Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Demo Impressions

Drifting slowly toward the snowy ground on my first play of Dice’s newly released Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo on the Xbox 360, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. ‘Just another modern war game,’ I thought. How wrong I was!





The demo throws players into a skirmish between Russian and American soldiers at Port Voldez in Alaska. Once in, you will be assigned either to the attacking or defending team, and it becomes your objective either to destroy or defend various M-Com stations.

Much like previous Battlefield games, there are several classes to play as, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. I was put onto the attacking team, and for my first few lives, I stuck with the sniper, scanning the map from a convenient hilltop. I was quickly spotted and killed, and decided it was time to change tactics and went right into the action as a medic, following my team mates down the hill toward the fray. The first thing I noticed was the sheer scale of the map. It accommodates for vehicles and infantry alike and doesn’t make a chore out of travelling toward the objectives.

The fully destructible environments create a very genuine feel to the game. I’ve been hiding away in a building only to have my position exposed after a tank shell annihilates one of the walls. This forces players to always check their surroundings and heightens tension within the game.

Once the first objectives are successfully destroyed by the attacking team, the map will then shift, forcing the defending team to fall back to another set of M-Com stations. This happens a further two times, meaning that players will have to consistently adapt to new surroundings every game.

One problem I have discovered is that synchronised deaths are all too frequent. On several occasions I have gotten into a dogfight with an enemy, and we‘ll both kill one another. I’m not sure whether this will be left in or not, but it can make for very frustrating gameplay if you are particularly close to your objective.

Similarly to its predecessor, BFBC2 rewards players with points for kills and teamwork, and these points go towards unlocking new weapons and equipment. Only a few of these items are available to unlock in the demo, but even getting these was great fun.

BFBC2 looks set to be a great release for 2010 and certainly a contender for one of the best multiplayer games of the year.