Bad Company Beta Report

The latest entry in the Battlefield franchise, Battlefield: Bad Company™, is undergoing some preliminary open-warfare courtesy of EA's Xbox LIVE® beta, and for good reason. Bad Company ushers in a host of new features, revamped gameplay, and of course its much touted environmental destruction. All these new additions benefit from the beta, as feedback and testing allow EA and developer DICE the time and detail they need to polish and refine the game as it leads up to launch.

Ah, sweet golden retirement fund.

Of course, we can enjoy the fringe benefits of the beta as well, namely, getting better acquainted with the new features and mechanics Bad Company introduces, and discovering just how they elevate the gameplay we've come to know and love from previous titles.

Rampant Destruction

Who among us hasn't delivered a tremendous blow to a wall, tree, or structure in a game only to find with some dismay that it remains unharmed and unmoved by our assault? It's this consistent and strident frustration in the environmental design of so many games that developer DICE has set out to solve. Now, if it can reasonably be demolished, shattered, crumbled or otherwise decimated, it will be.

You can form your squad well before ever joining a
match as well, allowing you to partner up with three
friends and join the fight together as a pre-made squad.

Tanks roll forth now able to blow open walls and fell trees, grenades splinter doors and shatter windows, and even bullets tear through flimsy cover, busting crates and punching holes wherever they land.

It's a visual treat to be sure, but the ramifications for in-game strategy are just as impressive. Suddenly no cover is safe, no building free from explosive entry. Sure, an object may help you hide, but rarely will it stand up against a consistent, dedicated assault. It's a whole new ballgame of run and cover in EA's Battlefield: Bad Company.

A Golden Focus

"The war is over, and now opportunity is knocking." So says the opening narration for the Battlefield: Bad Company beta. Where once the battlefields were fought tooth and nail to secure strategic locations for the war effort, they are now fought for greed and gain as you assault or defend gold deposits.

If it was built, you can break it.

Thematically, this change fits hand in hand with the game's ever so slightly over-the-top, hyper-realistic approach to combat. This change also establishes a tighter focus on the action, effectively funneling the combat to a few (thankfully) predictable locations.

Where in previous Battlefield games the action was spread out across the map, you'll now find only a couple of objectives highlighted at any given time, and in close proximity to one another. Only one base with gold caches is active at any given time, so in order to gain active access to bases further along the map, the attacking squad must first destroy the active gold deposits.

Squad Activity

Veterans of the Battlefield franchise can attest to the sometimes difficult task of coordinating precision attacks with large teams, but the new squad feature helps to smooth out teamwork and to keep the action fast and frenetic.

• Four-man squads: Two teams of twelve players square off against one another in a standard match. However, with the squad system, each team of twelve contains three squads of four players, allowing each squad to strategize and work together more easily. Also, voice chat in-game is squad-specific, so no need to worry about twelve players all talking over one another.
• Partner up, then join: You can form your squad well before ever joining a match as well, allowing you to partner up with three friends and join the fight together as a pre-made squad.
• Squad spawn: Most important to the in-game action is the newfound ability to spawn with your squad, right in the heat of battle. Provided at least one squad member is alive and well near the front, you'll no longer have to worry about spawning back at base and hoofing it all the way back to the action. Of course, if you want to grab a tank, helicopter or other vehicle, you're free to spawn back at your base if you choose to do so.

I see you!

Beyond the aforementioned improvements and new features, you'll find much of what so many have come to love about the Battlefield franchise still intact. You can still choose among a variety of classes such as Recon, Assault, or Support, hop into troop carriers, wreak havoc in tanks, strafe enemy camps in a helicopter, man anti-aircraft guns and a good deal more besides. The flow of battle is just as frantically fast and chaotic, only now the focus is even more clear, and the action easier to find.

Battlefield: Bad Company looks to strike that perfect balance between securing what so many fans appreciate about past games while being wholly unafraid to make radical improvements to the game's foundation and basic mechanics. Look for more details on Battlefield: Bad Company as it nears its June release.

Article by Ryan Treit