Battlefield Bad Company 2, the next installment of the recently new Bad Company series, is due out in March 2010 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Bad Company 2 will take off where Bad Company finished when four men were heading off into early retirement with a truckful of gold. One year on and they’re back in the fight. Their freedom is over as they are forced back into the new war which is combating a more personal threat. The Russians are closing in quickly towards the United States through Alaska, which they plan to invade. Sweetwater, Marlowe, and Haggard are sent to survey a village in Abkhaz near the Russian Border before sneaking in on foot. Before entering, Sergeant Redford knifes a Russian lookout; the coast is now clear and the next order is to pursue a Russian-operated vehicle at the end of the village. The four-man team approach using as much cover as possible and then progress by demolishing buildings and dodging enemy fire.
The team progress through waypoints, fighting until they reach the hilltop only to see, in disappointment, the Russian vehicle escaping. The team gives chase, which turns in to an action packed scene. Sweetwater, Marlowe, Haggard and Redwater are finally chased into a tunnel.
It’s clear that EA want the single-player experience to be more visceral and dramatic and to combine the open areas that Battlefield is renowned for with more controlled areas with set-pieces. It should also be noted that EA are attempting to take on Infinity Wards Call of Duty 4 award winning campaign and better it: according to Karl from the EA Producer team. He went on to explain that DICE have so far produced a pure COD styled game – enemies dashing out from doorways, taking cover behind concrete barriers, a seemingly endless stream of cannon fodder throwing hundreds of bullets your way and lots of opportunities to make incremental pushes forward. Combining this with the open-ended gameplay and giving control to the player by letting them tackle objectives how they please adds to the fun. There will be open battlefields where players will be encouraged to look around and deal with various objectives.
EA will work on the poorer parts of Battlefield: Bad Company and better them. The health system was something that many gamers didn’t like. It was all about finding breathing room, and shooting yourself with happy juice every time your health ran low, but this will not apply in Bad Company 2. Bad Company’s 2 health system will be identical to that of COD, which for me is fantastic news!
Another area that EA are improving on is the respawn system, which felt faulty in areas – you were quite often respawned directly in the action and killed immediately.
Some of the finer areas of Battlefield Bad Company will be familiar in Bad Company 2, such as the highly destructible environments which don’t need a great deal of improving. When compared with many other First-Person-Shooters, where you get the same old boring static environments, Bad Company’s destroyable environments are a welcome feature.
But the biggest change in Bad Company 2 has to be the game’s tone. Bad Company had a slightly silly and unrealistic storyline, expect a far more somber tone in Bad Company 2.
DICE is going to improve its online multiplayer experience; they will provide their own dedicated servers for 24 player game modes. Also expect a similar online experience to that of Call of Duty.
It’s still to be decided what exact weapons and game modes will be included with Battlefield Bad Company 2, so check back on this page regularly for updates. Bad Company 2 appears to be addressing many of the problems found in Bad Company, along with taking a more serious approach. They want to take the game towards a Call of Duty style approach which is fantastic news: we can’t wait for this one!