Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is an upcoming first-person shooter video game in development by EA Digital Illusions CE and to be published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The game is a direct sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company and was announced at one of Electronic Arts’ earnings conferences and was showcased for the first time at E3 2009. The game is scheduled for release on March 2, 2010 in North America and March 5, 2010 in Europe, as announced at the EA press conference at Gamescom.
Gameplay — Gameplay in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 resembles that of the original and is set in various environments from around the world, including the mountainous regions along the borders of Russia. Like its predecessor, Bad Company 2 features destructible environments. The system is dubbed “Destruction 2.0,” and the level of destruction is extended — players can now completely collapse a building as opposed to only blowing out walls. Along with Battlefield Vietnam, Bad Company 2 is one of only two games in the Battlefield series to have blood without third-party modification.
Similar to Battlefield 1943, the health system from the previous “Bad Company” is replaced with regenerative health. There will be new vehicles in Bad Company 2, such as the UH-60, a quad bike, a two-man patrol boat, a personal watercraft, an AA-gun mounted on a light tank, and a UAV helicopter controlled via laptop.
Single-player — On January 22, 2010, it was revealed by senior producer Patrick Bach during an interview that the single player campaign will be about ten hours in length. Right before the close of the show, executive producer Karl Magnus Troedsson stated that the team wants to “give away a good bit of stuff for free,” but they also have plans for paid downloadable content as well. He also went on to say that they would like to do additional weapons, among other things that fans want to see.
In a separate trailer released on January 21, the single player campaign was detailed, featuring the return of Private Preston Marlow, Private Terrance Sweetwater, Private George Gordon Haggard Jr., and Sergeant Samuel D. Redford as the main characters of the game, hunting a fictional unknown weapon made in South America.
Multiplayer — The “Gold Rush” mode in the original Bad Company is referred to simply as “Rush” in Bad Company 2. The format is similar in that an attacking team must detonate explosives on a defending team’s crates. The attacking team succeeds by eliminating all the crates on the map, and the defending team succeeds if the attackers are not able to eliminate the crates in the active area before their tickets are depleted. Making use of the Destruction 2.0 system, it is also possible to eliminate some of the crates by collapsing the building they are in on top of them. A lower scale mode called “Squad Rush” was confirmed that has only two opposing teams of four players battle against each other with one existing crate stash.
Multiplayer will allow players to choose from a set of weapon kits before each spawn, the number of which has been further reduced from Bad Company’s five down to four: Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Medic (with the Specialist kit being the one removed). In addition to the hand grenades and sidearms standard for all classes, each class also has an initial primary weapon and a pair of gadgets unique to that class. A customizable weapon selection menu is also new to the Bad Company series (similar to unlocks in Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142). Gaining experience points allows a player to unlock and use different weapons and gadgets, some only useable by a given class and some available to any class that player uses. There are also unlockable items that can modify the game’s firearms, such as ACOGs, reflex sights, and short or long barrel grenade launchers. If the game is pre-ordered at GameStop, EB Games in Canada, or Amazon in the United Kingdom, the AKS-74U will be immediately unlocked for use.
The experience points used to unlock the above items will be awarded for performing actions conducive to the goals of the player’s team, such as eliminating enemy players, healing teammates, or capturing or defending points of interest. Bonuses to the base number of points can be awarded under certain circumstances (such as achieving a headshot in the process of eliminating an enemy player). A dog tag system as seen in Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield: Bad Company returns, awarding players trophies of sorts in the form of opponents’ dog tags when they defeat the opponent with a melee attack.
On October 19, 2009, game developer DICE posted a Twitter announcement stating the game will have dedicated server support. This was in response to Infinity Ward’s announcement on October 17 that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would not support dedicated servers. Players will also be able to use party chat for each game mode.