Battlefield

07.05.2008

When it comes to this new focus on the solo-campaign Battlefield: Bad Company is no exception. The developers from Digital Illusions included an extensive multiplayer mode. Whether the quality of this multiplayer mode reaches that of Call of Duty 4 is questionable. So why the comparison with Call of Duty 4? Because it is precisely this game that has achieved what Bad Company is striving for: a thrilling single player game with a perfectly programmed multiplayer mode. This is why CoD4 is riding high in the XBOX-live charts. Bad Company wants to squeeze CoD4 out of its top-dog status.

All in all, (without wanting to anticipate too much), the new Battlefield game seems to have a good story line. What has been revealed has a very close resemblance to the movie ‘Three Kings’. I couldn’t help but smirk at the similarity. Anyway, Hollywood seems content to help itself to the stories and backgrounds of several videogames, just ask Uwe Boll, a German film director who has made several movies based on videogames. ‘What’s wrong with our industry borrowing from the videogame world?’ is something you might hear Mr. Boll saying. It seems now that the reverse has happened. To make a long story short: in Bad Company you command a squadron of soldiers while in single player mode—what a surprise. Yet these are not your characteristic soldiers. They are greedy and totally discontented with the ways things are. As a result of this unhappiness these soldiers led by you, their commander, go in search of treasure and other ill-gotten gains.

When imagining Bad Company, fans of ‘Shoot em up’ games expect to be thrust into a “Brothers in Arms” concept while in single player status: giving orders, providing cover fire, flanking your enemies, and making sure your squad remains intact. But Bad Company is nothing like this. You are not allowed to give orders to the other squad members; they operate independently. The resulting situations in which you find yourself in are either a blessing or a curse, in which case your fellow squad members will make a run for it instead of remaining by your side to continue the attack. Nasty!

And now for all you ‘Shoot em up’ fans out there. Remember Red Faction, the game where you could destroy any and everything in sight? Well Bad Company doesn’t disappoint in this respect. According to Digital Illusions all the levels are 90% destructible. This leaves room for some great maneuvers. A sniper hiding somewhere in a building? Just blow off the top of the building and problem solved. What if an enemy has entrenched himself somewhere? Easy! Just drive a tank straight through wherever he’s hiding and you won’t be having problems from him anymore. Not bad. The remains of all the buildings you destroyed can now serve as great cover. What if there is a band of bad guys coming your way but the building across from you offers no good vantage point for an attack. Why not try your luck with your rocket-launcher.

Sounds great! And for those who like to throw the ‘Next Gen’ term around, the games graphics do not disappoint. Digital Illusions has definitely gone ‘Next-Gen’ with their new game engine: Frostbite, which was made for Bad Company. The first screenshots and game play scenes that were revealed give a taste of what Frostbite can do. And it is everything but bad. The graphics’ farsightedness, the texture and the faces of the characters assured me of the games quality.