Hot dang, a new Battlefield title is finally here! PC gamers take a seat; this is one for the console folks only.

In the series' first 'true' outing for the next gen consoles, Battlefield: Bad Company is also the first in the critically acclaimed multiplayer series to include a bona fide single-player story. Edging away from the scorching desert heat of the Middle East, Bad Company takes us to Eastern Europe in a conflict against the Russian Federation that takes us right into the heart of the fictional country Serdarista. The titular Bad Company refers to a misfit division within the army, an expendable unit sent in to clear out the enemy before the 'real' soldiers arrive with their high tech weaponry to pose for the press. Playing through the eyes of Private Preston Marlowe, you find yourself sent to B Company as punishment for taking a military chopper on a bit of a joyride and quickly assigned to a squad and sent out on the battlefield. Your squad consists of a range of rag-tag bunch of blatant genre stereotypes, from the gung-ho Southerner, to the cautious, nerdy strategist and the tough talking Sarge who attempts to keep it all together.


Things aren't looking too promising in B Company, where each day is just another closer to death. That is, until they discover their enemy is none other than the Legionnaire, the leader of a deadly group of mercenaries who pays his soldiers in solid gold bars. Sick of being cannon fodder, your squad unanimously agrees to go AWOL and pursue the gold, in a pursuit reminiscent of films the likes of Three Kings and Kelly's Heroes. After the heavy heartedness of Call of Duty 4, Bad Company is a refreshingly light-hearted affair that never ceases to acknowledge that it's parodying the genre and is genuinely hilarious in the process.

Missions take place on massive, open ended maps, with a linear construction. Your objectives are straightforward: destroy supply depots, rescue hostages and take out the enemy. You are limited to two weapons (a primary weapon and some form of either grenade or pistol) and an extra bit of tech to fight your way through, constantly chopping and changing with whatever weapons you can find to get the job done. Single player is certainly no mere last minute tack on. Each of the seven single-player maps are massive and completely different to the multiplayer maps. It feels like a huge oversight then that the story is a solely single-player experience, with no option for co-op multiplayer whatsoever. With four key soldiers making up your squad, it would only seem logical that this would have made the cut. With the exception of half a mission where you're forced to go lone wolf, the rest of the game sees you fighting back-to-back as brothers in arms. Gameplay not only could have been a whole lot more enjoyable, but also more efficient and strategic, were it to allow for co-op play. It really could have made for one of the most well implemented co-op game modes, seeing as the game's ultimate mechanics revolve around players of different combat styles contributing towards a unified goal, like cogs in a well-oiled machine.

There are enough guns to be collected to not make the change of weapons an issue, but it really stands out when using a vehicle, how much the game could have benefited from multiplayer. If you're driving any vehicle at all, if you wish to swap to another seat the AI might take control of the guns, but the vehicle itself will remain stationary. In the thick of battle, it's cumbersome to say the least. It could have made for some fantastic multiplayer and is no doubt a disappointment, but at least your artificial companions deliver some great dialogue and keep things lively.

To compensate for the lack of medic on hand to tend to your wounds, you are provided with an auto-injector to take care of yourself. One jab and you're straight back up to full health. You can use it as much as you like, but must allow time for it to replenish after each use. In multiplayer, you will only be graced with the fortune of the auto-injector if you happen to unlock it for the Assault class. Other players will be dependent on the medical side of the support class and need to make sure they don't cross paths with any stray bullets. Should you forget to auto-inject yourself, dying on the battlefield is a whole other case. Apart from failing a protection based objective, whenever you re-spawn, you'll continue right where you left off, albeit you'll need to backtrack to your position from the last checkpoint, but whatever enemies you had defeated and whatever chaos you had caused will remain. You never really need to worry about dying and you're never really forced to try new strategies if your attack goes horribly wrong. I found myself just running around with gay abandon, without fear of death. The single-player is quite short and this only makes it shorter. It really feels as if it removes a lot of the challenge and intensity. Heck, at times you're almost rewarded for dying. You'll often re-spawn in a vehicle, which sure comes in handy when there's a long walk ahead and no vehicles in sight. Whilst constant re-spawning on the battlefield feels right in multiplayer, as you just presume you're a part of an army of thousands, it feels odd and nonsensical in single player. My opinions of the re-spawn system admittedly changed as the game progressed and began to appreciate it as the difficulty shot up with an exponential curve (the ability to restart from your last checkpoint is still available if you desire). The effect the re-spawn system has is much like a dynamic difficulty adjustment, making the game easier when you start to struggle. From that end, I mightn't necessarily agree that the re-spawn system is right for the game but it helps to alleviate frustration if you just want to play on through to the end.

I can't write this review without touching on the Frostbite game engine, which introduces another key addition to the series in the form of destructible environments. The level of damage is just amazing. From the first wall you destroy to your thousandth, it never ceases to impress. Not only does it look great, but destroying the environment also has a wholly tactical application. Bridges can be destroyed to prevent vehicle movement. Scenery can be destroyed to ruin a sniper's cover. Don't want to go through the front door? Just make your own exit out the back. It works brilliantly as a game mechanic and hot damn does it look impressive in the process. You can't quite destroy everything, but for the sake of gameplay this is most definitely a necessity. With mortar strikes and air raids a plenty, you'll be thankful for whatever cover you can find. Sure we've seen destructible environments before, from Red Faction to Crysis, but within Battlefield it manages to introduce a whole new level of gameplay to the series. Returning to a round of Call of Duty 4, you'll truly notice the stinging level of artificial restriction imposed in the game design. Sure enough you'll realise that destruction isn't quite as dynamic as it first feels and building designs will start to repeat themselves far too much, but from start to finish you'll just want to blow up everything in sight. I made sure to blow up every red barrel or crate I came across (yes, the enemy still hasn't learnt that it's not a good idea to identify explosive barrels with bright red paint), willingly blowing my cover on more than one occasion in the process.

