Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Mode: Still Alive and Awesome

Battlefield bad company 2 is a marvelous package of true shear madness. The developers seem to have carefully devised the game to cater the fire of providing what we call a polished experience with a real warlike sense on battle field. I guess it is definitely safe to say, the game, especially the multiplayer mode is still kicking, going on strong. This version of the game is the best one till date of its type. We can still see many players and populated servers even after 7 years of its release and that is intriguing.

The game has got a really cool campaign mode, but was game was crafted with a special focus on a multiplayer mode. Bad Company 2 for that time of FPS gamers was a leap of innovation of its kind. If you truly consider yourselves a Battlefield series fan, you cannot really claim so without playing this one. EA launched many battlefield titles after that, but every game till date, even the latest, Battlefield 1 is compared to this old beauty. It is still kind of milestone, a benchmark for the all battlefield lovers.

I am really excited to talk about the game which I have been playing from long time and honestly addicted to and I must admit I have not got tired even a bit of playing this game till date.

I want to specially discuss about the multiplayer mode of bad company 2 and what it has to offer. It has got huge amount of insanity jam-packed in it, and I am literally talking from shooting the opponent players with RPGs to blasting them off with C4 kind of madness. Ever heard of an anti tank mine blasting and taking down the heli?? Sounds crazy right? Well not for the bad company 2 players, as this is what they can do to take the opponents down.

The game has got crisp mechanics which are real easy to learn but tough to master them. Being easy, there is huge competition and your real skills are put to test. Apt strategy and wise tactics are a must to win any mode in this game. I am saying this because it is not really a game where you just go on Rambo shooting anyone who crosses you. The ragdolls in the game are truly funny though. I don’t know are they made so intentionally or what, but they sure as hell are damn funny. You literally even knife someone and sometimes the body flies high in sky. Occasionally when there is any kind of blast, a flying body or bodies can be seen from miles. Truly hilarious.

The game has got four modes major modes of game in total: Squad death match, Rush, squad Rush and Conquest. Although the game is more focused on Rush and conquest, still squad death match is also great!!

I liked how the game properly balances the points, pins distribution and progression system is very well. Just a high kill to death ratio is not enough to top the charts in a round, but you have to be a team player and focus on objective which yield lot of points. You can have really low number of kills and still top the chart by completing the objectives. I absolutely love the fact that the game is objective oriented and not just kill oriented.

One more momentous element in the game is the near perfect audio design for which, the game even won the BAFTA award, which it truly deserves. Someone lurking behind you or approaching from front hence becomes easy to foretell. The audio cues players get when whole building is about to collapse on you or say grenade warnings and even opponent and friendly soldier’s outcry makes the experience more breathtaking.

The game has got fascinating visuals with a variety of war terrain right from dense jungles, chilly snow-clad areas to big deserts. The developers made sure while making the game that they cover maximum type of regions and give a premium quality warlike sense to the players. The map design of the game is prudently done which never over powers either side of offence or defense. Map designing is a crucial aspect in any FPS multiplayer to maintain proper flow of offence and the defense and balance both the sides.

The game gained this huge popularity is the due to amount of demolition packed in it. There were not many games at that time which had that kind of dynamic environment set. Like, just blast a couple of C4 on the building and watch it will crumble down to ground. It is human tendency to enjoy the destruction, especially when you have such adrenaline pumped in you. Everything being destructible in the game, which even canvassed the covers while in fight, dramatically changed face of the game. Each and every structure standing on the field can be flattened and that is really intriguing.

Another plus point of the game is its polished set of arsenals. There are total four kits for a player and each kit has its own perks which can be used in the game.  Not only just kits but also the combat vehicles like tanks and helicopters have their own perks and upgrades. With different kits, the change in the play style is literally felt. It is this variety of weapons and contrasting performance of different kits that made this title a big hit.

About the technicality, this game definitely uses a good net code. Pings make a huge difference in individual performance though, but it also kind of depends on, how far you are from the servers. Sometimes hit registration problem also occurs due to ping difference. So overall it is pretty good experience and surely enjoyable.

Though the game is really good, it has its own imperfections in my opinion which could have been better to enhance the experience. Whenever the game elements are introduced in the game, like weapons per say, the quantity and their purpose should be definitely kept in mind. What I exactly want to say here is Quality and the Quantity of these game elements and their exact intention in the game. Simply keeping huge amount of weapons and gadgets with little damage and/or accuracy difference just seems a cover up to word “variety” where quality lacks. Sure, it gives us many options of how we want to play the game, but this also makes it very difficult to maintain equilibrium of all the gadgets, weapons and gameplay. Due to this, even redundancy of weapons increases as anyhow, players use only some popular weapons & gadgets. Also less redundancy means being less random and uncertainty in way player dies, which won’t make a huge difference but surely will give feel of good and balanced experience.

The game has four primary kits and those are Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. When a new player starts with any of the kits, all popular or bit powerful weapons of that kit, along with customizable upgrades are locked for you. So if you are really new player to this FPS arena of games, with no added perks, you are sure to die like million time unless you get the upgrades unlocked and use it for your advantage. Till then, players may get frustrated as the experienced players already are pro in playing and also with all the upgrades, which gives them the extra edge. Until the time you unlock them game really tests your patience and consistence. This causes lot of frustration in players which makes them rage quit the game pretty quickly. If we see through a designer’s perspective, you will surely have to rethink on it. As a designer, we have to attract and retain almost all types of players.

