Welcome to Bad Company

If you’re like me and never played the console-exclusive predecessor to BC2, you might be wondering just what the heck Bad Company is. Officially designated B-Company of the 222nd Army battalion, the group is made up of insubordinates and troublemakers being punished for a variety of undesirable behaviors. Considered expendable, these military misfits end up on the front lines before anyone else, carrying out dangerous assignments so that more valuable assets need not be risked.

You play as Marlowe, your highly-skilled jack-of-all-trades that fills the role of that go-to guy every video game needs. You’re joined by Sweetwater the egghead, and Haggard the trigger-happy redneck, as well as Sarge, the only one crazy enough to have signed up for his position. The resulting combination is a group that is entirely unconventional, yet undeniably capable of incredible feats.


The story unfolds with a prologue that takes place during the final stages of World War II. The Japanese have developed an incredible weapon of mass destruction, and your team of commandos is tasked with extracting a defecting scientist who knows how it works. Fast-forward to the near future; the weapon has long since disappeared and tensions between the US and Russia are high. Bad Company discovers that the enemy plans on utilizing the decades-old technology to facilitate a full-scale invasion, and so embarks on a journey across three continents to find it before they do.

For the first time on the PC, a Battlefield game features a single-player mode that consists of more than offline bot skirmishes. You will tread frozen tundra, desert plains, steamy jungles, and everywhere in between with your smart-ass squad mates in tow. There are plenty of vehicles to ride, explosions to see, and nameless bad guys to kill, but it begs the question: Is it any good?