Unlike other games, when you enter an area and fight a group of enemies and end up getting taken down after you have killed half of them, you don’t have to repeat the whole process over again. When you respawn, the enemies that you had killed will remain dead, allowing you to inch closer to remove the rest. Even though in your inventory of weapons and gadgets you have an auto-injector that completely replenishes your health, getting killed, and getting killed a lot will happen before you even have a chance to pull it out and use it.

The single player campaign is something new to the Battlefield series, but the multiplayer is something that DICE has shown it knows how to handle time and time again. Bad Co. is no exception and includes a multiplayer component that was lacking in diversity at launch, but is still a lot of fun to play. Mixing it up from previous Battlefield games, the only online mode that comes with the game, called “Gold Rush”, features two teams that battle it out over crates of gold. While one team tries to destroy them, the other does their best to defend them. The attackers have a limited amount of time to accomplish their goals while on the flipside, the crates can only handle so much damage until they expire.

The ability to destroy the surrounding environment adds a new strategy to the same old battle. Hiding in a building or using a wall for cover doesn’t last too long when it can be obliterated from existence. While it can be frustrating at times having your cover disappear time and time again, it forces you to stay on your toes and keep moving. The better you are in the game and the more rewards you receive and the more items you can unlock to add extra equipment for your class. Vehicles can be driven on all the maps ranging from land, sea and air but the game does have its shortcomings.

Entering vehicles is inexplicably slow as is when you go in for a melee attack with your knife. The extra second or two it takes from button press to action is mildly irritating and with eight multiplayer maps to choose from – disappointingly only two of them have the helicopter available – and only one game mode to play, the multiplayer was a bit light at release but the new Conquest Mode which is available as a free download adds the original Conquest game as well as new maps and weather effects to the mix.

Battlefield: Bad Company provides some fantastic gameplay on and offline and features some of the best audio of any game in recent memory. The single player side is a new addition to the series and hopefully some of the numerous Battlefield games that are sure to be released in the future will include one. DICE has now proven that it can pull it off as well as continuing their tradition of fun and involved online play.

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