Battlefield: Bad Company

"Honour, faith, land, oil; wars are fought for any number of reasons, but on the battlefield, every soldier needs to find his own... As things turned out, me and my buddies found a pretty interesting one."

Battlefield: Bad Company is a game in the Battlefield series developed by DICE. It was released June 23rd, 2008 in the United States and 28th June in Europe. The game is anticipated largely because it adds realistic destruction to the game. It uses the new Frostbite Engine developed by DICE. The sequel, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, released March 2, 2010 in the United States.

Frostbite Engine
Battlefield: Bad Company uses the newly developed Frostbite Engine by DICE. It is built specifically for Xbox 360 and PS3, also multi core PC's.

Some Notable Engine Features:


 * Long draw distance
 * Very realistic enviromental destruction
 * The level of detail is very high when looked up close
 * Easy building destruction

Single Player
The single player campaign has 7 main characters:


 * Sergeant Redford

Redford is the leader in the squad and is the most responsible of the four. He is three days from retirement and then plans on fishing marlin. Redford is unique to the group in that he volunteered for the group, despite its dangers. Redford was transfered to Bad Company as part of a deal with the Army to cut his tour short. At heart he is a natural born soldier and leader but due to unexplained changes in the Army Redford would rather turn in his rifle for a fishing pole.




 * George Haggard Jr.

George Gordon Haggard's character has a Southern US accent and is Bad-Company's demolitions and explosives expert; he carries a 870MCS shotgun and an AT-4 Anti-armor missile launcher. He's in B-Company for blowing up the biggest ammo dump east of Paris, and blowing his CO's latrine sky high with a couple of claymore high explosive devices. Haggard is a think first no questions needed character with an enthusiastic view on the war.


 * Preston Marlowe

This is the character the player controls in the game, having just been transferred to B-Company for reckless flying of a helicopter. The quietest of the group, Marlowe shows his voice through force. Marlowe tends to surprise Haggard and Sweetwater by staying alive for so long.


 * Terance Sweetwater

Sweetwater is the mastermind of the squad. He's the most intelligent out of the four and is often mocked by Haggard as a nerd; Sergeant Redford also criticizes him for talking too much. He carries a M249 SAW. He was thrown in B-Company for uploading a virus onto the US army's mainframe. Before the incident, he was saving up money to go to college.


 * Mike-1-Juliet

Mike-1-Juliet is the dispatch girl and will be aiding you through your earpiece, telling you what to do and also giving you valuable information. Her real name is possibly Michelle July, but in the first mission Sweetwater says her last name is Juliet.


 * President Serdar

Dictator of the small fictional country of Serdaristan, he was pretending to be neutral in the Russia-US conflict but has secretly been dealing with both sides. He hired the services of the Legionnaire but was unable to pay his fees, and was confined to his presidential palace until exfiltrated by B-squad. He is a quirky man as far as dictators go, owning a pimped-out Hind and a massive golf course.


 * The Legionnaire

The antagonist of the game. Little is seen, heard, or known about him, except that he is the leader of a deadly mercenary army that was hired by Russia, the MEC, and Serdaristan. He is ruthless in acquiring payment for his services, which must be paid in gold bricks.

Battlefield: Bad Company's single player is set in the near future; it depicts the United States of America facing the Russian, its fictional bordering country of Sedaristan and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition.

Welcome to Bad Company
The game starts as Preston and the rest of Bad Company are brought from a helicopter to the front lines. An artillery barrage wipes out the convoy, along with B-company's truck. This is where the player learns to look, jump, crouch, shoot, fire grenades, and repair vehicles. B-company is sent to wipe out an artillery battery used by the Russians and use them to shell the incoming vehicles attacking Juneau convoy. Then, B-company is sent to clear a Russian-occupied river crossing when the Russians destroy the bridge. B-company is then sent to clear a Russian-occupied farm before being evacced, but when their evac helicopter is shot down by anti-aircraft fire, B-company is then sent to destroy the AA emplacement and raid other Russian-occupied farms. When B-company joins Juneau convoy, it is attacked by another artillery barrage. They barely manage to escape, and are sent to destroy radio jammers to let an airstrike destroy the artillery. After the airstrike finishes, B-company clears out any survivors and encounter mercenaries. Then, Haggard finds a gold bar in the suit of a dead Legionnaire mercenary, starting their interest in the Legionnaire's gold.

