Review: Battlefield: Bad Company (360)

Battlefield: Bad Company is a game with funny characters and awesome explosions. Bad Company is a nickname for a military division made up of misfits and criminals. Your Sargeant only has another week or so to return to civilian life, the southern guy is hilariously moronic, and your Boston squadmate is the "cautious" one of the group. The dialogue in the game is some of the most unique and hilarious of any I've heard in a game (not quite as good as the GTA games, but definitely the best for FPS games) and the characters are absolutely crazy (at one point your squad decides to go against the Army's orders so they can search for gold).

The gameplay has more positives than negatives. Driving, boating, and flying are all both intuitive and enjoyable. The guns don't shoot extremely well, and enemies take far too many hits before dying, but nothing is inherintly broken. The explosions make the game really shine. Your grenade launcher can destroy almost an entire wall from a building, and the effect is incredibly satisfying and never gets old. There are a large number of guns to choose from as the game progresses, but you'll likely find yourself sticking with the one with a grenade launcher that has the most ammo. The challenge is about right: you often take lots of damage, but sticking yourself with a syring will automatically heal you (and the syringe refills over a period of time allowing you to continue to heal as long as you don't die too quickly).

There is no Co-op in the game (which was a real letdown for me, as the game is screaming for this feature) and online multiplayer is very limited: the game only shipped with an Attack and Defend mode for multiplayer. I didn't find online multiplayer very compelling at all because it was so limiting and the characters and dialogue were removed (all the more reason to have Co-op make more sense).

Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company is a very fun game, but it's too bad you can't play the campaign with a friend. I found myself laughing through the dialogue and smiling everytime I blew something up, but there are some issues. For example: how come you can destroy a tank with a few grenades, but can't blow up a tree stump with one? Things such as this mixed with the fairly unempressive combat keep this from being a recommended purchase, but if you're in the mood for a FPS with awesome explosions that'll make you laught the whole way through this is a good rental option.

Score: 8.0/10