It's hard to even think of them as people after watching them take a rocket propelled grenade to the face and then get up and go right back into the fight. This cast exists mainly to deliver one-liners and to direct you through the battlefield to the next objective. At your side is a crew of largely one-dimensional characters who are good for a laugh every now and then. The B-Company (known as Bravo Two in this game) squad returns with you filling the shoes of Preston Marlowe. These are mostly small complaints and, for me, the campaign's only real troubles rest with the presentation and pacing. On the Xbox 360 version, slow loading from the disc causes the player to be locked out for as much as five seconds from throwing grenades or using the knife when picking up a new weapon or changing kits (this issue went away when installing the game onto a hard drive). There still are no arms drawn on screen when driving a vehicle, causing a poltergeist-like steering wheel to move on its own. Some of the details and little pieces of the environment stream into view a bit late. Of course, if you want to start nitpicking, there are plenty of instances to call out.
Bad Company 2 is a refreshing change of pace in this regard. Many games slap you in a squad of largely ineffective soldiers and let you do all of the heavy lifting. They'll press the attack while you flank and hold off the enemy while you duck behind cover to recuperate. To top things off, the AI squad mates at your side act like real soldiers in battle. The instant-respawns and med kit injections of the last Bad Company have been replaced by the more standard checkpoints and regenerative health bar and that makes the challenge of war feel more realistic. The vehicles handle smoothly and really do a great job of making you feel like the king of the battlefield. The guns react well, and sound fantastic. It shouldn't come as any surprise that this Battlefield game has some great mechanics. While the last Bad Company game couldn't hold my attention, this one kept me interested and having fun from start to finish. The dialogue is less overtly inane, though it does offer its fair share of humor, and the level design feels more straightforward. The big change comes with a more streamlined and cinematic approach to the action. A lot has changed and improved for the sequel. The humor was goofy and over the top, the open mission design was a bit too open, and everything seemed coated in a dense fog. The last Battlefield game was the first to introduce a fully fleshed out storyline and it stumbled a bit in the process. Once you're done ogling the smoke trails or mountain ranges in the distance, you'll start to notice that Bad Company 2 has taken a few cues from the Call of Duty franchise. The same line of thinking applies to just about anything you see – send enough firepower at it and you can watch it crumble. If an enemy soldier is holed up in a second-story bedroom taking potshots at you, all you have to do is send a rocket at that wall and he'll either wind up dead or fully exposed. Returning from the last Bad Company game are nearly fully destructible environments. Things become more impressive yet when the action kicks in. The result is a sense of depth that few videogame worlds can offer. The vistas and skyboxes look nearly photorealistic in many situations, and DICE did a wonderful job blending the particle effects and game objects in the foreground with the more static backdrops. The detail of these gorgeous locales is the first thing that will spring out at you as you begin the fight. It's a typical story of unlikely heroes as they attempt to save the world, and it will take you across a great variety of locations that range from frozen mountains to densely packed jungles. The single-player campaign follows the story of a rag-tag bunch of soldiers as they traipse around the world on the hunt for a mythical weapon of mass destruction which absolutely must not fall into the hands of the Russians. Once again, the multiplayer game is the star of the Battlefield show.
That's not to say it's particularly bad in any way, but it doesn't feel impressive enough to stand on its own as a great experience. If you were to buy Bad Company 2 solely for the single-player campaign, you might come away a bit disappointed.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 ups the intensity and visual prowess of its predecessor, while still delivering one of the most compelling multiplayer games around. If your wallet hasn't already been emptied, Electronic Arts and development studio DICE have tossed yet another videogame on the pile that can't be missed. It's only been a couple of months and 2010 is already shaping up to be one of the best ever for gamers.