Acta Non Verba
B-company is sent to move through more Russian territory when they find a house with the Legionnaires' logo, Acta Non Verba (Latin for "Actions Not Words"), Haggard sends you inside to check out the house and inside, you find a case of gold. B-company is sent to destroy fuel and missile storage facilities and to meet up with a group of tanks as you escort them into the Russian-held town of Zabograd. B-company is sent ahead to clear the half of the town that has anti-tank missile launchers and to escort the tanks to the other half of the town. B-company is sent to destroy some radio equipment, but are too late as the Russians already radioed for back-up. They are sent to defend a disabled tank from the enemy reinforcements until U.S. forces arrives. Mike-1-Juliet then sends them to a harbor full of suspicious activity and says that if they do a good job, she could get them out of B-company. They arrive at the harbor, but find that it is full of mercenaries. B-company, led by Haggard and the thought of gold, fight their way in, but after checking the bodies, find nothing. They spot some trucks and watch them drive away. As they go, a bar of gold drops out of the back and B-company is determined to follow them and retrieve the gold.

Crossing Over
Soon after arriving in Sedaristan, they find the trucks crossing the border and realize they can't follow it any longer, but Haggard runs across the border, "single-handedly invading a neutral country". Sarge Tells Mike-1-Juliet that it was his idea to wipe out a potential threat. His tour of duty is increased by another 12 months. Sarge tells Bad Company that they're going AWOL. They first destroy 3 transmission towers to cover their tracks. Then, Sarge figures out that the gold is in another harbor. After they fight their way through, they are about to enter the Legionnaire's cargo ship when the U.S. Army comes and captures them.

Par for the Course
The army sends B-company on a top secret mission to go into Sedaristan and capture the President, who they believe is selling arms to the Russians. However, they realize that Serdaristan is no longer neutral when they witness them shoot down B-company's evac chopper. They are sent to destroy 3 SAM sites before they get further air support. However, Mike-1-Juliet sees lots of activity at the Presidential Palace, so she sends them a laser designator and directs them to a enemy weapons cache. They make their way through a huge golf course and when they reach the Presidential Palace, the grounds are crawling with mercenaries. They fight their way in to get the President but when Redford calls for an evac chopper, Mike-1-Juliet tells them that the army ditched them and that they were on their own. President Serdar then tells them he has a pimped out Mi-24 Hind gunship that they could use to escape from Sedaristan.

Air Force One
B-company takes the President's helicopter and use it to destroy Sedaristan's military infrastructure. Their helicopter soon runs out of fuel and they arrive at a refueling station. As there was no source of fuel near the helicopter, Marlowe and Haggard were forced to drive a fuel truck to the Hind. Haggard accidentally pours the fuel into the cooling unit and Sweetwater tries to fix it. They hold off Serdaristan Army reinforcements and as as several BMD-3s starting moving towards them, Sweetwater fixes the Chopper and they escape. The President than asks B-company to bring him to Russia for his exile and as he informs you about where the gold is, but the Legionnaire appears and shoots down the helicopter.

Crash and Grab
Preston wakes up after the crash only to find his squadmates missing. Contact with Mike-1-Juliet has been made again and she directs him to several areas where she thinks the squad is located. In one of the areas, there is a video screen of the Legionnaire interrogating President Serdar and later shooting the camera after he finds out that it was recording. Preston battles his way through a large Russian Army force to get to a monastery, where he finds his squad. They later go back the way Preston went in order to escape Russia and to find President Serdar. After fighting tanks, APCs and a Russian Hind, they find the President in a small port about to be executed by the Legionnaires. The squad manages to stop the execution and, with the President, takes a boat to Sadiz.

