Battlefield: Bad Company 2

aka: BFBC2
Moby ID: 45500
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/27 11:08 PM )

Description official descriptions

Before America dropped the bomb on Japan, a squad of commandos infiltrated an island in the Sea of Japan to exfiltrate a Japanese scientist. He was working on a secret weapon codenamed Aurora. But before the commandos could escape the island, Japan activated Aurora and killed everyone.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 takes place in the present day after the events in Battlefield: Bad Company. The four members of B-Company, better known as Bad Company, Privates Preston Marlowe, Terrence Sweetwater, George Haggard, and Sergeant Samuel Redford are sent behind Russian enemy lines to secure a device related to Aurora. But although they managed to escape Russian soldiers and completed their supposedly final mission, the device turns out to be a fake. Consequently Army General Braidwood assigns them to a special operation of stopping Aurora.

The fairly linear single player campaign puts the player into the shoes of Private Preston Marlowe, sending him off to uncover the mysteries surrounding Aurora in a typical first-person-shooter-fashion. On the side of the other members of Bad Company, the player tries to fulfill the various objectives of the missions while gunning down several dozens enemies using a huge arsenal of real-world military equipment but limited to only carrying two main weapons and a side-arm at the same time. During the course of the game, the player unlocks new weapons by finding them during his missions, granting him the ability to equip them from then on at every supply drop.

As in previous installments of the Battlefield series, the core of the game is again the class-based and team-based multiplayer for up to 32 players, divided into squads with four men each. Four game modes are available: Rush, Conquest, Squad-Rush and Squad-Deathmatch. Each mode can also be played on "Hardcore"-difficulty, deactivating the cross-hair, the mini-map and such. The four modes in detail:

  • Rush requires the two teams, Russians and Americans, to either defend or destroy mobile transmitters. Once the attacking team successfully destroys one, the battlefield is expanded and the fight moves on to the next transmitter.
  • Conquest is once again all about capturing and holding flags.
  • Squad-Rush has two squads fighting for two mobile transmitters at the same time.
  • Squad-Deathmatch pits squads against each other with the winner being the squad that scores the most kills.

The available classes are Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. Each class has their own set of weapons and gadgets. While the Engineer has his repair torch to repair tanks and other machinery, the Medic uses his Defibrillator to revive fallen team members and prevent the loss of a ticket. Each class gets access to new weapons and equipment by leveling up. The players get experience points for killing people, capturing flags, fulfilling objectives and earning achievements like killing 7 enemies in one round with a light machine gun. Additional points are gained, if the player interacts with one of his current squad-mates. With these experience points, the player levels both up his class to unlock new stuff as well as his overall rank.

Although the game is very infantry-heavy, vehicles like bikes, tanks or helicopters stand ready to be used in the fight. Tanks are especially useful to take full advantage of the so-called Destruction 2.0 system, which allow the players to take down whole buildings if enough fire power is used. The health system is a mix of using med-packs and automatic healing. If a player still dies and isn't resurrected by a Medic, he can either choose to respawn at a stationary points like the home base or captured flags, or use one of his squad-mates as an entry point.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

578 People (577 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Senior Producer
Producers
Lead Designer
Art Director
Audio Director
Narrative Producer
Lead Multiplayer Designer
Lead Animator
Senior Development Director
Development Directors
Additional Development Director
Technical Director
Technical Art Director
Senior Game Designer
Game Designers
Lead Mission Designer
Mission & Level Designers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 48 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 74 ratings with 3 reviews)

The Modern Warfare killer.

The Good
I am going to jump straight to multiplayer on this one, in short, this game has multiplayer that BEATS Call Of duty to the ground. Honestly. It is the best online experience I have ever had. It has everything you could want, vehicles, destructible environments and all. Most people complain that vehicles are over powered, well, not really. Seeing as the only way to acquire a vehicle is by returning to your start point it is not a problem. Destructible environments add a whole new element to gameplay, remember that the wall the are behind can not always protect you from an explosion and hiding in a building does not make you invulnerable to a tank, it adds such suspense that you have to plan where you go and how to avoid being hit by enemy fire. One note I want to bring up is that the User Interface for the 360 version felt a bit cluttered and troublesome, but that is excusable because it is still functional. Great features like joining a "Squad" and then being able to spawn next to your squadmates in the field also adds allot to the gameplay. I also find that there are allot less children playing this game, most people are mature adults/young adults, and the reason is that children are looking for games like Call Of Duty where you run around and simply kill, that is where BC2 differs. Bad Company 2 requires you to strategize and not just run n' gun.

