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JasonSmithy · #1 06-25-2007, 06:30 PM

Battlefield: Bad Company Hands-on
No fences can hold this soldier.
by Erik Brudvig

US, June 20, 2007 - The Battlefield franchise is nearly synonymous with multiplayer gaming. It's a series that has always strived to create the ultimate multiplayer shooter sandbox. So much so, in fact, that the single player experience has been relegated to the sidelines. That will change with Battlefield: Bad Company. The multiplayer sandbox style of gaming will still exist, but development studio DICE is creating a fully fledged single player, story driven game to complement it. At a recent EA press event in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to get our hands on the single player game and put it to the test for the first time.

The story begins in the near future. There's a war going on, but Bad Company isn't about the war. That's just a backdrop. Bad Company is about the soldiers on the ground. Specifically, it's about the four that comprise the B company that gives this game its name. These aren't your typical game heroes.

The company of four has spotted a truck carrying gold. In true Three Kings style, one of the inspirations for the game, the squad goes AWOL and decides that Uncle Sam doesn't pay enough for them to ignore this potential windfall. The level we played picked up with the group chasing the truck as it crosses the border into a neutral country. Orders from above tell them they can't cross the border, but those sorts of commands don't matter much to this unit.

The way specific mission objects are laid out is with markers telling you where the next rally point is. Rather than telling you how to get from point A to point B, Bad Company simply tells you to get there in one piece. With numerous vehicles and weapon kits at your disposal, the options for how you choose to tackle a situation are virtually endless.

Our first marker was at the top of a hill overlooking the border. Now, although you have three other members in your unit, you don't actually have to worry about them. These guys have their own AI that dictates how they help you and where they move next so no orders ever need to be dished out. There's a sergeant who gives your group orders, a demolitions expert, and a fellow with a knack for laying down suppressive fire. As we hopped into an SUV and rode up the hill, one guy took shotgun while the other two made the trek on foot.

Once at the crest, the squad noticed that the border was being heavily guarded by a bunch of Russian soldiers - an odd thing for a supposedly neutral country. After a brief conversation, the group decided to hit the blockade and hit it hard. From there, it's up to the player to decide how they want to clear out the city. It's also where DICE's new Frostbite engine showed its power.

Patrick Söderlund, VP and General Manager for DICE, told the crowd that the company aimed from the start to create a game that could not be done on PS2 or Xbox. Gears of War, he noted, could have been made on a last generation console, even if it would have been severely toned down in the graphics department. The Frostbite engine isn't just a new way to create pretty graphics. It was designed to create a new gameplay feature that couldn't be done before. In this case, that feature is totally destructible environments.

Destructible environments have been done before. Company of Heroes on PC had physics based destruction, but it was an RTS. Red Faction had a good amount of the environment that could be blown to bits, but some surfaces were indestructible. Other first person shooters had similar features, but many of the explosions were pre-determined animations. For Bad Company, we didn't find a single thing we couldn't blow up.

Grenades tossed into a grassy field wipe out the underbrush, blacken the earth, and leave a small pocket in the ground where the blast went off. Buildings, walls, fences, statues, huts, vehicles, trees, and everything else we came across could be taken down with the right amount of firepower. Hitting a building with a rocket will send out a shockwave that shatters all of the windows as a hole gets blown out of the area where you hit it. Snipers can't hide in windows and pick you off from cover because the walls in front of them can be destroyed with a blast from a tank or a well-placed explosive. Mortar strikes will level whatever they hit.

The Russian barricade we assaulted was far from an easy target. With a few stationary anti-infantry guns, a helicopter patrolling the area, armored land vehicles at the ready, and a good number of soldiers, the resistance was fierce. So we improvised.

Strolling down the main road wasn't a good idea, but the rest of the border was heavily guarded. We had the option of taking either an assault kit (with a grenade launcher and the ability to radio in mortar strikes) or a sniper kit (with the option to send in a guided missile). We chose the assault kit first and charged in guns blazing. With the main road covered, we made our way up to a building and switched to the grenade launcher. A trigger pull later and we had blown a neat hole in the wall and were inside the building. Another explosion later and we were across the border, with the stationary gun's weak flank exposed.

