Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Multiplayer

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 may have a mediocre solo campaign but makes up for it in the multiplayer department. It’s the real bread and butter of your purchase and it does not disappoint. With your choice of 4 unique classes, an arsenal of weapons, land, air, and sea vehicles, and destructible environments; you can’t go wrong.

As the strong point, BF:BC2’s online set up is put together nicely. There are only two major types of modes to play but the incredibly large, open maps make a different unique experience each time you play. The two available modes are Conquest and Rush where the first has you capturing flags and killing the opposing team to deplete their tickets while the other mode has a team attempting to arm bomb stations and the other team defends. There are smaller scale battles to choose from as well for those that may not be interested in large gunfights or just want to squad up with friends. Speaking of squads, you have the option to join up to a 4 person team and communicate directly with them to complete objectives.

Careful choosing of the 4 classes available is pivotal to winning matches. You have an assault, a medic, an engineer, and a recon class to pick. The assault is your basic infantry trooper packed with rifles and the ability to replenish squad and team ammunition. The medic comes with light machine guns and the ability to heal and revive team members. The engineer has submachine guns and comes packed with rockets and anti-tank land mines and the ability to repair team vehicles. Finally we come to the recon class which is essentially your sniper class and has a mortar strike ability along with C4 explosives and motion sensors to detect enemies.

The experience system is based on points which like previous Battlefield games. As you’d imagine getting kills, assists, destroying vehicles, heals and revives, ammo replenishes, motion sensor spots, etc all add to your point value to rank up. Experience is divided between class, vehicle, and total rank points. Class points are applied to your class which can unlock guns, perks, and abilities and are added to your rank total points. Vehicles points do not go to any specific class but any points collected are added to your rank total at the end of the match. And obviously your total rank points are the total amount accumulated throughout the match and goes to your rank class.

One feature I really liked is the pins and emblems you can obtain during your online playthrough. Pins are earned for completing minor feats such as killing small amounts of enemies with a specific class weapons, getting a few headshots, defending bases, etc. Pins can be obtained many times in one match and over and over again throughout all your matches. Pins will add small point value while emblems have higher value but take longer to obtain. Emblems require 500 total headshots, 500 kills with class guns, or even playing for certain time excrements for an example but the point payoff is worth it and can only be earned once.

In closing, I did and still have a blast playing the online aspect of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The squad set up is really cool and beats having tons of voices in your headset. The pins and emblems are a nice touch and are fun trying to obtain. The only issue I experience from time to time is that some matches seem to hit a lag spike and it’s frustrating to play. Other than that, it’s extremely fun, highly recommended, and worth your purchase.

9.5/10