It isn't just visually that the destruction is impressive, it is through sound that the spectacle becomes complete. Bad Company would have to feature some of the best, if not THE best sound effects of any wartime shooter I've ever played. Bullets whiz past and mounted guns creak with rustic charm, but it is the explosions that stand out. Loud and impressive, sound zips out if you get too close and you are left with a ringing in your ear. The sound effects compliment the damage hand in hand and arguably it is the sound effects that make the destruction just so damn satisfying. It really needs to be played first hand, but if you're fortunate enough to have surround sound, you're in for a real treat.

There are only seven missions, which take about an hour or so to complete each, but within these are multiple routes of engagement and a plethora of hidden items to find. It's as fun to play through a second time, but certainly not a patch on what could have been some fantastic four player combat. Speaking of hidden items, each map has a range of both hidden gold crates to be found and also "Collectibles", which are hidden guns to find. It's an added challenge that'll make you search every last crevice of the maps, rather than blasting on through, my only disappointment was that there is no actual benefit in completing the tasks. Unless you're a completist or achievement whore, the encouragement just isn't there. Having found all the guns myself, it would have been nice if such a task rewarded you with extra weaponry for multiplayer. I can imagine for PlayStation 3 owners, the task would seem even more pointless.

We've covered the single player, but if there's one thing Battlefield is renowned for it's the multiplayer. Breaking the mould, Bad Company turns multiplayer on its head, ditching the old game modes in favour of a new game mode called Gold Rush. Taking influence from the single-player story, opposing sides are pitted against each other in the pursuit for gold.

One side are tasked as the Defenders, whose duty it is to protect the gold crates stored on their base. The other side are the Attackers, who must destroy the enemy's gold crates, either with brute force or a well-placed charge. There are two gold crates to a base and it is the Defenders' duty to hold off the attack and stop the crates from being destroyed to the point that the enemy's re-spawns have been depleted. If the crates are destroyed and the base taken, then the Defenders will fall back to another base and the Attackers' re-spawn quota becomes replenished. The number of bases differs between maps, but the map initially remains condensed to the space between the Attackers' and Defenders' bases and gradually expands as the Defenders are forced to retreat. Attackers must take one base at a time. After playing a round on the offensive front, you will change sides and play the map again from the Defenders' position. Wash, rinse and repeat.

With the action condensed to specific areas, it keeps the action flowing thick and fast as the Defenders' struggle to retain control of the map's choke points. With 12 players a side and the action localised it really captures the feeling that you are fighting a much larger war, like we saw with Frontlines earlier this year. The downside in localising the action and designating players as Attackers or Defenders is that it simplifies the player's strategies and removes the dynamic push and pull nature the series is typically known for. The end result is that, like with single player, it can often lead to the attackers endlessly rushing the base until either they lose or the crate is destroyed. This isn't to say that Gold Rush is bad. Not at all. One of the great benefits that comes with rewriting the rules and introducing a new way to play is that players themselves are adjusting to the mode and finding new ways to play and new strategies to implement. It certainly can hold its own as the standout, not to mention only, multiplayer game mode. With only one game mode, Bad Company can feel a little bare bones at first, but EA have confirmed that Conquest mode, the series' staple ticket depletion mode, will be available in the near future as free download.

Taking things one step forward, Bad Company also takes things one step back, returning to the more condensed class choice of earlier Battlefield titles. You have your five standard classes of Assault, Demolition, Recon, Specialist and Support, each with their typical inventory. Like with Battlefield 2142 before it, each time you rank up you earn an unlock credit to unlock a new weapon or item, allowing you to upgrade your kit of choice. There are four unlockable weapons and one item for each class, but not all are unlocked in the same way. Five weapons (one for each class) can only be obtained by visiting findallfive.com and completing the required tasks, while there are five extra weapons available if you purchase the Gold Edition of the game, or are otherwise unlockable once you reach the game's final rank. In addition to ranks and weaponry, there is also a hefty selection of awards to be obtained. Both accumulative, based on your total progress in multiplayer, and also awarded for tasks completed in a single round, obtaining each and every one of these is no easy feat. They help to keep gameplay rewarding, but also interesting by forcing you to use classes and tactics outside your comfort zone.

A stable connection is make or break for a game of this calibre. On the whole, Bad Company manages to handle its weight admirably over Xbox Live. Granted, occasionally you will encounter some, albeit largely minimal, lag playing against international opponents but in my own personal experiences I never encountered a match that was so plagued by lag as to be unplayable. Finding local matches is desirable for the best experience. I certainly wouldn't be complaining if it were hosted on the Internode servers.

So PC gamers, are you missing out? Yes and no. Bad Company brings some fantastic new additions to the series, but it has no doubt been made with consoles in mind. As a single player experience, Bad Company should be applauded for actually putting in the effort and proving that a story based experience can work, and work well, within the Battlefield mechanics. The Bioshock-style respawn mechanic may lessen the overall difficulty, but there is still a hefty challenge that awaits. Co-op multiplayer is painfully lacking and really is what holds the experience back from being something great. As a new multiplayer game mode, Gold Rush is great fun, entirely addictive and certainly not a disappointment. The overall lack of other game modes will dishearten some, but the promise of Conquest mode at a later date is sure to keep fans coming back. A little undercooked, but a worthy instalment in the series. We can only hope that the inclusion of a story mode and destructible environments will remain a staple element of the Battlefield series in future instalments.