By Sam Coles:
The Battlefield series is generally serious with its subject
matter these days, but that wasn’t always the case with the example of the
original Bad Company game released back in 2008 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Bad
Company is the first game that has made me smile ear to ear for a while because
the writing is on point with the excellent dialogue between your squad.
The game is about the titular Bad Company who are a bunch of
renegade soldiers that tend to disobey orders to get the job done. You play as
Preston Marlow who has been sent to serve in Bad Company, where there are sent
to drive out Russian forces as they are seen as more expendable than the other
soldiers. They end up fighting mercenaries in the region who carry gold bars on
them, this unlocks their inner greed and they throw their current mission out
the window and go on the hunt for gold. What I like about this game’s story is
that it doesn’t take itself seriously compared to Call of Duty, as the whole
premise of the story is killing Russians and finding gold, that’s it!
The story is not the only good part about Bad Company; the
gameplay really stands out compared to other military shooters of the time with
the weapons and destructible environments. The game is actually very open with
its levels there is ultimately a linear path to get your objective, but how you
get to your goal is entirely up to you. What’s great about this game are the
explosions, if you see a wall or house nine times out of ten you can blow a
hole in it and it never gets old. Even the over top violence is great when you
send an enemy sailing through the air with a
well-placed grenade throw or grenade launcher shot and they go flying,
it’s almost slap stick quality with the ridiculous ragdoll physics.
You don’t only have access to a wide variety of firearms,
you also have vehicles to drive around in and destroy your enemies. You have
tanks which are devastating in small villages, APCs which are your standard
vehicles of getting around, golf carts (yes seriously) and my favourite the
golden Hind. There is a golden Hind in this game, even the vehicles have added
attitude, it is just great how DICE had so much fun with this game.
Visually for a game that came out in 2008 it has aged
surprisingly well, the character models look really good animating in a
believable manner coupled with the excellent environments and explosions
tearing them up.
The only gripe I have with the visuals are the film grain
effects, why do developers insist on putting this effect their games baffles me
as it makes the game look terrible, it was a horrendous trend around this time
with games like Mass Effect using it. It’s annoying because it makes it very
hard to make out enemies that are shooting at you from a long distance, you
can’t turn it off either I don’t know why we didn’t include that option.
Battlefield Bad Company is a game that will have you
grinning ear to ear throughout, with its fun cast of characters and over the
top unintentional slap stick violence. Pick this game up you can grab for £1
these days and it’s worth it.
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