Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a first-person shooter video game released worldwide in March 2010. Similar to previous titles in the series the game is played out on large maps with vehicles, aircraft and other equipment as playable elements.

Looking for cheats and codes or for how to play as a team on Xbox 360 Live or PlayStation 3 Network see Battlefield Bad Company 2 – How Not To Be A Noob

Differentiating itself from other games of this genre the player is allowed more freedom than is typical. Players can score points by performing a variety of tasks that are not directly engaging with opposition players. For example the “engineer” class can score points through the repair of various equipment and vehicles.

A key gameplay feature introduced by its predecessor, Bad Company, is destructible environments. The improved system is called “Destruction 2.0″. It now allows players to completely collapse a building as opposed to only blowing out walls.  The game also introduces bullet drop, a gravitational effect that causes shots from most weapons to drop over long distances.

Bad Company 2 features 15 vehicles, including new additions, such as the UH-60 Black Hawk, a quad bike, a two-man patrol boat, a personal watercraft, a ZU-23 mounted on a BTR-D armored personnel carrier, and a UAV helicopter controlled via remote computer terminals.

The currently available maps are set in various environments from South America and the mountainous regions along the borders of Russia.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer gameplay is designed to be a tactical, team based FPS, which the players can work together to utilize many of the vehicles such as various tanks, helicopters and even an unmanned aerial vehicle. Players 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 and Demolition kits condensed into the Engineer class). 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 1943).

Gaining experience points allows a player to unlock and use different weapons and gadgets, some only usable 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, underbarreled 40mm grenade launchers, smoke grenades, magnum bullets or 12 gauge slugs. Players can also customize their soldiers with ceramic body armor, lightweight combat gear, and Bandoliers for extra ammunition. The player can also be ranked up 50 times by gaining experience points throughout the game .

Multiplayer game types
Rush
Players must defend or destroy pairs of M-COM stations for as long as the attacking team’s respawn tickets hold out. An M-COM station can be destroyed by planting a charge, using conventional weapons or when a building is collapsed down on it.
Conquest
Players must capture and hold flags for as long as the enemy respawn tickets hold out. Every kill makes the enemy lose one ticket, and enemy tickets constantly decrease when a team controls more than half of the flags on the map. Vehicles unlock as control points are held.
Squad Deathmatch
Up to four squads and one Infantry Fighting Vehicle roam the map. First squad to score fifty kills get the win.
Squad Rush
Squad Rush puts a squad of four players versus another squad of four players for a max of eight player matches of Rush.

The experience points used to unlock the above items are 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, Battlefield 1943 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.  It uses PunkBuster to protect the game from cheaters in online multiplayer matches.

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.

Ranks
There are 50 ranks in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. In order to be promoted through the ranks, players must gain experience. There are a variety of ways to gain experience, such as killing an enemy, getting a kill assist, arming or disarming an objective, destroying an objective or repairing a vehicle. Teamwork with squads is encouraged by offering more experience points.

Single Player Campaign
Characters
For the majority of the single player campaign, the player controls Private Preston Marlowe. Marlowe is part of a squad formerly representing a misfit company in a fictional United States Army battalion known as “Bad Company.” Other members of the squad include technology expert Private Terrance Sweetwater, demolitions specialist Private George Haggard Jr., and squad leader Sergeant Samuel Redford. The squad, escaping with gold in the previous game but believed to be caught soon thereafter, now work for a special assignment for the Army in securing a dangerous weapon codenamed “Aurora.”

Plot
In October 1944, a group of commandos infiltrate an IJN-controlled island in the Sea of Japan. They secure a Japanese scientist who was working on a secret weapon codenamed Aurora and escape the island on a submarine. But as foreshadowed by the scientist’s warnings the commandos witness Aurora being fired and perish.

In the present day, Privates Preston Marlowe, Terrence Sweetwater, George Haggard, and Sergeant Samuel Redford fight behind enemy lines in Russia in attempt to secure a device related to Aurora. Despite escaping Russian soldiers and completing their believed final mission in their service, the device is discovered to be a fake. Being impressed with their previous activities, Army General Braidwood assigns them to a special operation of stopping Aurora, much to the disappointment of Redford.

