Pre-E3 2009: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Hands-on
That evergreen tree never knew what hit it…
May 22, 2009 - The first Battlefield: Bad Company almost got me arrested in Germany -- no joke. After seeing the game in Leipzig a couple of years ago, the developers handed out stress balls that looked like grenades. Without thinking, I tossed it into my bag and forgot about it. When I went through airport security -- in a country where I could barely communicate with the citizens -- the guards weren't too pleased to find an item that looked like it could take out an airplane.
Recently, I played a bit of multiplayer in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but this instance of blowing up everything in sight didn't end with dirty looks from random Germans.
The single-player portion of Bad Company 2 puts the boys near the border of Russia and sets them loose on a brand new story and a snowy environment. In this multiplayer taste, DICE and EA dropped the story element altogether and just let me and a bunch of other gamers loose on each other. One team's goal was to destroy a set of crates in a mountainside base and the other team's goal was to defend said crates. The mode was called Rush, and it was all going down on the Port Valdez map.
When you jump into a match, you'll get to choose your kit -- assault, engineer, recon, or medical -- and then pimp out your weapon selections as you see fit. In my handful of matches and respawns, I saw the AU6/M9, 40mm grenade launcher, sniper rifle and so much more. Of course, all that firepower is going to play into one of the main selling points of the Bad Company franchise -- blowing crap up.
When the first game came around, all anyone could talk about was blowing up houses and tearing apart tanks. That seems to be the same story in Bad Company 2. As I parachuted into the snowy conflict -- this is how I respawned for most of my playthrough -- I'd see player-controlled tanks firing off rounds and the gigantic explosions in their wake. On the ground, I'd fire off my machine gun and watch as bark flew off trees and chunks of terrain broke apart. When I'd ice another player, I'd get the occasional Combat Efficiency pin or Assault Rifle Pin. When a match ended, I'd get to see my earned points translate into a meter tracking my progress to the next level of awesome soldier. See you later, Staff Sgt. Gold; I'm going to be Master Sgt. Bronze soon!
There were partially blown-out buildings to stop and pop from, plenty of trees to take cover behind and the satisfying sight of seeing your experience points pop up on screen as soon as you shot an opponent.
![[IMG]](http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/985/985800/battlefield-bad-company-2-20090522000308892.jpg) Team up and take them out.
Being a recovering Killzone 2 addict -- with it's red eyes, sandy enviroments and more -- Bad Company's multiplayer kind of felt routine to me (run around and kill everyone else in a normal-looking battle), but I'm sure that's because I was just dropped into the mode for a brief second. Even if it wasn't because of that, it's worth pointing out that the game looks beautiful. The snowy mountains rising up against a bright sky are an awesome backdrop as you parachute in, and the up-close action is pretty sweet too -- I especially dug grabbing a guys dog tags after knifing him to death. |
