portray a real rapport and providing that feeling that these characters have been through hell and back on multiple occasions for quite some time. The characters are kind of one dimensional, and do have some what stereotypical/archetypal back stories, but the voice acting is so fantastic that it's believable and can bring depth to otherwise shallow characters.

Bad Company 2's story is somewhat more realistic than that of the previous game. There are other changes to the gameplay as well. The health syringe mechanic of the previous game has been replaced with the genre-wide standard wait-until-the-red-border-around-the-screen-fades-away system. And even though this game is more realistic than its predecessor, Bad Company 2 still retains the charm of the original. The characters are still goofball dumbasses that can get shit done.

There's cliches all around and the environments, like in the first Bad Company, are very, VERY destructible. Hell, I remember times, where all I did was run around the level strategically planting charges in weak points to bring down entire houses to piles of rubble....just for the hell of it! This game supports multiple play styles, from a "run-and-gun" approach, to a more stealthy approach relying solely on sniper rifles, and anywhere in between, this game will fit your play style. This is further supported by the HUGE array of weapons. While they aren't modifiable like in Metal Gear Solid 4, there are a vast variety of machine guns, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles and more (I'm not big on gun terminology to be honest).

The story, while campy and somewhat over the top, is very good and can match and even surpass that of many movies today. I was able to emotionally connect with the characters, laughing at their witty banter and feeling like that that's what I would have done in said situation.

Long story, short: The graphics are stellar. The voice acting is top-notch. The writing and story are of cinema quality. The engine should be the one that all FPS desire the use. If you want a good FPS, that isn't Call of Duty, pick up Battlefield: Bad Company 2. You can pick up the Ultimate Edition for roughly $40 for both PS3 and 360.

Conversion

Well everybody, my Visual Effects class has been long since over so I'm going to start switching this blog over to one of a more personal nature so, stay tuned.