Ghost Town
The President gets his exile from his country on a small island near Sadiz while the squad goes after the gold. After fighting a large number of MEC soldiers and tanks, B-company realizes that the U.S army is pushing onward toward the port of Sadiz, where the gold is located. B-Company then destroys 2 bridges to prevent the American armor from moving forward. When B-Company reaches the port, they find out that it still contains a large amount of gold. While they were staring in awe at the piles of Mercenary Gold, the Legionnaire attacked them in his chopper, which was used to destroy President Serdar's pimped out Hind. Preston manages to destroy it with several well-aimed rockets from an M2 Carl Gustav, but when you and your squad get back to the gold, you see the U.S. Army loading it into their trucks. Just when the squad is about to leave in disappointment, a U.S Army Officer approaches them and gives them orders to drive a truck full of 'scrap metal' (which is the truck full of gold) with the convoy. They follow the convoy for a while until they turn onto a different road. The last scene shows the Legionnaire getting out of his chopper's wreckage with a look of vengeance in his eyes.

What happens after this is unknown, but it by the time of the events in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Mercenary Gold, as well as the Legionnaire, are gone.

Multiplayer
Battlefield: Bad Company has an online multiplayer for up to 24 players on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The player can choose from kits or classes which will each have their own weapons, tools and purposes. For example, the anti-tank kit has a rocket launcher with which you can destroy heavily armoured vehicles or, obviously, tanks. New to the series, however, is the destruction. 90% of the environment ingame is destructible. You can destroy walls, vehicles, crops, foliage and even whole buildings. This could become very useful to a player. For example, if you choose the sniper kit, you could blow up a large piece of the second floor wall, then use that to camp and snipe.

This directly affects the battlefield online, making cooperation between teams a necessity in any offensive/defensive operations. thumb|300px|right

Weapons
Battlefield: Bad Company features 5 classes each with 3 default weapons depending on the faction, 4 unlockable guns and 1 unlockable special piece of equipment. The classes are Assault (assault rifle and grenade launcher), Demolition (shotgun and rocket launcher), Recon (sniper rifle and pistol), Specialist (sub-machine gun and a tracer gun that allows all allied demolition classes to fire a homing rocket on the targeted vehicle) and Support (heavy machine gun and med kit which can be used to heal yourself and your allies). All classes also has a knife for CQC, being able to kill with one swipe if in range.

Here's how the classes perform in combat:

Assault Class
Carries an assault rifle of their choice with an Undermounted Grenade Launcher. Also carries fragmentation grenades (frags) and can spend 1 unlock point to unlock the Auto Injector.


 * Assault Rifle
 * -M416 (US starting assault rifle) Default
 * -AEK-971 (RU starting assault rifle) Default
 * -AUG (MEC starting assault rifle) Default
 * -M16A2 (Highest damage out of all assault rifles at the cost of slowest rate of fire) Unlock points
 * -XM8 (A well balanced assault rifle with high accuracy and clean iron sights) Unlock points
 * -AN94 (Slight increase in both accuracy and rate of fire at the cost of decrease in damage) Unlocked Rank 25
 * -F2000 (Highest rate of fire at the cost of lowest damage) Unlocked Battlefield Veteran


 * Grenade Launcher: 8 shots
 * -M203
 * -XM320
 * -GP30


 * HG-2: 5
 * Life-2 (Unlock): Infinite

Demolition Class
Carries a Shotgun of their choice and a Rocket Launcher. They also carry frag grenades and can spend 1 unlock point to purchase the Anti-Tank mine.


 * Shotgun
 * -870MCS (US starting shotgun)
 * -Saiga 20K (RU starting shotgun)
 * -T194 (MEC starting shotgun)
 * -SPAS-12 (Short barrel resulting in a wider spread of pellets)
 * -NS2000 (An unusual double barrel shotgun which has the highest accuacy of all pump-action shotguns)
 * -SPAS-15 (Fastest semi-auto shotgun)
 * -USAS-12 (The only semi-auto shotgun that can be fired in Semi/Full automatic modes this is done by holding down the fire button, highest damage out of all semi-auto shotguns)


 * Rocket Launcher (Each faction US,RU and MEC have their own rocket launchers, they all function identical for game balancing purposes)
 * -M136 (US)
 * -RPG-7 (RU)
 * -M2CG (MEC)


 * HG-2: 5
 * ATM-00 (Unlock)

Recon Class
Carries a Sniper Rifle of their choice and a pistol. They also carry motion sensors and can spend 1 point to unlock the Laser Designator. The stronger the sniper, the better the pistol.


