So I finished Call of Duty: Black Ops a few weeks back. Decent game, very playable and my buddies and I have a great time with the Zombie maps every Saturday. Finished Battlefield: Bad Company 2 about a week later and now I'm exploring the Multi-player gameplay.
Well, Typical for the Battlefield franchise the controls are overly complicated but you kind of get used to them. The single player was amusing with all the chit-chat going on behind me in every mission. After I finished the game I was going through the Battlefield forums and I saw one post that said, "You owe it to yourself to try the multi-player"
Ok, so I tried it. It's kind of funny because I've been playing the Battlefield games since Battlefield:1942 and it's almost always the same experience. Of course it looks better than it did back then but the gameplay is the same for the most part and entirely dependent on the server you join. Yes you have the spawn killers, Superhero rambo types and guys who maintain multiple accounts just so they can join a "noob" server and wax everyone who's still trying to figure out what keystroke switches to their next weapon. Ok, Whatever...
So I went into the multiplayer not expecting much. Battlefield has had helicopters you can fly since Battlefield:2 but they seem a bit easier in Bad Company 2 even though I crashed the first time I got in one. Actually the best control of helicopters I ever had in the Battlefield franchise was in a custom mod for Battlefield:1942 called "DC Final" that was set primarily in the desert maps from the 1942 game. In fact, gameplay and control was so good in that I went out and bought Battlefield:2 hoping for the same experience with better graphics since most of the development team from "DC Final" was brought in for Battlefield:2 (Dice). I don't know what happened between DC Final and Battlefield:2 but I was disappointed. In fact it was so bad that I didn't bother with another Battlefield game till Bad Company 2.
I picked up Bad Company 2 for the single player and because Steam had a sale. Note that there's nothing about online in that last sentence. I knew there was some hope when glancing at the control setup screen I noticed that Bad Company 2 has the ability to use a game controller for flight control. I personally think flying machines should be controlled with Joysticks not keyboards or gamepads. At least Dice (the developer) finally figured this out and that's a good thing.
Bad company 2's multiplayer gameplay must be better than my previous experiences. I've actually invested some time in it and almost enjoy it which is rare for me. See, I usually don't enjoy online multiplayer because of the previously mentioned superheroes and spawn killers. That's not tolerated as much in the multiplayer component of Bad company 2. I usually stick to co-op play against AI opponents and I still find it preferable to straight PvP. In fact I was incensed when I found out that Call of Duty Black Ops had no option to undertake missions in co-op mode. Modern Warfare 2 and World at War allowed it but not Black Ops. Sure the zombie thing is fun but it would have been more fun to have the co-op option. My friends and I still enjoy Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 in co-op mode especially the support missions like "Big Brother" Where you or your buddy can take control of the gun on an attack chopper and try to support the other guy who's on the ground facing hordes of baddies.
Now remember, I'm no kid. My gaming experiences go beyond the game itself and are actually social experiences with other real live people in the same room. I can't count how many times my buddy on the other side of the office has reminded me that I have a perfectly good hot cup of coffee that's quickly turning to the iced variety because I'm so engrossed in the game.
I sometimes think that game developers think that the only people buying their games are 15 year olds with no friends. Reality Check guys, the population is getting older and we don't get our thrills on the playground anymore. Sometimes it's fun to dive into the masses but the experience isn't enough to justify the 30 to 60 dollar price of admission. I mean, how hard can it BE! Most good FPS titles have a decent Single Player component with ever more challenging AI. So how hard is it to just allow your buddy to do a mission with you?
Battlefield 2 had the same issue till someone figured out a hack to allow another player to join in a single player mission.
Anyway, I saw some improvement in online multi-player but I still want to see more co-op gameplay. I just hope someone comes up with a Bad Company 2 mod that allows co-op and maybe allows gameplay on some of the multiplayer only maps!
No comments:
Post a Comment