The Bad
Well, the single player experience is a bit lacking. It uses exactly the same mechanics as the Multiplayer, but that has its flaws. In one mission you where supposed to fight through a large number of enemies to get to a vehicle to escape with your team, I simply went around where the enemy's are and got to vehicle ending the mission, so I essentially skipped a large portion of a map that I was supposed to play through with my team members. Also the game has quite a few minor glitches, like you can start reloading, enter water, and then when you exit the water you are done reloading, witch is a major issue seeing as this also works with weapons like the RPG allowing a player near water to take out a tank in less than 15 seconds. Also it is near impossible to hit flying vehicles with any early explosive weapons, requiring either luck, or a high level player to take them out.

The Bottom Line
The real question is, is this game better than its main competitor, Modern Warfare 2, the short answer, YES, the long answer is whether you are looking for a strategic, difficult, mature experience or a immature 12 year old Run n' fun fest. So gamers looking for more than run n' gun gameplay, pick up Bad Company 2, young gamers looking for Killing, Killing, and screaming over a microphone, please, I beg of you, just play Modern Warfare 2 and leave real gamers alone.

Xbox 360 · by Chris Jeremic (152) · 2010

BC2 is the first Battlefield game since 2142 to not suck, but it still feels diluted.

The Good

  • Fast paced, fun multiplayer
  • Cool destruction system, despite some flaws
  • Guns! Guns! Guns! (And they're all fun to shoot!)
  • Can be addicting
  • Great sound design sounds realistic and cool
  • War Tapes can make the game sound even cooler
  • Single player is fun for one go...


  • The Bad

  • ...But lacks any replay and feels too linear.
  • Could use a larger variety of vehicles
  • Where's the Battlefield theme? D:
  • Diluted, console oriented cuts are disappointing
  • Some visual glitches
  • Dodgy movement glitches can end the game for individual players
  • Limited maps
  • Destruction system has some fatal flaws


  • The Bottom Line
    Battlefield! Yay! I love the Battlefield games. I don't think there's a single series I've played more persistently over several spans of years than Battlefield, and it was one of the few games I played during my time largely absent from video games that lasted from about 2002 to 2005. I still play Battlefield 1942, I still play Vietnam, I still play BF2, and I even still play 2142 for its awesome Titan mode. Seriously, that mode needs to make a comeback. But oh noes! Not Modern Combat and Bad Company. :(

    It saddens me that for the past four years, DICE has focused on Console based Battlefield games, such as Modern Combat and the first Bad Company. I suppose I can understand the appeal of having a Battlefield game on a console for those who don't or can't play PC games, but they are so washed up they barely resemble anything that made the PC versions fun. I also argue that there is no reason for this because the current gen consoles have proven damn well they can handle a game of Battlefield's magnitude. Yet instead they settle on a meager 32 players, maps that are either too big or too small, and maybe 1 or 2 kinds of vehicles with none of the strategic depth; excising the squads and commander aspect.

    So really, I wasn't that interested in the sequel to Bad Company. But my wife bought it and pestered and poked me until I gave in and played it, and I'm glad to say that Bad Company 2 is the first Battlefield game since 2006's BF 2142 to not suck, and despite some diluted gameplay, it is still nice to have something to feed my appetite for new Battlefields to tear up.. well, tear up even more, but you get my point. Let's just hope the recently announced Battlefield 3 returns to its roots.

    Bad Company 2 is has a Single player mode, and it is good fun for at least one playthrough, but otherwise lacks any replay. It sort of (I specify sort of because I am not a huge fan of the following series and I prefer BC2) feels like a Call of Duty game in that it's quick, linear, and provides some impressive set pieces but it simply can't make lightning strike twice. Now, as I said, I would still take it over a Call of Duty game or the other war games recently.