 * Sniper Rifle
 * -M24 (US starting sniper rifle)
 * -SV-98 (RU starting sniper rifle)
 * -GOL (MEC starting sniper rifle)
 * -SVU (Attached silencer)
 * -M95 (Uses anti-materiel rounds and highest damage out of all bolt-action snipers)
 * -VSS (Built-in silencer, can be fired semi or full auto modes, has fastest rate of fire out of all semi-auto snipers and uses special 'sub-sonic' rounds which travel below the speed of sound and ammo is anti-material much like it's reality counter part)
 * -QBU-88 (Has highest accuracy and damage out of all semi-auto snipers at the cost of lowest rate of fire)


 * Pistol (Each faction US, RU and MEC have their own sidearms)
 * - M9 (US)
 * - MP443(RU)
 * - MP412 (MEC)


 * MTN-55
 * LZ-537 (Unlock)

Specialist Class
Carries a Compact Assault Rifle of their choice and can spend 1 unlock point to acquire the C4 Remote Explosives. They also carry frag grenades and a tracer dart gun.


 * Compact Assault Rifle
 * -SCAR (US starting compact assault rifle)
 * -AKS-74u (RU starting compact assault rifle)
 * -9A91 (MEC starting compact assault rifle)
 * -UMP (Highest damage out of all compact assault rifles at the cost of lowest rate of fire)
 * -PP2000 (Highest rate of fire out of all compact assault rifles at the cost of lowest damage and accuracy)
 * -XM8C (Compact sub-machine gun. Low damage, but high rate of fire.)
 * -UZI (Has slight decrease in accuracy and increase in fire rate. Average damage.)


 * DTN-4 (Unlock) (NOTE: Maximun of 5 C4s are allowed.)
 * HG-2: 5
 * TRCR-357 (Can track vehicles including tanks, helicopters, stationary guns, and foot soldiers.)

Support Class
Carries a Light Machine Gun of their choice and medkits. They can also spend 1 unlock point to purchase the Mortar Strike Designator and also begin with a power tool.


 * Light Machine Gun
 * -M249 SAW (US starting light machine gun)
 * -PKM (RU starting light machine gun)
 * -QJY-88 (MEC starting light machine gun)
 * -XM8 LMG ( Good well balanced light machine gun, offers better hip-firing and slight decrease in recoil, best fired in controlled bursts)
 * -MG36 (The ONLY light machine gun to have an intergrated Red Dot Sight has highest accuracy because of this and slight increase in rate of fire, however at the cost decrease in damage)
 * -MG3 (Has highest rate of fire out of all light machine guns at the cost of lowest accuracy best fired in controlled bursts.
 * -M60 Machine Gun (Has highest damage at the cost of lowest rate of fire)


 * MOK-132
 * MRTR-5 (Unlock)
 * PWR-200

Vehicles


The Battlefield series has always featured a wide array of vehicles ranging from Land, Sea and Air. Bad Company carries on with that tradition. It contains helicopters, trucks, tanks, and jeeps. However, Fighter Jets, which have appeared in Battlefield 2, have been excluded from Bad Company.

One vehicular add on for the single player, is the mission exclusive gold plated helicopter, it is confirmed to include a disco ball.

There are 7 groups of vehicles in Bad Company,

1. Light Transport - The only type of light transport is the buggy, It is the same for each army, it's the fastest but least armoured vehicle. It is armed with a grenade launcher, machine gun a place for a fourth soldier at the back.

2. Armored Transport/Car - These include the Humvee (US), Vodnik (RUS) and Otokar Cobra (MEC) with a Heavy Machine Gun (with a ballistics shield) and 2 extra positions in the rear for passengers.

3. IFVs/APCs - These include the M3A3 Bradley (US), BMD-3 (RUS) and 2T Stalker (MEC), all with rapid firing autocannons which can flatten enemy infantry and small buildings with ease. There is a machine gun position and room for 2 passengers. There is an AA variation of the BMD-3 in the singleplayer campaign but it isn't included online.

