BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY™ 2 Review
PROS
- Beefy single-player campaign; 14 levels, 5 locations.
- Great level designs with mixed scenarios.
- Three customizable control systems.
CONS
- Thin multiplayer features; unstable and poor setup.
- Default controls conserve screen space, but cause more woe than go.
VERDICT
BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 isn't the same flashy rock-solid tactical shooter that has rocketed off on major consoles, but the single-player campaign has some meat even despite the anemic multiplayer mode.
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With the quality of first-person shooters on the App Store reaching higher levels with each iteration, it's getting harder to justify playing the half-finished attempts hoping to cash in on the new wave. BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY™ 2 by EA is by no means a weak franchise, but with the series being dominated by its strong multiplayer features it's a shame to see that this title has seemingly been released before its time.
Thankfully the single-player campaign holds up much of this release, with a fairly standard "go get'em" storyline that only serves to throw you in to the next firefight. Generic archetypes and characters aside, the gameplay is surprisingly engaging, with a variety of scenarios that pull you between points of stealth, tactical firefights and the occasional moments of spray-and-pray in vehicles and mounted-guns. The default control scheme leaves a lot to be desired, mostly thanks to the awkwardly slow iron-sight movement speed and the need to tap in your movement area to fire. This can result in discharging your weapon at inopportune moments, but the alternate control schemes do feature fairly standard controls to fall back to.
While the model detail for the environments and characters aren't pushing any boundaries, the level designs and artwork are top-notch, with Retina display users getting the advantage of sharper visuals that are keep the quality high. The real let down comes when you're finished with the 14 mission campaign and you delve in to the bland and often unstable multiplayer mode. Without an auto-match to speed things up, players will need to manually join one of hundreds of open matches currently available, often being denied in the process and when you do connect you're presented with a couple maps featuring at most 4 players engaged in an all-out or team-deathmatch mode.
Given the depth of the multiplayer of Bad Company's console compatriots, it's a shame this side of things was left so bare bone - especially when recent releases from Gameloft have shown just how good multiplay can be on the iDevices. Grab BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 while it's still on special, if only for the decent campaign, but don't expect to spend much time fragging real foes once you're done.
Screenshots
$0.99