    Part of it is that it is willing to occasionally sacrifice the "realism" and gritty atmosphere to create something a bit more fun. One of the reasons I didn't like Modern Warfare 2 was that it was depressing almost all throughout. Not only did you not feel like a soldier amongst many fighting together for victory, which I thought was the whole coda of the Call of Duty series, it reveled in death and destruction and didn't hold any power for me so much as it did underline why I don't care for our modern civilization.

    Bad Company 2's SP mode thankfully skips those elements. Sure, it's a war game and it isn't exactly a family friendly romp but you feel like a hero fighting alongside other heroes and it isn't all serious business, and feels a bit more akin to the other form of media it was clearly inspired by: The summer popcorn action flick. BC2 has some more character, with the other members of the titular Bad Company providing some fun banter and chemistry; adding gallows humour and making you feel like your partners are more than just AI robots with only one interesting character who isn't wearing a red shirt like in Call of Duty.

    Also, it has a nice sci-fi twist to it. It actually begins in WW II, as a small platoon of soldiers make their way through enemy lines on a Japanese island. You are to rescue a Japanese scientist who defected to your side, but was recently taken back by Japanese forces. The sequence ends with a great climax that adds some suspense to the rest of the game. You learn that the Japanese were building a secret weapon, and you hear a creepy rumbling noise and loud machinery as lights flash and before you can see what it is, you are flash fried. The game then picks up in modern times with you in the shoes of Marlow, a member of Bad Company on a routine mission. The story is fairly standard, your routine mission goes sour, you have a nasty villain who wants to take over the world, and you are waved a bunch of tickets home by your commanding officer if you can execute a special op. It is pretty standard and unremarkable, but it serves as a decent vehicle, and the suspense building up to the secret Japanese weapon resurfacing keeps you going.

    But, as I said, there really isn't any replay value. It'll play the same each time, you just might have a harder or easier time on a replay depending on what difficulty you pick. There are "Collectibles" but really you get them just by picking up each new gun you see, and to any shooter fan this is a reflex now. There are also M-Com stations to destroy and other side tracks, but unless you are an achievement hoarder you aren't going to go out of your way to find them. If the endeavors of Bad Company were a bit longer and changed up a bit more, it would have been a truly great single player campaign but when you realize its only fun once, its hard to call it a standout part of the package.

    Really though, do you buy a Battlefield game for the single player mode? Of course not! The multiplayer is, as always, the real meat and potatoes of this package and while it still feels diluted in many aspects, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and say that it's the closest to a new Battlefield game we've gotten in years and it will tide you over while we wait for Battlefield 3. The multiplayer game has four modes of play: The ever classic "Conquest," where you take control of points in order to spawn in more troops and dwindle the enemies reinforcement tickets, "Rush" in which you either defend or hold two points in maps that constantly lead to new areas as objectives are completed, "Squad Rush" which is much the same as rush but with unique objectives for each squad, and finally "Squad Deathmatch" which is a team deathmatch mode wherein the squads fight for the most kills. Each mode also has a "Hardcore" variety.

    Conquest is the best mode, but Rush is a ton of fun too. Squad Rush doesn't feel different enough to really recommend big time, but it is still fun. Squad Deathmatch is cool... when everyone moves around. The problem is there are too many servers where all the people do is run into a house with a sniper rifle and camp, and if you try to blow up their cover they just toss out C4 and blow you up first. But when people actually move and there are only a couple snipers, it is pretty fun.

    Like past Battlefield games, you have classes to choose from. Medics, who use machine guns (Which are arguably the best guns in the game..) can revive and heal players; Assault units, that use Assault Rifles and Sub Machine guns and can deploy ammo; Engineers who carry anti-tank weapons, silenced SMGs, C4 and a repair tool for fixing vehicles; and last but not least, Recon scouts who use sniper rifles and gadgets such as motion trackers, tracing darts, and can spot enemies from a further distance serve as useful trackers to keep you on your toes. You rank up based on cumulative points, but what you unlock is based more on what class you play as.

