A moderate review of Bad Company, and critique of current FPS’s.
When I first started playing single player Bad Company, I suppose I was really looking for something a bit more… innovative, which it is not. It offers modern physics and real world destruction, but the plot remains not too different from an old Soldier of Fortune (+ 5 other games, & stir) rehash with some buddies (COD2, anyone?). About 1/2 the game is fighting in small towns, with some forays using vehicles, like a boat. Then come obligatory ‘change it up because it’s getting boring’ tank level, ‘helicopter level’, ‘no buddies level, etc.
Lets not forget the oh-so-typical boss battle at the end, which in my opinion IS a direct rip from Soldier of Fortune Double Helix.
There are many things in Bad Company that are standard in FPS games nowadays; vehicles, swapping weapons, outdoor areas, etc. This does add to the ‘do it your way factor’, which was innovative with Halo…. like the vehicles (because it was done well). Outdoors FPS games has already been (the ‘no corridor’ aspect) done well with Far Cry… so, how to innovate? I mean to say – why do developers always fall back upon platforming and arcade games of old instead of coming up with new ideas? Just rehashing some old methods for an FPS does not make a great game, it does refine a good game, which is what Bad Company really is – refined.
I suppose jumping, repetitive bot onslaughts and boss battles (COD4!) are what many FPS games are made of – but, play that a few times, and you have seen it all before. Half-life 2 made tremendous leaps in innovation, and ‘thinking out of the FPS box’, doing traps, gravity gun, physics puzzles, odd enemies… just too many things to mention that innovated the genre. This makes many games coming after that… well, wanna-bees or copycats…. merely due to a lack of innovation.
The challenge of course, is finding new ways to making running/driving/boating/flying & shooting fun, keeping the action moving (not everyone wants to use their brain, apparently) and pushing the plot forward (assuming that there is one).
Examples of cheap FPS tricks.
Spawning a bot in your face (GRAW!)
Hidden enemy that is revealed suddenly (like a tank in a garage, Bad Company!)
Platforming – jumping onto crates, maybe falling to your death (Half-Life!)
Boss battles, like helicopters or giant monsters (Painkiller)
Bot onslaughts in place of better or decent AI (COD4)
While it might be more challenging to have a tank with the ability to be able to see me through any walls, it certainly isn’t FAIR. This makes flanking pointless, because the tank ALWAYS knows where I am. So does any other crappy AI that can see through walls. My criticism of FPS games boils down to AI. Want a better game? Make better AI. AI that can’t always see me, and doesn’t always know where I am. Halo had that. Where did it go? Many modern games offer flanking, but the bots can see through walls even at a massive distance. That is called Cheating. (GRAW, I am talking to you and your crappy Co-op bot battles.) At minimum, in GRAW they are predictable in spawning behind you – example: they will ALWAYS be ‘to the left’ if you turn your view/scope right, (or the opposite) and they will consistently dodge your targeting scope like caffeinated squirrels, magically knowing you are zooming in on their tiny heads. (But, hey. I digress from the ‘great game play’. Ugh.)
Bad Company (single player) handles this aspect with distance. The AI can typically only recognize you at a certain distance, as you need to start shooting first when farther away, in order for them to start shooting back. Close up – well, they will often engage first. What has always puzzled me has been the idea of ‘smarter AI vs. more AI’. More AI implies dumber bots to keep the action moving, (i.e. – “harder” and maybe have more health) because they are in reality, still just cannon fodder. Smarter bots would require some effort to get past, and just a few of them doing smart things (as opposed to seeing through walls!) would provide the challenge, not unlike a chess game with guns. Ok – maybe it is tough to be a hero unless you ‘fight an army’… but the victories are pretty damn hollow after awhile. I suppose one way to ramp up the intensity is to choke all human thought. Fine.
Exploring online ——————
The online portion of Bad Company at least addresses this problem (barring the many deaths you will experience there. I mean, it IS battlefield!) to some degree with team play, and a lack of brainless “Yawn. I’m just standing here waiting for a bullet in my skull” AI. Granted, I have long since tired of hearing people whine into the microphone about something they feel I should have done differently, but they did not see what I experienced (spawn sniper, etc.) and, there is no way to quickly explain it. While I have seen some interesting tactics that people useI have seen major cheats too – like the damn spawn killers at a main base. The radar appears to work like Halo’s, i.e. – you drop off of it when you stop moving; and snipers generally have to deploy ‘motion sensors’ in order for the small overhead map to really be effective.
There are basically 5 kits to play with, including specialized unlocks, which do not unbalance the game (kudos here) but do extend play in each class: (unlocks will arrive as you play)
Assault (semi auto rifle with grenade launcher)
Specialist (silent semi auto, grenade, and tagging device for tagging vehicles)
Demolition (shotgun, RPG which can ‘home in’ with tagging)
Recon (sniper rifle, motion sensor, pistol)
Support (SAW, med packs, vehicle repair ‘drill’)
One interesting tactic has been far flanking by snipers who use the ‘not on map aspect’ to their advantage, by creeping up the map and then facing the other way in a bush. Unless they are marked red on the map, you often don’t even know they are shooting your guys, because they are facing the opposite direction; and at a distance, sometimes it is hard to tell what’s what, and who is shooting what. Although, it must be said – some folks (like myself) shoot because we don’t see blue. Sometimes… that lag means team kills. The info is often just milliseconds too late, as team names can pop up slow. So, in a game as well balanced as Bad Company, lag can ruin any chances a good player has, and screw up play something serious.
I would add a lot concerning ‘team spawning’ too – because it sucks, and is a cheap way to die. IF you don’t have an awesome ping, you always get fragged; because there is such a thing as “spawn on your squad”. This basically means: Wherever you are, three other players (from a ‘side’ of 12, i.e – 3 sets of 4 – as it is a 12 against 12 battle) will spawn in with you (next to) when the timer allows.
What often happens in game is that you might just get that ‘close up and personal’ kill, and the game cheaply steals it by having the 3 teammates of the player you just killed spawn in (typically behind you) and finish you off, depending on where you were standing. No one can reload THAT fast – so, that’s a real rip off. And, depending on your ping – it really makes a difference on who gets the drop on who, because games are typically laggy, as EA servers are Laggy. I cannot emphasize this enough. This becomes all too apparent when you can watch someone else (at their home) who has great ping (and a lessor player than yourself) get kill after kill after kill, seemingly without any effort.
Since you will often have 3 guys ‘spawn in’ on you (a squad is made of 4) inversely, if you are a sniper up in a tower, and your teammates are not, and the action is some distance away, they will spawn in your face, (as players can either chose spawn at the ‘main base’ or spawn with team = ‘squad’) and maybe they will be pissed because you are at the top of that tower, and far from the main battle. Enough for a team kill. Talk about needing some work!
Then, other BC games can play great without any problems whatsoever, despite no players communicating at all. A friend of mine (for example), sometimes spawns as a sniper and then snags a different kit, like a specialist, using the cover it affords for close up sneaky work. Another favorite trick has been to steal an enemy tank (or whatever!) and use it against them, as it is not always identified as an enemy until it is too late. However, that tactic can get you killed by either team.
It is an intense game – too frantic, as frantic is all there is. There is really very little team cooperation, as everyone typically picks what they want (read: are good at) and starts killing and trying to take the base/’gold crates’, and there is not that much strategy in any typical game I have seen. Do squad leaders discuss strategy? Never! More like ‘team based death match’! And the whining about choices you might make that squad members may not like?
Damn! I finally disconnected my headset.
