Video Game: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

A while back, like the majority of the games I've played lately, I happened to find Battlefield Bad Company 2 on a Steam deal. Although I've never been fanatic about the modern day war first person shooters, I had heard good things from some friends about this particular game. In essence it it probably Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's biggest competitor. While I had done a good deal of multiplayer a while back, it wasn't until just recently that I beat the single player campaign.

I assume this is a similar case with the Call of Duty games, but the campaign played a lot like a war movie. The story, although somewhat forgettable, tells the tale of a squad that doesn't take crap from any Russians. You start off playing briefly during World War II, but the majority of the game takes place in present day, as the bad company squad attempts to figure out what the Russians are up to. There's also a side element to the story where the teamwork that this war requires brings a liberal pacifist helicopter pilot and a grizly conservative squadmate closer together. It had a pretty cool ending that set it up for the sequel that is sure to come some day. Make no mistake that this is a pretty big budget game. The levels, although linear, give the feeling of being expansive due to large outdoor open looking areas. The graphics are pretty stellar as well. I can remember looking at Goldeneye for the N64 and thinking it looked realistic, so it has always amazed me the progress throughout the years in realism in games, making the last entry look blocky and fake. The game makes use of a number of vehicles such as tanks, 4 wheelers and helicopters.

While the single player campaign allows you to use any weapon in the arsenal over time, when playing multiplayer, you choose a class to level your rank up while killing, as well as unlocking weapon alternatives and scopes. The classes are assault, engineer, medic and recon, each coming with a few unique perks that you can unlock over time to help your teammates turn the tide of battle. While the maps are cool and the amount of buildings and walls you can destroy seem limitless in them, after a while I felt like I was replaying the same levels too frequently. This didn't really detract too much from the overall game though. I think this was attempted to be addressed in some downloadable content that was released, called "Vietnam," which apparently has Vietnam era weapons and a few maps that respect the environment of the Vietnam war.

Overall, I feel I got my money's worth out of this game. I'm actually interested in what changes the sequel could hold. The game Counter Strike is one of my favorite team based realistic multiplayer FPS's. The multiplayer of Battlefield seems right down CS:Source's alley and the leveling up and unlockables really keep you hooked on playing, at least until you reach the end of everything you can unlock. If you enjoy realistic FPS games and are already a fan of the majorly successful Call of Duty franchise, give this alternative a try. I don't think it will dissapoint you.