    You will level up each class based on how many points you get playing as said class, rather than basing it on your weapons like in Call of Duty; one of the many reasons why I prefer MP in BC2. If you choose to play as an assault, all your points will go to the assault class, but not the others. This keeps you playing a bit longer and gives you a bigger challenge to unlock new weapons, plus leveling up as a whole is a bit tougher and as such more rewarding than CoD. There are also gadgets and perks, some are unique to classes and others can be traded. There are also weapons that can be shared across classes and there are lots of guns!

    The guns are in large supply, and there are even some world war II guns as well as plenty of modern guns to keep any gun enthusiast happy. But most importantly, they are fun to shoot. The sound design in BC2 is terrific, the games atmosphere is thick thanks to the sound design that really gives the impression you are on a massive battlefield. Guns are loud and sound realistic and distinctive, the treads of tanks will clank and churn as they get closer and helicopter blades chop through the air as they fly by and you will hear satisfying explosions, distant gunfire, and soldiers shouting orders and crying in glee, pain, fear, or death. The sound design is even cooler if you have a pair of headphones and select the "War tapes" mode, a mode that puts more emphasis on replicating the actual human ear. Sure, it limits the distance of your hearing more and whatnot, but you can hear yourself breathing, things will echo in closed environments and guns sound even more realistic and powerful.

    The visual design has plenty of detail in terms of the maps being full of debris, empty vehicle husks, dust storms in deserts, etc. but the graphics aren't really that impressive. Even with Direct X 11, the only impressive effects are the character models, which are extremely well detailed. Houses have a creepy clone feeling, even if they look different on the outside they all look the same inside and have the same exact layout. nVidia players apparently run into framerate problems and are stuck with blade like lines that intrude the game, and ATI users have slightly longer load times and sometimes the framerate is TOO fast. I use an ATI card, and sometimes the framerate jumps off the limiter and speeds out like crazy. The game is as gray and "realistic" as you'd expect a modern war game to look, though to be fair, Battlefield has never exactly been on the forefront of graphic technology.

    The environments do contain really cool feature, destructible walls and cover. This is a feature that's been done before, but BC2 pulls it off with finesse and it adds some extra fun and strategy in the game. Did a squad of foes garrison that building? Well, put the cannon on your tank to good use... blow up the wall and let your gunner pick them off before they can escape! You can tear down buildings, and it is always satisfying to take out a building full of terrified soldiers before they can escape. This keeps the battle fresh and evolving. It does have its flaws in this regard though. Sometimes cover has a habit of glitching the game, and flinging halfway across the map to smack someone to death 8 miles away. Thanks to some movement bugs, you can also get trapped in debris or destructible scenery even if it isn't destroyed yet. It happens at random, and since the only way to kill yourself is with a rocket launcher and not everyone has one, it can be annoying as hell to have to quit because you got trapped in a houses wall and can't go anywhere.

    The biggest flaws with the multiplayer is that it isn't a complete Battlefield experience. It only supports 32 players, as opposed to 64, and there is little strategic depth in comparison. There is no commander, squads only have 4 players, and no one really communicates plus the only way to plan strategies with your squad is to point at an objective and press Q, which doesn't have a rosette and rather just spots things; even if that can be useful. There aren't really any orders to execute and for some reason it takes away from the immersion because part of what made the older games so engrossing was that you really felt like you were a soldier with a commanding officer and everything with plans, support, etc.

    There also aren't as many vehicles. Each side gets 2 unique tanks, an APC, a variant helicopter, a quadbike, and a single gunless boat. This is less than any of the previous BF games, even the booster packs for BF2 came with at least 8 new vehicles. There are no jets and the tanks are variants, even if there are two types. The only kind of helicopter is an attack heli, which means you can't use a transport helicopter and if you want troop transport your best bet is a tank with 2 extra seats since only one or two maps actually have the APC.

    The maps are smaller as well and don't feel as expansive and epic like previous BF games. To be fair, the REALLY large BF maps could get a bit tedious with such massive tracts of land to have to walk or drive across, but they were still fun and made good use of having 64 players. It also added more variety, and there were often more than just 4 points to cap, and even then, there are only 1 or 2 maps that have 4 and most just have 3. They could use a few more maps as well, you only really get like 6 for conquest and 4 for rush. And this is with 2 map packs that were released prior to my purchase, and I'd hate to see how many they had when the game first launched.

