Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is an acclaimed first-person shooter that largely forgets the quest for gold story that was presented in the first one and instead takes the narrative in a new more action-packed focus.

The story begins in October 1944, Private Thomas Wyatt and a band of soldiers infiltrate an IJN-controlled island in the Sea of Japan. Their mission is to bring back a Japanese scientist working on a secret weapon dubbed “Aurora”. They are successful in securing the scientist, but before they can make their escape, they witness the power of Aurora first-hand.

Fast forward to present day, and we find Sergeant Redford leading Privates Preston Marlowe, Terrance Sweetwater, and George Haggard, better known as B-Company, as they fight behind enemy lines in Russia to secure a device that is somehow connected to Aurora. Once they secure the device, they discover it is a fake. Despite this setback, General Braidwood assigns them the task of stopping Aurora, and sends them on an adventure that spans locales such as South America, the Andes Mountains, and beyond.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 draws many similarities to last year’s smash hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and even makes cracks about MW2 in the game’s dialogue. Both feature epic single-player campaigns that feature intense gun-fights, and explosive scenes of vehicular combat. Bad Company 2, however, features a robust engine that provides fully destructible environments that create a more realistic game than what MW2 offers. Also, both games feature a time consuming multiplayer mode that allows you to gain experience to unlock new weapons and items. The difference here is that BC2 features 4 classes such as Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon; each with different roles and abilities that make team-work essential to winning.

After spending many hours (OK, days) playing BC2, I can safely say that I will no longer be playing MW2 and a lot of my friends have said the same. Considering this is a game that is getting a lot of buzz, as a parent if your children have not yet asked for it, they might soon. Here is what you need to know beforehand.

What Parents Need to Know

Violence

Bad Company 2 is rated “Mature” by the ESRB for Blood, Strong Language, and Violence. Being a First-Person Shooter (which means you see the action from the eyes of a soldier with your arms and gun being presented on-screen) the player will see ample amounts of violence and blood. The game is very realistic in that everything can be destroyed. Cover can be systematically blown away by hails of bullets as enemies or players hide behind it. Whole buildings can be toppled by RPG’s, mortar strikes, or by driving a tank right through it. Even more impressive is the fact that you can even play the role of a logger and take out almost every tree in the game. Despite the very realistic destructible environments and the large amounts of blood; Bad Company 2 does not feature realism for the destruction of bodies. In other words you cannot blow bodies apart even with grenades, and dead bodies do disappear after a few moments.

Language

Bad Company 2 features quite a bit of bad language such as f***, s***, d***, b****, p****, h***, and b******, and is used on a consistent basis through-out the game.

Sexual Content

There is nothing sexual based in this game.

Spiritual Content

There is no spiritual content in this game.

Reviewers Thoughts

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is easily being called a Modern Warfare killer and in some respects deserves that title in this reviewer’s opinion. Parents should keep in mind, however, that being a military shooter, this game does feature a lot of violence and bad language. In addition, because of its strong online offering, it is very easy to play this game for hours on end. With that in mind, The Source for Parents recommends that parents set up time limits if you do decide to allow your child to play this game.