Battlefield: Bad Company Beta Impressions

I know our impression is later than quite a few of them, but I wanted to spend a good amount of time playing, have time to let the game sink in, and not think so much about the possible DLC issues that people are worried about. I wanted plenty of time to let that thought simmer down in my brain so I would give the gameplay a fair shake. So, after a good chunk of time, here is my impression of the Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer beta for the Xbox 360.

First of all, even with all the talk about this being a game with a lot of single player focus, it is still a Battlefield game. Tanks and helicopters causing massive destruction across large sprawling maps, with plenty of weapons to keep it interesting.

The new game mode, called “Gold Rush”, is a fun, different way to do multiplayer besides the normal deathmatch or capture the flag. There are two teams, offense and defense, offense needs to destroy all the gold crates, defense defends them. Sounds simple, but there is a little twist thrown in. Instead of a timer to say when the game ends, the offense has a meter that represents their reinforcement pool, and when that runs out, the defense wins. To keep their meter full, the offense needs to destroy the gold crates. There are only two crates available at any one time, and when the attackers take down those two, the defensive teams base moves, and two new crates are there, and the offensive teams base moves to the base they just took over. To win, the offense has to take all of the gold crates on the map. Hit the break for the rest of our impressions.

There are just two maps in the beta, Oasis, and Ascension. Oasis is a large desert map with a river running through it. All of the vehicles are available to you, and plenty of space to use them. Ascension is a smaller map, with plenty of wooden buildings to hide in, snipe from, and not much of a use for many vehicles.

Of course I can’t talk about this game without talking about the destructive environments, which are cool and just plain fun, but factor into the gameplay quite a bit. Say you are on defense, hiding in the building next to the gold, just waiting in ambush for the offense to come through the door. But, instead of a sweet ambush, the wall behind you is destroyed and you are the one ambushed. With no true place to hide, and more than one way into any building, the destruction is a valuable tool in the game.

There is not a lot of weapons available at first, but as you rank up, more and more are made available. They are used through 5 different loadouts you can use when your team needs a different type of player. Every time you are killed, you can change your loadout, and can choose where you spawn. You have two choices, either at your base, which is a safe plan, but a long ways from the battle. Or you can spawn with your squad, which can be dangerous, or can be the reason your team wins. Say you get deep in enemy territory, but you are all by yourself. You see that a couple of your squad mates just died. You wait for a second, they both spawn with you, and you take the gold crate with ease. Another good addition to the game.

Of course as with any beta, there are some bugs, and some things that need to be worked out, like jumping off a small building and losing a quarter or more of my health, seriously? Also, the destructive environments aren’t perfect. Hitting a building with a tank, and a spot off to the right blows off, is a bit disappointing, but that may get fixed. Another complaint, but this is no issue of the game itself, is some of the other players. Not a lot of people are communicating, and some will kill you, their own teammate, to get the tank/helicopter instead of you, which kind of ruins the team aspect of it to say the least. This could be remedied by inviting your friends to play with you on your squad, but that feature is not available in the beta.

All in all, the game is a fun, fast paced shooting fun. The vehicles, destructive environments, and gold rush mode are good features to entice any fan of shooters. I’m sure any major bugs will be fixed for the major release, and my only big concern is the DLC issue. If it does turn out to be as big of a deal as some people say, it will hurt the game more than it should, and the quality of the rest of the game will be lost in the uproar.