Battlefield: Bad Company

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 3rd July 2008
Comments (16) Stumble

Blow it up!

One of the big features that Bad Company has on it’s specification list and box blurb is the destructible environments. It’s also one of the things which has had us most excited about the game as we approached the release date.

Unfortunately, the level of destructibility is hugely variable and the implementation of this feature is also a little weak.

The idea is simple; that you can plough your way through anything you could feasibly plough through. Tanks can storm through walls. Rockets can blow holes in buildings. Bullets can shatter fences and doors.

The reality though is a lot less impressive and its important that we explain the limitations and benefits of the system that DICE has elected to use – one which seems to work by breaking buildings down into component parts, each of which can be destroyed under a smoke effect to give the illusion of destruction.

The first problem though is that this means each building and structure takes a lot, lot longer to build, but DICE has got around this nicely by simply re-using dozens of retextured houses and bunkers for the most part.

Battlefield: Bad Company Battlefield: Bad Company - Physics and Graphics

That’s not something that seriously impacts on the gameplay as much as it did in, say, FEAR, since you spend most of the time outside anyway. It can get annoying over time though, especially if you’re a completionist and insist on searching every single empty attic and living room.

It’s also important to draw a distinction here between destructible environments and realistic physics. Just because you can make huge parts of a wall disappear, sending maybe one or two bricks flying loosely through the air, doesn’t mean it will have an effect on the structural integrity of the building.

Buildings won’t always collapse just because you’ve blown out nearly all the walls, they’ll just be left standing there like emptied out carcasses – dead bumble-bees on the windowsill of a local bookshop, drained of blood by a rocket-launcher wielding spider and left to bake in the midday sun and freeze in the cold winter. Sometimes it’s tempting to blow that final bone of contention up out of pity.

The damage models themselves are also largely suspect and prone to error – you can lay a grenade on the corner of a building but only see one wall go the way of the bookshop bumble-bee. Most irritating of all though is that those inside the building are often mysteriously preserved and shielded from the blast, even when they were stood right next to the detonation.

Battlefield: Bad Company Battlefield: Bad Company - Physics and Graphics

That said, the capabilities and extra-deep tactics which are made possible by this system are very cool – though limited by your inability to issue orders to your invincible team mates.

The sheer scope of what you can do with the destructible environments may seem limited to just blowing holes in walls for convenience and ease-of-murder, but it makes for some great gameplay moments regardless. The example we like to cite is when, from the top floor of a house on one street, we got in a fight with the occasionally cunning AI. The foe was two houses away and shooting through a corridor of windows in an effort to take us down.

Bullets were whizzing by and we couldn’t get a clean shot off. Low on ammo, but loaded with explosives there was only one thing to do. We backed up a few steps and threw two grenades into the middle house then, as they detonated and our health started depleting to expletive-muttering levels, we whipped out the rocket launcher and fired.

Before the smoke could even settle, we were off – jumping through into the middle house and running to where the wall used to be. Feet away, the Rusky popped his head up again and we unloaded the shotgun fully just to enhance the feeling of overkill. It’s an experience which really does sum up Bad Company – unsubtle, loud and mildly glorious.

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