AS POSTED AT SFX-360.COM
I was drawn into the launch day hype of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of the Battlefield series. I would not typically buy this game; however, I was convinced to make the purchase by the marketing campaign, the media hype, and the critical acclaim. I now find myself second guessing this decision. Please note that everything I am going to talk about below applies only the multiplayer portion of the game.
I want to love this game. I really do. There are certain aspects of the game that make it quite easy to love. I absolutely adore the Squad Team Deathmatch game type. It is well done and it allows you to overcome the things I am going to complain about in the next couple of paragraphs. I also enjoy the audio. I am continuously impressed by the sound quality and the attention to detail. I love the sound of tanks rumbling in the distance, I love the echo when a squad mate pops off a round in a building that I am standing in. The battlefield chatter is also exceptional (with the exception of, "Let the bodies hit the floor." Seriously? - WTF?). I admit, there is a lot in the this game to love.
Despite the positives, there are parts of the game that I utterly and completely despise. It is almost to the point that it makes the game unplayable for me. First and foremost is the lack of a true lobby/party system. I understand that a lobby/party system exists in the game, but it is heinous at best. The lobby/party system only provides you a spot to assemble your four man squad and enter a game of your choice. That is where the lobby/party system ends. After a multiplayer round ends, the party leader is not given the option to back the team out. In other words, you can not back your party out of the game and into a pre-game lobby. To select a different game type, your party leader is required to join the next game, back out, start another lobby/party and resend invites. This simply does not make sense to me. Why, in the age of Halo and Call of Duty, am I not able to back my party out and select a different game type without having to stand on my head and jump through hoops?
Another item that gives me fits is the control of your character. The responsiveness of the controls leave a bit to be desired. My character moves like a roided up middle linebacker that can't get out of his own way. I can't ever recall missing so many door openings or struggling so much while crawling into windows. This is especially aggravating when trying to escape a shower of bullets. This is a minor complaint, but it still enrages me at least once per match.
The final item that infuriates me is the inability to seamlessly assemble a squad of more than four people. In objective based games like Rush and Conquest, teamwork is imperative for victory. Your squad of four may be the greatest squad ever assembled in any Battlefield game, but you will have a hard time winning an objective based match if all the other dullards on your team are in ghillie suits in the far back or waiting at the spawn to crash the next helicopter. If my winning/losing hinges on my entire team, please give me the option to seamlessly fill the entire team with my friends instead of putting my squad and I on a team of good for nothings. Perhaps I am too competitive. In the rare event that your squad is placed on a team with like minded squads, it is a thing of beauty. I want the ability to make this happen all of the time.
This game reminds me of the first Assassin's Creed. It is so close to being good, but it could just use some more polish and TLC. It is a nice change of pace and I am having fun with it, but it is not the Call of Duty killer that many hoped it would be. I admit, I am a Battlfield noob. If there is a way around these issues, please let me know.
