Battlefield: Bad Company

Review - Three's a crowd, four's a warzone

Much like the Chelsea team roster, the first-person shooter genre has become well known for being over populated and prone to under performance. However, just like the Russian-owned London football club, there is the odd genuine star turn mixed in amongst the masses of mediocre purchases. So, bearing that limp sporting analogy in mind, is EA and DICE's latest offering in the longstanding Battlefield series a goal-scoring Didier Drogba or a bench-bound Steve Sidwell?

In actual fact, Battlefield: Bad Company bears more than a passing resemblance to Chelsea's self-styled 'midfield magician' Joe Cole, at least insofar as its range of ability is somewhat limited but its polish and excellence across the things it does well almost always succeeds in papering over any niggling sensation of feeling short-changed by a fleet-footed impostor.

From a narrative standpoint, Bad Company reveals itself to be little more than a derivative day trip into the Hollywood back catalogue, where its core story of four disgraced grunts given one more chance via a deniable culpability strike force has been palmed straight from The Dirty Dozen's script notes. And, offsetting such obvious celluloid thievery, proceedings have been spiced up with a side quest for illicit gold that's boldly lifted from David O'Russell's Iraqi heist movie Three Kings. But it's okay, you won't mind the flagrant narrative pilfering.

While not wishing to cast third-party publishing behemoth Electronic Arts in a poor light based on the possibility of it rushing products to market for the sake of inflated profit margins, but Bad Company has more than a few glaring quality assurance shortfalls that would ordinarily tarnish a final product beyond reprieve. For example, explosion shrapnel sometimes inexplicably floats in midair after fire fights, the three A.I.-controlled NPC characters occasionally 'screen pop' into vehicles when the player clambers inside, there's some noticeable visual clipping now and then, and it's not unusual to see spectral characters walk through the odd wall or two. Considering the monumental roll call of playtesters that drift across the credits screen, you'd be forgiven for taking EA and DICE to task on such deficiencies. But it's okay, you won't care about the sporadic lapses of continuity and the quality dips.

So, while Bad Company is far from original in terms of its genre description and storyline, and is also carrying more gameplay hiccups than most games can be excused for, why won't you care? Why will you still plough headlong through the 12-hour single-player campaign before immersing yourself in the always-satisfying multiplayer modes? The answer is simple: Because Battlefield: Bad Company is damn good fun front-to-back and from start to finish.

Moreover, as a gaming experience, Bad Company straddles singular description with one toe-capped boot firmly planted in the violent authenticity of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, while the other is plunged gleefully into the throwaway humour and character camaraderie depicted by Army of Two. However, the game that Bad Company most closely pays homage to throughout its gameplay is Black, the criminally underappreciated all-action first-person shooter released in 2006 by EA and Criterion for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Much like Black, Battlefield: Bad Company actively encourages the player (a.k.a. man-with-a-past Preston Marlowe) to utilise the teeth-jarring power of explosive force to ensure steady and superbly thrilling progress. For example, virtually any red on-screen object or item in Bad Company (and also Black) is bullet-friendly when it comes to erupting into a fireball of destruction. Be it a collection of fuel drums, a stationery oil tank or stacked gas canisters, if it's red, it's an environmental weapon waiting to be properly applied as a tactical advantage.