Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Reviews and the COD Comparison

Forget a straightforward Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review; you’re probably wondering if the game’s better than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game was released today for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows, so let’s give in to temptation in this review roundup and get right to what the critics thought.

1UP’s Thierry Nguyen believes that developer DICE flaunts both its similarities and differences with Modern Warfare 2:

The daring comes from a mix of sly dialogue moments (disparaging remarks get made about snowmobiles and rifles-with-heartbeat-monitors), to copy-and-paste jobs of COD situations (using air support while cornering a villain in a safehouse, a vicious firefight aboard an airplane, providing support as either a sniper or a helicopter gunner). Though, for the latter, it seems to be … a “we’re not copying, we’re doing it better” moment.

EuroGamer’s Dan Whitehead reckons that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 wins on plot, at least:

Unlike Modern Warfare 2′s disjointed compilation of set-pieces, Bad Company 2 plays like a whip-smart Shane Black script from the late eighties. The razor-sharp quips are delivered with some superb voice acting and subtle deadpan animation, and the result is a game that will have you laughing out loud even as you’re gripping the joypad for dear life.

At Ars Technica, Ben Kuchera seems inclined to favor B:BC2′s multiplaye, saying this is where the game “finds its voice”:

Where Modern Warfare 2 focuses on kill streaks, Bad Company 2 makes it clear that you are one soldier in a larger battle. You gain points for killing the enemy, and as a Medic you gain points for healing or reviving the other soldiers on your team. From taking objectives to acting as support for your teammates, everything you do to advance your side’s cause will gain you points.

GamePro’s Mitchell Dyer sums it up nicely:

With Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 being regularly victimized by bugs, glitches, hacks and other exploits, there’s an opportunity for another game to come in and do some real damage. Bad Company 2 definitely has the necessary chops to give the current king of, well, modern warfare, a run for its money.

When it comes to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 vs. Modern Warfare 2, I don’t see anyone saying one is clearly better than the other, but there seems to be lots of enthusiasm for DICE’s latest creation. It’s ready to go toe-to-toe with last year’s blockbuster and even surpasses it in some ways. The game may not rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a week, but it’ll be worth you’re money if you’re into war shooters.