Off Duty Gamers

The Battlefield series by DICE and Electronic Arts is not known for their single player game modes. All of their titles were designed for multiplayer gaming. Single player campaign mode is something has always been a fight against bots and a practice for the player to get prepared for multiplayer battle.

When I was nineteen years old working for Best Buy a customer came up to me with a copy of Battlefield 1942. His question to me was “Is this a single player game or do you need internet?” I chuckled to myself and gave him a blunt question ‘Yes sir, you need internet access to play.’ Sure you could play Battlefield 1942 but it just wouldn’t be any fun knowing you’re only taking out a bot that only knows to run to the capture points. Where’s the challenge? Battlefield 1942 had a single player concept of playing on the multiplayer maps and hoping your team mates bots wouldn’t crash the planes, or drive the jeeps off the road. There was no story line, no campaign, just running around “pretending” to play multiplayer. For those that had the ability to play online you soon realized the fun of it all. Grabbing a tank, plane or automobile to get you to each capture point. Playing in clans, squads, units, etc. This is how the game was meant to be played.

The same went for all the other titles, Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield 2 and mods, and Battlefield 2142. When Battlefield Modern Combat arrived for console players DICE decided to add a single player aspect to the game. It didn’t really follow a story line, but gave you several different missions to complete. Yes you were going against bots but it had cool features like “hot swapping” to another friendly team member on the field to keep the game going if you died, or if you wanted to advance to the next guys position. A novel concept and it worked so well that in fact several single player missions required you to hot swap to the next character to keep the enemy at bay. DICE was finally focusing on console and single player gaming although it urged its players to stick with the multiplayer version of the title.

Battlefield Bad Company was their first attempt at an actually story line and single player campaign. Bad Company was a console only game that had actual voice over characters and introduced us to Preston Marlow, Sweetwater, Haggard and Sarge. The single player campaigns were used to prepare you for the multiplayer battles as well, giving you tools and weapons that you would end up using against human enemies not bots. The story line was about you and your rag tag of US Army misfits being selected to go about certain missions that a female voice over from head quarters gave you. When you come across a crate of mercenary gold you play each mission looking for them. To be quite honest, playing multiplayer on all of the other series of Battlefield titles I was not intrigued with playing the single player campaign and got quite bored with it after the third or fourth mission.

Does a game really need single player campaigns anymore? For some, yes. For others, no. Call of Duty titles including Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 however have perfected the single player campaigns. You are in the game as numerous characters and you feel a connection to them. The story line puts you in realistic military scenarios and had quite a bit of technical expertise and military experts who gave insight to the making of those titles. You actually feel as if you are in those environments and its plays off really well. In Modern Warfare 2, a sick gut wrenching feeling was in my stomach as you traverse though an underground hallway seeing fellow soldiers wounded, sleeping or body bags. When you arise out of the cover and get topside you are in awe seeing several Washington DC structures on fire and destroyed by invading Russian soldiers. I honestly felt like I could relate to that environment, see as I have been deployed to the Washington DC area many times. Infinity Ward got it right, and they did an awesome job. The multiplayer aspect of those titles have been disputed by critics but were not talking MW2 today, were talking Battlefield.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 used shock paddles and brought the game back to life, or so I thought. Yes, again DICE wants you to focus on the Multiplayer aspect of the game but they were generous enough to actually write, and create a single player story line. You can tell that DICE is still junior and new to this concept but they are evolving. In their credits for the game I saw “one” military advisor, a Captain (which branch or nation I’m unsure of) where as MW2 had multiple advisors including the US Navy Seals. If you haven’t played the single player version of BFBC2 be warned: SPOLIER ALERT.

I had the opportunity to play BFBC2 single player on the XBOX 360 recently. I did it all within four to five hours with a few breaks in between. Let me just sidetrack and tell you about all of the major military flaws I saw. As a helicopter flight mechanic in the US Coast Guard I was deeply sadden by all of the US Army Blackhawk scenes. In the game you are introduced to Bad Companies Blackhawk pilot. A hippie with a beard and pacifist attitude. I don’t remember his name, Flynt, Flynn, Flan, I don’t really care because I was so ticked off at the character. DICE, just a heads up: Blackhawk crews always fly with two pilots. The co-pilot sits in the left seat, the pilot sits in the right hand seat. They will always wear flight helmets and have microphones on the helmet to talk via Internal Communication System or ICS. There was also no Flight Mechanic or Crew Chief to maintain the cabin, use the miniguns etc. Marlow, and the rest of Bad Company would not be able to talk to each other like they did in the Blackhawk cabin because of the sheer noise. They all should have been wearing headsets as well to talk over ICS. Lastly, I saw the single pilot hippie (flying from the co-pilot seat) use on board machine guns mounted in what looked like external fuel pods. I was utterly disgusted. Another point to bring up is, what is with the goofy uniforms? No army wears huge yellow and white stripes on their arm sleeves unless it’s a training exercise to distinguish you from the enemy. In all military operations soldiers don’t want to give away who are what they are in combat, hence the reason our soldiers during Vietnam went from bright yellow patches to a subdued green patch on their uniforms. Now, I know I’ll get some flack from players saying “It’s only a game!!” True it is only a game, but some of us want realism!

Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, BFBC2 single player. The game opens up with you as a World War II squad member on a secret mission to retrieve a defector from Japan. You, the defector and the squad are killed off by some super secret weapon that rivals that of a nuclear weapon. Fast forward to present day where you and Bad Company with the same voices and cast from the last title work together and come across the secrets of the opening intro to the game. You are selected by a general to work with a secret military division to assist an operative in the field. Oh and yes you get betrayed by the operative ala Modern Warfare 2 style. The whole single player mode has you fighting against Russian forces armed with RPGs on roof tops, and commandos with red berets with fully automatic machine guns. You have access to supply crates in the field to reload your ammo and select from different weapons throughout the game. DICE added the ability to press the left trigger button on your XBOX controller to auto aim and then right trigger to fire. A lot like the Call of Duty titles and it helped to progress through the missions quickly. I was able to mow down the enemy quite effectively with the gaming controls. Each mission is linear as most single player games are. As usual, plow through the enemy forces that materialize and get to the next waypoint to save your game and complete the objectives.

Some observations I made during the game were several bugs. Destroyed building with the Frostbite engine still had debris floating in the air after the building had collapsed, Sarge had gotten stuck shooting at an enemy that was trapped inside of a blown up vehicle and I had to go back and redirect his attention. In some parts Sarge got stuck behind a fence and I would have to run back to his position using the map, cut him loose by destroying the fence so he could follow us to the next point which then activated the next objective. BFBC2 has some single player glitches that will hopefully be corrected in patches. Another observation that did not make me feel a part of the game was the inside developer jokes. I felt as if I was playing a game made by a fraternity. Texas (where I’m from) was mentioned several times in the game. Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, parachuting and landing in Texas at the end of the game were some examples of this. Was one of the developers from Texas and they were making fun of him? Among other things, DICE decided to poke fun at Modern Warfare 2. In certain parts of the game you and your squad jump on ATVs to race to a certain location and Bad Company talk about how it would be stupid to be racing on snowmobiles (MW2 reference) or how one of the generals would use special ops soldiers with heartbeat sensors on their guns (again another MW2 reference). I wasn’t really angered by it, as I hold no allegiance to any game title. But it did frustrate me that the developers stooped to that level to poke fun at a game that others did enjoy. Again, I felt as if I was playing someone’s inside joke. Did you notice the high amount of gratuitous cussing in the game? They tried too hard to make Haggard (demo expert) to look tough and be a redneck.

In my honest opinion (key word: opinion) DICE did not focus on their single player campaign for BFBC2 because they were focused on the multiplayer aspect. After all, this is what people wanted to play. After playing the single player campaign I have to agree with many of the reviews written by gaming websites. BFBC2 single player truly deserves an 8.9 out of 10 or as I would say a 3.7 out of 5. Its saving grace was the sound quality, the destructible environments, the graphics, and yes even the quality in the maps and terrain. What I didn’t care for was the lack in realism, the inside jokes, the massive amount of swear words, and the story line. None of this is skewed because of Modern Warfare or Modern Warfare 2, as there are critics for those titles as well, but I just don’t feel that DICE cared about realism and yet wanted nothing more than to have us watch a comedy routine.

I’ve yet to play BFBC2 single player on the PC, and at this point, why bother. I’m happy enough playing the multiplayer version of BFBC2 on XBOX360 and PC. Single player is something I’m sure I will not return to play for BFBC2.

Again, this is a blog and opinion. You can agree or disagree, it won’t hurt my feelings. But for other gamers out there, you’ll see the truth in what I’m saying when you play single player of BFBC2 first hand.

Medal of Honor (Fall of 2010) will hopefully bring new life into Military Single Player campaigns but today game developers are so focused on multiplayer that some of them aren’t even developing single players games anymore (MAG by Zipper Interactive).

Let’s see what Battlefield Bad Company 3 has in store for us. Or let’s wait to see if Battlefield 3 (2010 or 2011) will develop a single player storyline to PC players. My prediction is that it won’t.