Battlefield Bad Company 2 review

Elsewhere, Bad Company 2 applies additional wow factor with its trademarked use of vehicles (tanks, choppers and quad bikes all feature) plus there's a few thoughtful set-pieces including a mission where you have to keep warm by jumping into abandoned cabins in the Andes and a great slice of airborne action that we won’t spoil for you (hint: 30,000ft, parachute-less, guns). But these moments are fleeting and crucially, they aren't backed up by a compelling, entertaining story. The result is a competent 'solid' shooter, but it fails to offer anything beyond the destruction, vehicles and impressive vistas. In short, it fails tobuild on its previous success.

Above: "Hands up if you're solely here to provide a weakcomedy edge?"

More disappointingly, this sequel is guilty of taking itself too seriously and in the process has lost the one area of distinction it had from other military FPSs: DICE carved a niche for itself in BFBC with tongue-in-cheek humour and a unique plot, but here has reverted to a hackneyed, po-faced story of good versus evil. We’d even have bought into a similar far-fetched narrative to the first game if they were chasing jewels, hard cash or even unicorns but alas it’s not to be.

Although BFBC2 is not totally without character - your team-mates joke that ‘heartbeat sensors are stupid’ and ‘snowmobiles are for pussies’ in an obvious dig at MW2 - where this kind of humour is rampant and charming in the original, it’s used only sparingily here.

Above: Stay warm on the Andes or you'llfreeze stiffer than a penguin'spenis

We’d hazard a guess that Bad Company 2 is gunning for Modern Warfare in terms of story driven action, but in the process of trying to mimic the intensity of Infinity Ward's game, this sequel feels bereft of the individual character that made the original so enjoyable. Which is why if we were scoring the single player alone it'd get a 6. But then there's something completely brilliant awaiting you online...

See page 3 for the better half of Bad Company 2