Our next course of action wasn't so smooth and we ended up dead, which highlighted another aspect of the game. Death doesn't reset you to a last saved game. Instead, you'll respawn back at your last checkpoint, in this case at the top of the hill, but the battle continues as if you didn't die to remove frustration. After calling in a few mortar strikes and taking out a few armored vehicles and blowing chunks out of a couple of buildings, we switched to the sniper kit.

From the top of the hill, we were able to pick off most of the remaining ground resistance. The helicopter was still a source of annoyance though. You can snipe out the pilot if you want or a perfectly timed mortar strike will do the trick on flying vehicles. But we had our heart set on the anti aircraft gun that sat within the walls of the encampment. Once inside the gun, we started laying down a steady stream of bullets at the helicopter, which took cover behind a group of trees on a nearby hill. Unfortunately for the pilot, anti aircraft fire also takes down trees. With the trees mowed down, the helicopter didn't last.

The demo finished when a heavy tank began rolling in. Grenades and other light explosives won't put a dent in a vehicle of this size. It was time to call in a guided missile. Our first attempt at controlling the missile didn't go so well and we ended up missing the tank. We did, however, hit the bridge it was trying to cross. The tank ended up falling through the hole we made in the bridge, disabling it long enough that we had no problem finishing it off.

Unlike Battlefield: Modern Combat, Bad Company is staying true to the type of Battlefield that PC gamers have enjoyed for years. That means the hotswapping, directed missions, and challenge structure that Modern Combat sported will be out of sight and out of mind. As you can see by the above description, the single player game is just as much of a sandbox as the multiplayer game has traditionally been. The levels are huge with specific missions only having boundaries that encompass a small portion of the region. Shaders are stressed over highly detailed textures so that the constantly changing environment can realistically change in appearance. The goal, though, is to create a story driven experience that brings to life a real person rather than a traditional super soldier, with a bit of lighthearted humor tossed in for good measure.

If you're a Battlefield fan, you may be wondering what the fuss is over a single player game. That isn't what the series has traditionally been about. DICE isn't looking to ignore the online game. Instead, it is expanding the game in an attempt to draw in new players that don't see a multiplayer focused game as worth picking up. We were assured that everything we saw for the single player game would exist in the 24 player online modes.

Battlefield: Bad Company will ship for the PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously, but don't expect it to hit shelves soon. Bad Company won't be out until sometime in 2008.

boooooo 2008? ****ing shit =]

Callmege · #2 06-25-2007, 06:55 PM

I don't give a shit about the single player but if they ruin the multiplayer then I'll ****ing kill them. Battlefield games have always been some of the best online multiplayer fps games (except for 2142 which was poo) and that had better not change.

Pav · #3 06-25-2007, 07:23 PM

Battlefield isn't tactical enough.

Callmege · #4 06-25-2007, 07:34 PM

It is if you have people to play with. I was in a clan that would meet up every Friday to play BF2 and BF2 special forces. We worked together and used teamspeak. Our 6 man squad more often than not determined the outcome of the battle because we worked together. Just one squad co-ordinating their attack can quite easily take over a flag held by 20 lone wolves.

EvilWaterman · #5 06-26-2007, 10:21 AM

this looks absolutley awsome!! cant wait

Crossfade8448 · #6 06-28-2007, 01:01 AM

they say that they aren't doing anything to change the sandbox style of the multiplayer...but what they are trying to do is bring single player to that level...i think its cool because i don't play online games with my ps3 so i'll be looking foward to this game now that the single player will be good...so i say a plus for me

Pav · #7 06-28-2007, 08:25 AM

But Battlefield has NEVER been about single player. It's virtually nothing but online.

Crossfade8448 · #8 06-28-2007, 04:54 PM

i know...its cool thought that they are changing it up a bit

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