Game:- Battlefield: Bad Company

Publisher:- Electronic Arts
Developer:- Digital Illusions CE

UK Release:- 27th June 2008
Genre:- FPS
Age Rating:- 16+

RRP:- £49.99
Price:- £37.99 (ShopTo)

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The Xbox 360 is hardly devoid of First Person Shooters but Battlefield:Bad Company does, at least, attempt to change the way things are done in what some would claim is becoming a saturated genre.

The developers, Swedish based DICE, have utilised the new Frostbite engine in such a way that environments become realistically destructible. Players won’t be able to cower behind fences constructed of single planks of wood and even houses are less of a safe haven than in similar games.

Besides the almost complete annihilation of your surroundings, Battlefield:Bad Company offers an odd combination of good and bad, political statement and unrealistic light heartedness. In many respects it’s a cocktail of a game that comes out of the mixer with its head held high – its place in the weekly UK Xbox 360 game charts being testament to its eventual quality.

Single Player Storyline

Despite being the latest in a relatively long series of games, Bad Company is actually the first Battlefield game that includes an actual, honest to god storyline for single player and it certainly isn’t without its noteworthy content. As Private Preston Marlow you are one member of the Bad Company, or B-Company team and after initially attempting to do all you can to help win the war, you will become wartime gold hunters. Rather than fight on the side of good you will employ your killing skills to plunder as much gold as possible, having been abandoned by the US Military.

All in all, that’s a pretty heavy political context to try and throw into a game but Battlefield:Bad Company gets away with it by completely and utterly over using light hearted fun. No matter how heavy the fire you’re facing, Preston’s fellow soldiers Sarge, Haggard, and Sweetwater, will continue to rip into one another and deliver some pretty lame comedy routines. While the political and out of place light heartedness probably wouldn’t work alone, they seem to combine well to generate an endearing game.

Complete Environment Annihilation

So, onto the stand out feature of Bad Company, the headline grabbing feature that attempts to make the game stand out. The destructible environment made possible by the Frostbite game engine has divided opinions from many. This is largely because while the game world is virtually entirely destructible it’s not always as you might imagine and the AI doesn’t necessarily act accordingly.

Grenades and explosives will destroy pretty much everything on the screen without any real trouble, but you will occasionally find yourself or an AI opponent sat behind the most impossibly thin piece of wood that you can’t shoot through. Similarly, while explosions will not only destroy the landscape but tear up buildings and throw bits of debris and clouds of dust around, your opponents will either act like bits of currently undisturbed landscape aren’t really there or they’ll continue to avoid buildings and landscape that you’ve already destroyed. All in all, though, while you’re playing it won’t really have that much effect on your gameplay or your over all enjoyment.