For this, we can simply have one simple solution. The primary, at least 3 weapons should be kept unlocked (one of them being good or popular weapon). Now surely some will say it will kill progression part, where you actually have to unlock and “earn” it. Now c’mon, this isn’t RPG you are playing where you have to see the track of your progression. I certainly don’t mean it is not at all important here, it is, but not really that much. Let’s say even the weapons are unlocked according to current scenario, but still there is no huge difference between their accuracy, damage point etc. If player are retained in game, there will progression. I guess you get where I am going with that. Moreover, the ranking system and different achievement pins really do the job of giving progression feel very well.

Speaking of progression, the game misses the feature of dynamic ranking system. Ones the player in the game reaches rank #50 and there is nothing really left in the game to unlock, you have no choice but simply play the game, that’s about it. So say, if a player is playing from really long time, still is not much skilled, player is sure to reach rank #50 one day, but really lacks the skills as per the rank number.

For this, simple solution is introduction of dynamic ranking system. That is, your rank will be decided on last 4 games you played and your performance in it. This would definitely increase the attachment level and there will be always something to boost of in the game other than skills! This varying ranking will always keep the players adhered to the game until they reach a respectable rank. It will also ask for consistent performance, so skilled players will be rewarded accordingly.

There are basically a million different ways in which you can die in game due to its randomness and unpredictability, which are may be enjoyable for some but really frustrating for others. What I am exactly talking about is, say you are in the middle of completely open ground, and there is a mortar strike on you. You can’t really escape the situation. Death is certain for you and can do nothing about. Other worse cases are, say you face a UAV right in front of your face, bam, there is no way to escape it and it will rode kill you or say million varieties of RPGs flying at you and you have no idea where are they coming from. For experienced players, who know the basics of the FPS game, it keeps them focused and alert, but if say you are new to the game and when you get erratic and random deaths, it just it doesn't makes the best gameplay experience!!   From my perspective, it cannot be completely counted as an imperfection. But then unless the player gains the proper experience this game can be bit tough to handle. To avoid the frustration, the player needs to be a fast learner with patience, to have smooth experience and enjoy it to fullest. I thought of adding this point in my analysis, just because, in my experience, I see many new players,  joining servers every day, after hardly first five minutes, if they don’t have proper know-how of how to play, they start feeling this game is just not really for them and end up rage quitting. Now you may say that those players are losers or bunch of newbie, but thinking from a designer’s perspective, you would want really anyone and everyone to play and enjoy your game. I have seen many players jump directly into the multiplayer mode not even touching the campaign mode for even single time.  So assuming player knows all will be erroneous.

Another big issue of game in my opinion is its squad chat option. It is not really smooth with lots of voice drops observed. Also when game SFX is loud, say for example you are in combat with lots of destruction and blasts happening around you, your squad mate may not be clearly audible to you at that moment. The voice and audio volumes are set to default and you cannot adjust that. Mostly third party software is used by many players for in game voice chat. As I already mentioned, this is a team game and you cannot win it without proper strategy and tactics, ingame chat kind of becomes important part of the experience. A squad occupies only four players. This means, if you are playing with a big team, the squad chat is limited for your squad only and not the whole team.

What I would like to tweak here is, we will give a proximity area for every player, a range. Now say if that player talks in game, the squad mates will listen him irrespective of the distance, but also all other players who are in the range will be able to listen him. Yes, this means enemy players too, if they are in range!! Doesn’t it give more realistic experience? So say if one of your teammate is a chatterbox, enemy will know your position if he/she talks a lot, better watch out for these kind. 

Also, the main thing I missed in the game is the variety of combat vehicles in flying category. No jets are seen in game in flying vehicle class. Though the helicopters are enough to get around in the maps, but still, flying a jet will give a real epic feeling. Bad Company 2 do gives you lot of options to navigate around in big maps, but it makes a difference when there are simple vehicles and combat vehicles. Point which I like about the game though is, the upgradeable perks you can add to your combat vehicles which in my opinion is a really good touch. While on foot, the players can crouch, that’s fine but I missed the prone position. This pose in the game will add a lot of fun as players will also have to thoroughly check the grounds as well. Then sometimes there is no difference between fresh dead body and a prone posed player. This will make the gameplay in dense jungle really exciting!!

I honestly feel the Recon kit, which is my favorite kit, in the game is little over-powered compared to other kits. Yes I admit it. If you are skilled and use this kit, you can easily dominate the field. One shot kills, no scope kills in close quarter combats, C4 to blast tanks and buildings, motion sensors, ranged attacks by mortars, ability to take down helicopter just by sniping the pilot etc. makes this kit really powerful than other kits. For me it is fine. Even though it is over-powered, you need to be skilled enough to properly use it. After all every kit has its own role to play on the war field.

 When there is proper team work, co-ordination and you win a round, trust me, it really gives an epic feeling of victory. With small tweaking and balancing, this already one of the best multiplayer games is sure to raise the bars of excellence to new heights and that too with an awesome experience!

Thank you very much for reading my insight and opinion on the game. Hope you had a good read. I would love to hear from you your thoughts on the game, feel free to discuss. Until next time then!!