4. Main Battle Tanks - The M1A2 Abrams (US), T-90 (RUS) and Black Eagle (MEC) are similar to IFVs/APCs, yet obvious interior and design exteriors are altered. They are the most powerful vehicles in the game due to their heavy armor, and large cannons. However, they are slightly slower than IFVs/APCs.

5. Attack Helicopters - AH-64 Apache (US), Mi-28 (RUS), Mi-24 (RUS, singleplayer only) and KA-52 Alligator (MEC). Helicopters dominate the sky online and off, in order to immerse the player in dogfighting with others.

6. Golf Carts - Not strictly a vehicle type, yet a fun addition that adds to the humor of Battlefield: Bad Company.

7. Boats - The Patrol Boat, light that has 4 positions and 2 grenade launchers. All factions have the same version. They are moderately armored but offer no protection for the passengers themselves.

Both IFVs and Tanks have a remote-controlled machine gun with camera sight which can be controlled by a second player inside the vehicle.

Find All Five
'Find All Five' is a way for players to unlock specific weapons. The game's official website includes promotional events that give the player codes for free downloadable weapons. These "Find All Five" weapons include the F2000 Belgian Assault Rifle, USAS-12 Automatic Shotgun, M60 Machine Gun General Purpose Machine Gun, QBU-88 DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) and silenced UZI Sub-Machine Gun. The five events from EA's website instruct the users to participate in the Battlefield Veteran's program, check the player's stats online after playing the game, register for the BF newsletter, pre-order the game through participating stores, and get to rank 4 in the demo.

On the 11 September, 2008, Battlefield: Bad Company's website revealed that 3 of the Find All Five codes would be released due to lack of availability. These 3 guns were the QBU-88 Sniper Rifle, M60 Machine Gun and the Silenced Mini UZI Sub-Machine Gun. The F2000 Assault Rifle and USAS-12 Semi-Automatic Shotgun still remained exclusive, but eventually the code was released to unlock the USAS-12. EA still wants the F2000 to be reserved for Battlefield Veterans.

Reception
Reviews for Battlefield: Bad Company were positive, with the deformable environments, large maps, high-quality audio, humorous characters in the single player mode, and diverse array of vehicles earning it praise from critics. Battlefield: Bad Company received an average of 83 on Metacritic.

Beta, Demo, And Release Date
On the 5th of June, the Demo was released, containing the map oasis and only allowing 4 level increases, However players are rewarded if they reach level 4, with a Uzi silenced sub-machine gun for use in the full game. If anybody was lucky enough to pre-order BF:BC they had access to it on the 29th of May. Nearly all of the bugs in the beta version have been fixed. DICE did not predict the large amount of demo users causing the ranking system of the demo to shut down, DICE did all it can to start up more servers to compensate for the amount of users.

Battlefield Bad Company had been released worldwide by Friday 27th June, 2008.

Sequel
A sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company has been released, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The sequel follows Bad Company as they attempt to stop a war between America and the Russian Federation, and the story has a more serious mood than the first. The sequel also has increased weapon damage and features the Destruction "2.0", while also adding specializations to multiplayer, and Bad Company 2 is now available on the PC.

Soundtrack


The soundtrack for Battlefield Bad Company was released on March 11th 2008 and contained 10 tracks all composed by Mikael Karlsson.

1. Battlefield Theme (Orchestral Version)

2. Battlefield Theme (Chamber Version)

3. Prelude To A Lost Cause (Orchestral Version)

4. Prelude To A Lost Cause (Chamber Version)

5. War Theme (Orchestral Version)

6. War Theme (Chamber Version)

7. Legionnaires Theme (Orchestral Version)

8. Legionnaires Theme (Piano Version)

9. Legionnaires Theme (Chamber Version)

10. Legionnaires Theme (Cello Solo Version)

11. Milt Buckner - The Beast (Menu)

Links and Sources

 * BF: Bad Company Official Website
 * Planet Battlefield
 * Frostbite Engine Video
 * Destruction Demonstration Video
 * Metacritic