"I'm sorry, was this supposed to be a shooter? It's not. A Battlefield game? It's not."

This game is without a doubt one of the worst excuses for a shooter I have laid eyes on, and one of the most undeserving titles to ever be in the top 10 message boards. It deviates from the style of most "shooters", from other Battlefield games, and does not do a good job at it.

Graphics - 6/10
The graphics look barely acceptable at first, but once you get into games with tons of players or get far into the campaign where there are enemies all over, you will notice a lot of non-loading textures and pop-up 2D effects. Everything looks glossy and cell-shaded, and I'm sure that's not the style the developers were going for.

Sound - 7/10
The sound is easily the best thing in the game. You can really hear things from far off, and the farther a gunshot is coming from the softer and more like a crack it sounds. You can hear bullets whizzing past your head, and dialogue is done wonderfully.

Why just a 7, then? Simple; gunshots are unrealistic sounding and the constant dialogue in multiplayer can get annoying. Especially when you're playing the Russian side and every time someone on your team shoots an enemy they shout out "sniper" in an incomprehensible language.

Whenever anyone in multiplayer does anything they shout it out, and always call footsoldiers "snipers". It isn't as bad when the faction you play as speaks English, as you know what's going on. But when playing as Russians if you want to know what's going on and be a good team player, you must watch the little text that says "(gamertag here): (action here)" in very small print. It, of course, is located far away from the center of the screen and this happens at the most horrible times, often getting the player killed.

Story - 4/10
The story itself is poorly written and boring, with bland characters who try to make you laugh but fail miserably. The single player story mode is bad, as your AI teammates literally do not fire their weapons, and even though you are not team leader they follow you. They do not do anything but that. Don't expect that guy manning your jeep's turret to fire...

The AI enemies are of a similar nature, you are the end-all be-all of the game, and your squadmates aren't important enough to open fire upon. Expect every single sniper, infantryman, tank, grandmother, and puppy dog to attack you and only you. Your squad doesn't help with objectives, either, which always seem to be a repeat of the same old "go here, kill around three dozen guys while you have no cover, pick this up, run back to us while being shot at by another three dozen guys".

Gameplay/Multiplayer - 3/10
The nitty-gritty. The gameplay is...awkward, to say the least. The controls are horrible and unresponsive, except, of course, for the thumbstick sensitivity. It just seems like game developers nowadays need to make the sensitivity so that...well, I cannot describe it. It's horrible. To quote Ben Croshaw, "When I push the thumbstick to the right with the slightest of movements it means I want to aim at something near where I was previously aiming, such as a baddie's friend who just popped up out of cover, not SPIN 180 DEGREES AND GET SHOT IN THE BACK!"

The gameplay in online matches generally boils down to a few types of people. The people who try to snipe and are horrible at it, the guys who try to balance things with assault rifles, and Shotgunners (These are the people who do not use vehicles.)

The sniper class in this game is horrible, because no matter how you slice it you can never kill in one shot except for a headshot. Nothing wrong with that, except when you factor in that you must lead your target. Nothing wrong with that. Wait, we're using a damned sniper rifle! We shouldn't have to lead our shots!

Other things snipers suffer from include the fact that most rifles (and the more powerful ones) are bolt action. So what, right? When you see how slow they fire and cycle the bolt, you'll agree. They do it at a snail's pace, and what's worse is that they unscope when the cycle the bolt. Aren't snipers IRL are trained to know where the bolt is on their rifle so that they can cycle it without moving their eye away from the scope?

Next, the people who try to balance their range by using Assault Rifles or suppressed Submachine Guns. Seems smart and effective, right? Wrong. They are useless at long-mid range, as leading your shots is hard and one other BIG thing. It takes around 20 rounds just to kill one man. The game comes off as a "semi-realistic" game such as CoD4 or Vegas 2, where a few round kills you , but it is not. Couple that with the fact that there is tons of recoil with every weapon, you must lead your shots, and you have to stand still and crouch to hit a target about 20 metres away and we can see that the core gunplay in this game is seriously lacking.

Now, to explain the next type of footsoldier player you must know the objective of the multiplayer game. The attackers must destroy several "gold boxes" that the defenders have to...well, you know. This can be accomplished by walking up to it and holding B for about 6 seconds to place an explosive charge on it that can be disarmed by the enemy doing the exact same thing but for only 2 seconds (wut <_<) , or by shooting the box.

But, of course, one way has to be much more effective than the other. Shooting the boxes does next to nothing, as a full 150 round magazine from a light machine gun only brings their health down by a little less than a third. So, of course, the logical thing to do is plant a charge. So basically what these next people do, for lack of a better term, is "whore" shotguns.
As previously mentioned, there is an extreme amount of muzzle lag that forces you to lead shots at long ranges. In close ranges it just makes it so that when you fire with your reticule on the enemy, it takes about 2-3 seconds for the bullet to fly. The shotguns are exempt to this rule, and their bullets travel quickly from their barrels.

By the time your automatic weapon has sprayed two of the twenty rounds necessary to put down an enemy, you're dead from a single shot. People camp the only hallway, or the only staircase, etc with shotguns, making your job almost impossible. Likewise, if you're on defense without a shotgun you're screwed, as you can expect eight men with shotguns to come through that wall any minute.

Oh yea. Walls are destructible, but not the foundations of any buildings. WTF? The destruction is well polished and realistic, though. It seems this was worked on a lot more than actual gameplay.

Vehicles are either extremely overpowered if going up against people without the necessary antivehicular upgrades for each class, or weaker than a weinerdog if they do have them. Piloting helocopters is best left to the pilots, not the gun-toting morons. It has a pretty steep learning curve, but the helos themselves are always underpowered, as it only takes around 8 rounds to bring one down.

Replayability - 4/10
The games story mode is extremely bad, and after beating it once I see no reason for anyone to go back to it except achievement whores who need a number next to their name on the internet to be bigger to feel good about themselves.

Multiplayer is generally different each mach, but still consists of the same mixture of people who all fall into a single archetype. Occasionally you get a squad (or fight against a squad) who is coordinated and plays like a team, then the game is a lot more enjoyable, not only because it is possible to git 'er dun rite, but because you will have someone to complain to when the horrid gameplay claims your life.

I suppose if you had a band of mates who played the game a lot together then you'd pretty much perpetually be having fun, but without it, the game lacks. Maybe enough for around 20 hours of play solo.


Overall - 5/10
This game is alright, but definitely not for a hardcore shooter fan OR a Battlefield fan. It simply deviates too much from both formulas. Single player is bad, multiplayer is repetitive and frustrating, and gameplay is flawed. Rent it if you're open to new ideas. (eeeeew)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/08

Game Release: Battlefield: Bad Company (US, 06/23/08)