DogsWithoutWings.com Blog

A few days after trying the Battlefield: Bad Company beta for a few hours, I realized that there was nothing really drawing me back to this limited time experience. Something about this Battlefield game did not feel Battlefield enough. Sure we like companies to change their long running franchises to keep them fresh, but as a sum-of-all-its-parts this game feels average.

So let's start with this new Frostbite engine. This definitely improves the 'war feel' by adding destructible walls, trees and buildings. A giddy feeling comes over you the first time you clear a bunch of trees with a stationary machine gun. I noticed a few people not yet absorbing this new gameplay mechanic. A teammate and I were running toward a building, there was a wall just up ahead and he started to head around when I shot a grenade into the wall, then I see that he veered back into my direction and through the newly blown hole in the wall.

Sound was suppose to be another breakthrough feature, but with crappy TV speakers that has not yet made an impact on the experience.

Why does this not feel Battlefield?

The only mode playable in the beta is called Gold Rush. There are 2 gold objectives that need to be destroyed/defended depending on which team you are on. If they are destroyed the defending team moves back to another base with 2 new objectives and the attacking team moves up to their old base. The attackers have a limited amount of spawning to get the job done, but the defenders have a limited amount of bases to fall to. This objective based mode feels a lot like Call of Duty but the gameplay doesn't fit. The movement of the character is much too slow to be married with this everybody meets in the middle design. Some of us are that type of player, but some others want to take off and capture the flag which is not so heavily guarded.

The respawning screen has to go through some sort of overhaul. You get to follow a teammate but there is an overlay which makes the screen dark enough not to be able to see what is going on. Then you have to wait for a progress bar to fill, while you are not seeing anything and after about 20-30 of doing this you realize that dying is torture in this game.

So will I rent? Sure. Hopefully some of the other maps are more open, maybe some other modes of play. I liked Battlefield 2: Modern Combat even with all the bugs.