Battlefield: Bad Company Review - Kill some Russians and hunt for gold.

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.