Title: Battlefield: Bad Company
Platforms: Xbox 360 (review platform), PlayStation 3
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
Rating: T for Teen

Everyone likes a challenging game, and it's good to know what your weaknesses are, especially when you compare yourself to real gamers. Electronic Arts' latest Battlefield installment for the consoles, Bad Company, is good at pointing that out in a somewhat harsh matter, whether it's the offline campaign or online with humans. With support for up to 24 players per match, it's easy to find where you stand among the explosions and rounds of gunfire and players donning seemingly impenetrable armor. Bad Company's entire hectic, nerve-wrecking mess can get overwhelming yet still remain insanely addictive at the same time. The trick, which you're forced to eventually learn, is to adapt and improve. However, that might be an impossible mission for players keen to the gun-and-run lifestyle.

Obviously, the initial focus of this review is in Battlefield: Bad Company's online multiplayer mode. If anything, EA's military first-person shooter is a prime example of virtual war at its very best. While it's certainly legit to start off the review by saying this is a top-notch game, Bad Company is certainly not for anyone - especially those who aren't team players or have no clue about strategic gameplay. There's no question that morons can, and will, bring the fun factor down a notch or two; many jump on the dedicated servers with the single purpose of causing others grief (you punks know who you are).

But, if you think about what Bad Company actually stands for, then these self-indulging goons are right at home. With that said, this review comes right at the end of a long, grueling online stretch. Calling the multiplayer portion of Bad Company addictive is a mild understatement at best. It's more than just addictive - it's downright essential to online console gaming. Nevertheless, the catch here is that DICE only included one multiplayer mode at the time of this writing: Gold Rush. So why is it so addictive? It's because you fight alongside actual players and not enemy AI and goons. It's because you're presence is merely there virtually, but on that same note, your involvement actually means something in the end. It's because your alternate personality can rise in ranks, earn dog tags, wildcards, patches and trophies.

Bad Company brings massive desctructible environments to the Battlefield series.

It's almost RPG in a way, and that alone will keep you coming back every single day. It won't matter if you genuinely suck at serving as a soldier or not - which actually says a lot about the quality of a game when it only features one competitive mode. Although the main multiplayer menu reports that DICE will release Conquest soon (based on players' request), Gold Rush is surprisingly fun as the only mode. The object of Gold Rush is to defend your crates of gold. Initially there are three crates stored in your current location, but if those are destroyed, your team falls back to another location with three more crates. If all of the crates of gold are destroyed, then the match is lost. Additionally, the opposing team has a set number of re-spawns; if those are exhausted, then the defending team wins the match.

Naturally, you have plenty of tools and weapons at your disposal, but the meat of the strategic team-oriented gameplay lies in the five different classes: Assault, Demolition, Recon, Specialist and Support. The Assault class is probably the easiest to assume, offering weapons such as the M416, M16, XM8 and four others. The Assault kit also includes hand grenades, an unlockable auto injector (health shot) and the very useful grenade launcher. The Demolition class is a bit harder, offering seven explosive, shotgun-style weapons such as the 870MCS, NS200 and USAS12. The kit also includes hand grenades, an unlockable anti-tank mine and a rocket launcher as the secondary weapon.

For you snipers, the Recon kit features seven sharp shooters including the GOL, M24 and SV98 as well as a motion sensor, an unlockable laser designator and a hand gun. The Specialist kit features the AKS74U, 9A91 and SCAR along with unlockable remote explosives, hand grenades and the secondary tracer gun. Lastly, you have the Support class, armed with the PKM, M60 and M249 as well as a power tool (for fixing tanks and other tasks), the unlockable mortar strike and medical kits you can drop. Of course, not every unlockable is listed here, but ultimately gamers can acquire 30 weapons and five special devices.

Originally, the big stink surrounding Bad Company before its eventual shipment was the inclusion of purchasable guns. These were seen in the beta test released a few months prior. Although it's common to purchase in-game items in other Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles, Bad Company fans caused enough dismay that DICE and Electronic Arts pulled the idea altogether. Instead, they agreed to add those weapons into the Gold Edition already unlocked; owners of the vanilla version must reach Rank 25 in order to add them to the arsenal. The companies also kick-started the "Find All Five" program, offering five additional weapons if you (1) pre-registered (2) register for the newsletter (3) play the demo and reach Rank 4 (4) register previous Battlefield games (5) check your player stats online.

Join our discussion on this topic