It's great to see DICE and EA diversifying the Battlefield brand to encompass
a single-player campaign. While war-torn first-person shooters are ten-a-penny
these days, if any property has the bollocks to challenge the cream of the
current crop it’s DICE's. Or so you’d think.
As we know, the other recent contender to Call Of Duty's crown, Frontlines,
didn't really deliver. It was a valiant effort to do something different with
squad-based gameplay but it just didn't do anything well enough to stave off our
seemingly irreversible Call Of Duty 4 addiction. The game is like a drug, with
guns and gaudy British accents. It's like a good Guy Richie movie only more
intelligently scripted and with the added bonus of no bloody Vinnie Jones.
But we all know how good COD is... it's just a shame neither THQ or EA seem
to appreciate that quite as much, because neither really comes that close.
Actually that's not entirely fair because in terms of technology and production
values Bad Company is streets ahead of most games, especially its nearest
rival Frontlines, but whether you agree that COD 4 is still the best looking
game on the 360 or not, EA's effort still doesn't quite reach its lofty heights.
There's a lot going for it. Besides the insane level of destruction possible
from the much-hyped (and admittedly well executed) Frostbite engine, probably
the most obvious draw is the exquisite character models and animation on offer.
DICE has somehow managed to nail those small gestures and nuances that really
bring non-playable characters to life. It seems only DICE and Valve (especially
with Half-Life 2's more recent episodes) can really make their NPCs tight
enough to add to the overall experience, let alone stand up to close scrutiny.
Your small band of misfits, law-breakers thrown up to the frontline as
cannon-fodder, really help create a believable environment and add an entire
games worth of ambience to the proceedings. They're flippant and occasionally
very funny, but what they really do well is show the remarkable humility of
DICE – their quips are brimming with self-awareness. The game knows what it
is, and isn't afraid to poke a little fun at itself and its competition (which
is a bold move since games take themselves so seriously these days). Knowing
remarks, self-deprecation and passing comments easily missed, but far from
wasted on hardcore FPS gamers all to used to the genre conventions passed
down from generation to generation. The game doesn't take itself seriously
at all – certainly something that warmed us to the game and helped ward off
that niggling feeling that not everything else is quite as well executed.
Further adding to the ambience is the camaraderie between your cohorts. The
desperation of their situation is nicely balanced by a Three King's-esque
relationship between you and your men. Parallels to this movie are particularly
valid since the game revolves around your pocketing of gold as you battle
your way through the game. It works as far as the story and budding relationships
go, but your men are wasted on you in terms of gameplay, which is a real
missed opportunity in our book.
With such a tight-knit team of cohorts so entrenched in the story and such
wide landscapes in which to use them it seems a shame that the seemingly
obvious opportunity to be able to give them at least some commands – no
matter how limited – has been completely passed up. They make for great
company on your many missions together, but they're pretty useless when it
comes to battle – you're literally supporting them all the way, and the AI
isn't sufficient to let them hold their own while you concentrate on mission
objectives. It's plain annoying at times. Why do such intelligently written
characters have zero acumen at all when it comes to fighting? Sadly its
downhill from here.
Whose idea was it to make you push down the left stick to sprint? They need
to be knee-capped. Do they realise how uncomfortable and difficult it is to
actually push up and press down at the same time? Sprinting is pretty vital
for clearing short distances between cover, but we quickly found ourselves
avoiding doing so on the basis of this shoddy control mechanic. Problems in
this vein arise with regard to vehicles too. They're pretty well implemented
in the single player game. Handy for added protection, excellent for covering
vast swathes of landscape in short-order, but who – and we want names here
people – WHO doesn't use the analogue shoulder buttons for accelerate and
brake on vehicle sections in sandbox games these days? The times we nearly
died simply because our brains were farting over the dumb control implementation
drove us up the wall. We're not even going to excuse the pun, dammit.
It's a solid effort from EA, but ultimately a one-trick, exploding pony. We'll
be holding off for the inevitable sequel to get our kicks. For now Battlefield
remain synonymous with multiplayer mayhem of the highest order so watch out
for our online review coming very soon.