The squad travels to Bolivia in search of an agent named Aguire. Through many firefights, they save Aguire. Aguire requests the squad to get all his intelligence detailing Aurora from a French satellite that can be controlled from a base in the Andes Mountains. Sweetwater crashes the satellite and Marlowe finds the intel device upon the crash site.

During extraction, Aguire briefs the squad about a man responsible for rebuilding Aurora named Arkady Kirelenko; a Russian Army colonel the squad failed to eliminate in Russia. Kirelenko is believed to be hiding in Chile. Marlowe and the squad aided by US forces find Kirelenko, though he soon escapes. Left only with papers from Kirelenko, Sweetwater discovers there is a shipping manifest for an abandoned ship called the “Sangre Del Toro.” Aided by the rest of the squad getting the coordinates, Marlowe finds the ship and retrieves an unnamed compound essential to the use of the weapon.

While attempting to meet Aguire in Colombia their helicopter is shot down and they become separated. Along with their helicopter pilot Flynn they regroup and escape the local militia. Marlowe gives Aguire the compound before finding out that Aguire double-crossed the squad by allying with Kirelenko. Aguire wants revenge against the United States for what happened to his father, one of the commandos in original raid on Aurora, after it is revealed that the US military callously sent them to their deaths. Despite the alliance Kirelenko betrays Aguire and kills him. Flynn intervenes and saves the squad at the cost of his own life.

In a city, Marlowe and the squad find a large cargo aircraft, an Antonov An-124 (Haggard mistakes it for the larger Antonov An-225 Mriya) that is believed to house Aurora. This is immediately confirmed as the weapon releases a powerful electromagnetic pulse, destroying all electronic equipment in the city and thereby causing all military vehicles to cease functioning; a helicopter nearly crashes onto the squad. Everyone except Marlowe becomes disheartened of continuing the mission. Marlowe encourages them to get on the aircraft. The squad infiltrates the aircraft’s lower levels as it takes off. After a firefight to reach the cockpit they find it empty. The squad returns to the cargo bay to find Kirelenko attempting to fire Aurora again, now high over the southern United States and thereby causing havoc on the power grid and crippling the country’s ability to defend itself against an attack. With the help of explosives from the plane’s armory they gain access to Aurora and Marlowe destroys it.

The firefight and the violent destruction of Aurora has crippled the aircraft, sending it plummeting. The squad bails out with Kirelenko trying to grab the last parachute in mid-air. In free fall Marlowe kills Kirelenko before getting the parachute from Sweetwater. The squad lands and regroups in Haggard’s home state of Texas behind the destroyed airplane. Shortly after, General Braidwood drives by to inform them that they are to aid the US Army in defense against the incoming Russian invasion that recently passed through Alaska and Canada.

The game has received generally positive reviews. Game Informer magazine gave the game a 9.5 out of 10, praising the improvements made over the first Bad Company.

GameZone’s Steven Hopper gave the game a 9.25/10, saying, “Even though the single-player campaign still isn’t where it needs to be, Bad Company 2 is definitely a great sequel that builds on its predecessor in every way, making for one that no shooter fan will want to miss, especially if you go online for your gaming.”

Gametrailer gave Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a 9.1 out of a possible 10, praising its use of an intertwining multiplayer, but labeling the single player as predictable.

GameSpy reviewer Anthony Gallegos gave the game 4.5 stars out of 5, describing the single-player campaign as “a blast” and concluding that “the staying power for BFBC2 lies in its multiplayer”.

Dan Whitehead from EuroGamer reviewed the game and gave it a score of 9/10, describing Bad Company 2 as an “open challenge” to Activision’s market leader Modern Warfare 2, and considering it to be the “superior game” when compared to it, with “immediately evident” improvements over the previous game in the series. Whitehead concluded that Bad Company 2 is “the online shooter at its most streamlined, most thoughtful, most exhilarating”.

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Learn how to play Bad Company 2 as a team on Xbox360 Live or PlayStation 3 Network by reading:

Battlefield Bad Company 2 – How Not To Be A Noob.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Cheats, Hints and Secrets

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vehicles, Military List

Battlefield Bad Company 2 The Assault Kit

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Engineer Kit

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Medic Class

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Recon Class