‘Bad Company 2’ brings ‘ding’ to ‘boom’

    Shooting people isn’t usually my thing.
    Don’t get me wrong; borderline sociopathic violence is very much my thing. Usually though, I tend to prefer my violence to involve pointy things, maybe a little magic.
    My dirty secret is that I just prefer other types of video games. I specifically get roped in by role playing games, by which I mean games in which I kill a million monsters to get strong enough to kill a million bigger monsters.
    “Mass Effect” encouraged me to play a third-person shooter by drenching it in the familiar mechanics of an RPG. To hook me, a shooter has to use elements of the games I enjoy playing.
    “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” does an excellent job of utilizing RPG mechanics while still remaining a first-person shooter.
    The game is the latest in a long line of “Battlefield” titles. It is a direct sequel to “Bad Company” and features a single-player campaign that probably follows the story of the first game. However, I’ve had “Bad Company 2” since the day it came out and have yet to touch campaign mode.
    Online play is where the game really shines. It says as much right on the front of the case. “Defining Online Warfare” is printed in small white letters above the title. The soldiers and vehicles pictured all have gamertags displayed above their heads. EA knows going in what you’re buying the game for.
    Online multiplayer is divided into three categories of gameplay, or four if you pre-ordered the game at Gamestop. There is “Squad Deathmatch” in which four teams of four vie to be the first squad to reach 50 kills.
    There is “Rush” in which players are divided into two teams. The attackers must attempt to destroy set objectives called M-COM stations. The other team must defend the M-COM stations.
    The bonus mode – which will unlock for players who didn’t preorder after a month – is “Squad Rush.” It plays exactly like Rush, but in teams of four.
    Finally, there is “Conquest” in which players are divided into two teams who fight over control points and must kill 50 members of the opposing team before the opposing team registers 50 kills.
    The RPG elements come into play across all modes. Players may choose one of four roles in any match: Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. Each role has different weapons and abilities. For instance, Assault players have heavier assault rifles and can drop ammo pickups for their teams, whereas Recon players have sniper rifles and can call in mortar strikes.
    Players earn points for specific actions, including registered kills, mode-specific actions such as destroying and M-COM stations in a Rush match and role-specific actions such as reviving a dead teammate as a Medic. These points are experience points for whichever role the player is using. Experience points add up across all games and unlock new weapons and capabilities for the role.
    In a nutshell, the more the player plays a certain way, the better they get at it, through the acquisition of superior gear.
    Also, separate of their role, all players have a rank which represents the total number of points they’ve acquired. As the player’s rank increases, they gain access to gear useable across all roles.
    This turns the game into a metagame. Losing a round is no big deal because you’re still getting points. The metagame hooks chumps like myself who love leveling up and getting new gear.
    So, yeah, the game is awesome... when it works. The game has dedicated servers, meaning that EA has at least an entire server that only handles traffic for “Bad Company 2.” In theory, this should lead to a more stable and smooth-running game, as opposed to a game running on a server that is also handling other games by the same company.
    In practice, however, this has led to issues. On March 6, just four days after the game came out, the servers died. Out of the blue, all connectivity was gone. This meant that nobody could play. If players were mid-match they were booted to the main menu and any unsaved progress was lost. As of writing, the game is still displaying a message that says there are connectivity issues. By Monday, play was back up, but disconnects are still a distinct possibility.
    There is also a bug that many players have experienced. If players are playing on Xbox Live and are invited to a match through the Live interface instead of through the “Play with Friends” menu in-game, then there is a chance that all the players in the squad will crash to the Xbox Dashboard when attempting to connect to a game.
    I’ve seen it. I’ve crashed to the Dashboard three or four times in a row before getting into a match.
    Connectivity issues aside, the game is fun. It’s definitely worth playing. There are still problems, but they’re being hammered out and they aren’t gamebreakers. Except, you know, when they literally are breaking the game.
    All in all, the game is fun, and that’s what matters. I’ve already spent more hours than I like to admit immersed in the game.
    “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” has been rated M for mature for blood, strong language and violence by the ESRB. It is available for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
    Contact Arant at cody.arant@murraystate.edu.