    On the whole, Bad Company 2 is a good appetizer. It might leave you hungry for the main course, but you will enjoy it while it lasts. it may not be a complete Battlefield experience, but at least its a close replica of one and it is nice to finally see a PC based Battlefield game again, even if it's just a diversion for the time between now and the true 3rd game in the series.

    Windows · by Kaddy B. (777) · 2010

    At least they tried.

    The Good

    • Good visual effects, graphics and sound.
    • Decent story and voice acting.
    • Hints of Sci Fi.
    • Trademark Multiplayer.
    • Physics which includes destructible environments.


    The Bad
    • Poor dialogues.
    • Modern shooter cliches like for e.g. Recharging health.
    • Short single player campaign.
    • Multiplayer player limited to 32 instead of 64.


    The Bottom Line
    I used to love the multiplayer focused Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 back in the days. Large scale warfare, vehicles and 64 players on one map was something new and still hasn't really been done. Bad Company however brings a single player campaign and multiplayer more focused on console hardware, which means limitations. Bad Company 2 is the first Bad Company version to be multi-platform and available for Windows. I decided to borrow this one as I knew the campaign will be a 4 hour game max and lack enough time for multiplayer.

    BC2's campaign revolves around a semi sci-fi plot about a scalar weapon being produced by the Japanese during WW2. In the present day, four U.S Soldiers are assigned to recover a similar weapon being produced by the Russians. Well the Science fiction is a welcome change in the generic military shooter genre...which is not Crysis.

    BC2 starts out in the WW2 where you're playing a flashback of Project Aurora. It's like playing a cutscene with shooting enabled. Then after that chapter it cuts to the present day, where you play Marlowe Preston. Game gets fun at around chapter 3. Some of the challenges bring a rather entertaining experience and mixes well with the shooter formula. Example? The mission where you need to descend a snowy hill with extreme weather conditions and blow up barrels or find a fireplace to prevent freezing to death. The generic shooter gameplay is spiced up with more similar challenges and vehicle driving. Yep it's plagued by modern shooter cliches too like recharging health, annoying zoomed in field of view and Hidden Briefcase mode (in the form of destroying some console panel) .

    If you can get past the cringe worthy dialogues you will probably give a fuck about the 4 main characters or you will appreciate the fact that the developers at least tried to make you care. Well they did do a good job with the Graphics and sound, don't want to forget the destructible environments.

    Worth buying only for the multiplayer. Rent or borrow if the single player is what you're after as it's nothing more than 6 hours max. This isn't a great game but a quick decent ride. Thankfully this isn't a yearly release like CODicks.

    Windows · by dreamstealer (126) · 2012

    Trivia

    Online servers

    The game's online servers were shut down on 8 December 2023.

    References to the game

    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was parodied in two episodes of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVDs of issue 06/2010 and 07/2010.

    Awards

    • 4Players
      • 2010 – #3 Best Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
      • 2010 – #2 Best Xbox 360 Game of the Year
      • 2010 – #2 Best PC Game of the Year
      • 2010 – #2 Best Action Game of the Year
      • 2010 – Best Sound Effects of the Year
      • 2010 – #3 Most Humorous Game of the Year
    • GamePro (Germany)
      • 2011 - Best Console Multiplayer Game in 2010 (Readers' Voting)
    • GameSpy
      • 2010 – Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • GameStar (Germany)
      • 2011 - Best PC Multiplayer Game in 2010 (Readers' Voting)
      • 2011 - Best PC Action Game in 2010 (Readers' Voting)

    Analytics

    MobyPro Early Access

    Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

    Related Games

    Battlefield: Bad Company
    Released 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, 2017 on Xbox One
    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Vietnam
    Released 2010 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
    Battlefield: Bad Company (Gold Edition)
    Released 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Onslaught Mode
    Released 2010 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Limited Edition)
    Released 2010 on Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Ultimate Edition
    Released 2010 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
    Bad Company
    Released 1989 on Atari ST, Amiga
    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Add On Bundle
    Released 2011 on PlayStation 3

    Related Sites +

    Identifiers +

    • MobyGames ID: 45500
    • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

    Contribute

    Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Sicarius.

    Additional contributors: Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, Plok.

    Game added April 30, 2010. Last modified March 24, 2024.