Get those flame throwers ready soldier. EA and Dice have an all new expansion for their extremely popular first person shooter Battlefield Bad Company 2.
When I first got word of Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam I was extremely excited. I was a huge fan of Battlefield Vietnam on the PC and was elated to find out I would be able to brush off my copy of Bad Company 2 and experience something new. Dice has been regularly supporting BC 2 with a bevy of multiplayer updates (and new maps for us VIP folks) however the new maps included in the updates were often Rush maps unlocked for Conquest or Squad DM maps unlocked in Conquest and so on and so forth. While I did appreciate the effort it wasn’t until the last map pack where we were given levels previously not in BC 2.
Enter Vietnam. A fully fleshed out expansion featuring five new maps in total, 15 weapons with all new medals and kill counts, 6 vehicles and tons of 60’s rock to make those tank rides even more enjoyable. This is a full fledged expansion not just an update, so you can expect a whole new experience. The music, the menu style, the voice overs, and of course the levels and weapons are all new(or older depending how you look at it) and once you see the first loading screen you will immediately know that you’re playing something different, and that is what makes Vietnam worth the money. It doesn’t just add to the Bad Company experience it changes it. I was immediately excited to try all the new weapons and vehicles and rushed into battle finding myself getting dropped left and right by my enemies. I wasn’t used to the never ending jungle, the lack of laser sights and overall inaccuracy of some of the guns, this was truly 1960’s combat. I found I had to be more tactful than usual, crawling through the jungle to knife opposing players and making sure I was in range before firing, it felt as though the playing field had been leveled, and the best shooter or the smartest player would survive, not the luckiest as is the case in some shooters. The visuals are of course on par with BC 2 and the audio is top notch as always. If you have a surround sound system this is a game best enjoyed in 5.1 much like the main game.
Now Vietnam does have some short comings, some of which are due to flaws already present in Bad Company 2 (such as knife kills not registering) so I’ll direct you to a review of the full game for more info on that and focus on a few of my gripes with the expansion. One thing you will notice when booting up Vietnam(after the very well done loading screens) is that the levels in general are smaller than you may be accustomed to, which does lead to a lot of one sided games. Should your team capture all of the flags right off the bat, you can expect an easy victory as I have yet to see anyone come back from a huge deficit in Vietnam. Also the enemy base is now completely off limits, you can’t set foot in their base and if you try you will be warned that you’re leaving the combat area. I understand this is to prevent teams from being pinned down in their base, however being able to sneak into an enemy home base and sabotage them is part of what made BC 2 unique. Also the weapon count is a tad small. Fifteen or so weapons is ok, but if you’re used to having a huge arsenal at your disposal you may not enjoy sticking to one or two guns all the time.
So is it worth the money? In my opinion yes. At only 1200 MS points(15 dollars) Vietnam does add a lot to the Bad Company 2 package and will greatly extend the games replay value for people who regularly venture onto the battlefield , however if you only play BC 2 on an occasional basis you may not find it worth the points.
Graphics: Great overall visuals with a few unpolished textures, explosions and big battles still look and run great
Sound: Sound is still fantastic, explosions, cries of soldiers and the 60’s soundtrack really make this game special
Gameplay: As fun as ever if a tad limited compared to the full game, a nice change of pace
Overall: 9/10