Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield Bad Company 2

While Bad Company 2 is primarily a first-person shooter, it follows other games in the series by allowing the player to control certain vehicles, including ATVs, APCs, tanks, and helicopters. On foot, players are given access to a variety of real-world small arms such as assault rifles and machine guns. Players can also jump, crouch, and sprint. They can carry one primary weapon and a pistol in multiplayer, or two primary weapons in single-player, as well as grenades and other equipment. Players can fire "from the hip", but zooming in and using iron sights, reflex sights, or telescopic sights (depending on the weapon) will provide much better accuracy when shooting.

Bad Company 2 heavily emphasizes destructible environments. Large sections of most buildings can be destroyed by explosives; some walls and fences break down under barrages of bullets, with the game's physics engine realistically simulating the destruction.

The game utilizes a "regenerating health" system, rather than giving players health points as older games in the Battlefield series have done. To accommodate this in multiplayer, the "Medic" equipment now accelerates health regeneration rather than directly restoring the player's health. If a player is wounded, he or she must take cover and avoid damage in order to regain health. A heavily wounded player will see dirt and blood around the edges of the screen. Along with Battlefield Vietnam and Battlefield 3, Bad Company 2 is one of only three games in the Battlefield series to show blood without third-party modification.

Single-player

Bad Company 2 features a story-driven single-player campaign. For most of the narrative, the player takes control of Preston Marlowe, one of the members of the titular "Bad Company". The exception to this is the first mission, which is set prior to the rest of the campaign. Each mission is divided into a series of objectives, often interspersed with cutscenes which simulate the style of films.

Aside from infantry combat, the campaign contains several missions in which the player controls a vehicle, or mans a weapon turret while a teammate controls the vehicle. While the other members of Bad Company will engage in combat, the game relies upon the player to complete the objectives and kill most of the enemies. Although the player's computer-controlled allies can never die, they cannot carry out objectives.

Each weapon in the campaign is considered a collectible - the first time the player picks up that type of weapon, a "Collectable Unlocked" message appears. There are also sensor stations throughout the campaign which the player can find and destroy - this is also recorded in the campaign stats. "Supply Drop" crates are scattered throughout the missions, where the player can exchange weapons and replenish ammo. The Supply Drop crates will remember any weapon the player picks up and this weapon will then be available for the rest of the campaign.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is class-based, with four classes: Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon. Each class has a variety of unique weapons and equipment, and serves a specific role in combat. There are also some weapons that can be used by any class, such as pistols and shotguns. Each class gains experience and levels up separately.

New items are unlocked by earning experience points, which are gained for performing actions conducive to the goals of the player's team, such as eliminating enemy players, healing team mates, or capturing or defending points of interest. These points also count towards a total of 50 ranks. Bonuses to the base number of points can be awarded under certain circumstances (such as achieving a headshot in the process of eliminating an enemy player).

The multiplayer features 15 vehicles, including new additions, such as the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, a quad bike, a four-man patrol boat, a personal watercraft, a ZU-23-2 mounted on a BMD-3 armoured personnel carrier, and a Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout, controlled via remote computer terminals. The available maps are set in various environments such as South America and Alaska, near the borders of Russia, similar to those seen in the singleplayer.

A dog tag system, as seen in Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield: Bad Company, is also used, awarding players with their opponents' dog tags when they defeat them with a knife attack. It uses the PunkBuster anti-cheat program, to protect the game from cheaters in online multiplayer matches. Players can use party chat for each game mode.

Bad Company 2 features several game types:

Rush: Players must defend or destroy pairs of M-COM stations until either the attackers run out of respawn tickets or all of the stations are destroyed. Lost tickets can be regained by reviving fallen team mates. An M-COM station can be destroyed by planting a charge, using explosive weapons or ballistics, or simply by demolishing the building in which it is located. However, not all M-COM stations exist in destructible buildings, forcing players to use a variety of methods to achieve the same goal. When a charge is planted by the attacking team, an alarm is activated and the defenders have a limited amount of time to get to the M-COM station and disarm the bomb before it detonates.

Squad Rush: Similar to Rush, but consists of only two squads, one defending and the other attacking. The maps used for Squad Rush are smaller versions of those for both Conquest and Rush modes. There are only 2 M-COM stations in each round.

Conquest: Features the classic gameplay of the Battlefield series. Players must capture and defend flags for as long as possible. If a base is taken, it can be recaptured, and the cycle can repeat until the game's end. Every kill depletes one ticket, and tickets gradually decrease when one team controls more than half of the flags on the map. Vehicles can spawn once a flag is captured. When one team's tickets are depleted, that team will lose the game. Lost tickets can be regained by reviving fallen team mates.

Squad Deathmatch: Features up to four squads, each fighting against the other. An infantry support vehicle is available for any squad to claim, giving a significant advantage. The first squad to score fifty kills wins the match.

Onslaught: Tasks one squad of up to four players to capture certain points on the map, allowing the squad to advance. The game is won by capturing all the points. Unlike other modes, the only enemies are bots. This game mode features new lighting and time of day on existing maps, as well as new vehicles. It is available for Xbox 360 and PS3 only; a PC version was planned, but was cancelled.