Battlefield : Bad Company (EA Sports?)

I borrowed this 360 game from my buddy. He's the type of friend a gamer nerd like myself likes to have, smokes tons of pot, buys shitloads of videogames, generously lends them out without even being asked. I was curious about this one, so when he handed it to me one day, fuck yeah. Lets check it out.

If you don't feel like reading a full review (fuck you, prick), then I can sum this game up for you in one line. Battlefield : Bad Company is a B-Grade version of Call Of Duty. There. Done. For those who desire a more further breakdown, lets start with single player. You know, that thing you used to care about before high speed internet.

The characters are.... by no means unique, but it puts a nice little spin on the military shooter shit. You're a bunch of guys who fucked up in the army and are now sent forth on suicide missions that soldiers who do things by the book aren't wasted on. Whoopie. There is some nice banter between the characters at points, they each have their own traits, but nothing that hasn't been done before.

On top of that, you'll learn quickly your three computer AI controlled partners couldn't pour piss out of a boot if there were instructions on the heel. If I hear "Preston, right behind you" one more time, I'm going to choke a bitch. I seriously never saw one of these fucks ever actually kill something, they would prefer to tell you where the guy kicking your ass is than shoot at him themselves. If you want something dead, you're going to have to shoot it, because your partners will swear and say "ow" while something five feet in front of them shoots them in the fucking head twenty times. Retro gamers will love it, it's a throwback to the useless AI partners from your past.

The enemy AI is equally stupid, but it'll beat you up pretty good. A main contributor to that is most of the time you have no idea what the hell is going on as you go from point A to B over and over. I'm not asking for enemies that carry neon "shoot me" signs, but visibility in this game sucks out loud. Don't bother with strategy, get close, kill something, heal, repeat. That's how this game works.

On the healing, we get back to me calling this a B-Grade Call Of Duty. Call Of Duty you get hurt, you wait a bit, you're fine. Bad Company you have an injector that reloads every twenty seconds or so that heals you. What the hell is the point of it? There isn't one. It's the same damn thing, but you have to press the trigger.

If you die, you go back to the last save point. Nothing, new, right? Wrong, asshole. Everything in front of you that you took out is still dead, you just have to take a long walk or drive back to where you were. So, in other words, just rush the shit out of wherever you're supposed to be going, kill whatever you can, and go back. The penalty for death is...... a walk back to where you died. You're immortal, but your enemies aren't because they suck.

Multiplayer. Meh. Again, B-Grade Call Of Duty. It's okay. If you spawn on your squad a lot, you can rack up deaths at an infuriating rate, and some of it is bullshit, but whatever. It's not great, it's not bad. Look at the bright side, at least you're not playing Halo 3.

Don't read this review and think I'm saying Battlefield : Bad Company sucks, it doesn't. JAS, just another shooter. Single player campaign feels like a chore and isn't that good but it's okay, multiplayer is above average but could be a lot more. If a friend lets you borrow it, it's worth a few hours of your time. Should you buy it? Nope. It's... okay, and that's all it is.

The only difference between Bad Company and Halo 3 or Gears Of War is Bad Company knows what it is, whereas the other two think they're something they aren't. Bad Company is slightly above average and advertises itself as such, Gears and Halo 3 act like they're God's gift to gaming when they're both vanilla generic shooters with nothing special included. Should you be forced to buy one of the three at gunpoint, get Bad Company. Should you have your choice of game, get Call Of Duty, or something completely different. There is nothing here that should make you run like hell from Bad Company, but there isn't anything that should make you run to it either.