Battlefield: Bad Company – Reader Review
Reader reviews are from readers here at GamerDad. Many of them are written by kids under 15 and that makes them a valuable insight into how kids really think about games. So, without further ado, here’s Vincent’s (13) take on this Mature Teen rated wargame:
Bad Company is a FPS made by EA. It’s claim for fame is it’s graphics engine, which unlike the popular Call of Duty franchise, allows an almost fully destructible environment. For example, if someone was sniping you from a building, you could just blow a hole in the wall with a grenade launcher, while shooting a wall in Call of Duty results in a nice explosion with no impact on the environment. Both game’s engines have their ups and downs, and are fun in their own way.
Bf: BC starts you off with three other guys in a group called “Bad Company” Bad Company is the misfits of the army who have done terrible things. For example, your character blew up an American helicopter by accident and one of your partners blew up an ammunition factory. Yeah, pretty bada**. That’s another thing. Since you are with these bada**es, you will hear them swear. A lot. During battle there will be sh*ts and d*mns. There is never an F-Bomb, but you will hear sh*t occasionally when somebody is knifed, and at the multiplayer missions you may hear, “D*mn it, we lost our gold! You guys suck!”
But other than that you won’t really hear that much else. The language I would say is appropriate for 11 year olds at the most, maybe less if your child can/has handled swears before. Thing I have noticed is once you hit middle school, kids go from never swearing to saying f*ck on a regular basis. Of course, they never swear in front of parents (trust me, I know). So if your child is 11 and under, make sure they can handle swearing, as I know a few youngsters that would become instantly shy or nervous if they heard an older one swearing (not that’s it’s a bad thing, by any means, but I want your child to have fun while play this game, not nerve wrecked).
As for violence, it’s the average FPS, but with no blood (editor: the ESRB lists blood – so I guess it’s in small enough amounts to not stand out). From my viewpoint, blood isn’t a big deal in FPS because stuff goes by so fast you don’t have time to stare at some red pixels on the chest of a dead or wounded solider. But if you or your child is squeamish, and even the littlest amount blood can make them faint, do not fear, because no blood is here! You are still shooting people with guns from the perspective of a soldier in battl . Also I would not recommend this game if you do not want to expose you child to the “horrors” of war, but I think most people can handle it just fine. It isn’t scary in any way, but I know some parents who want don’t want their child to know that people die in war etc.,
The game itself is a well made FPS, and while it’s a little outdated, is still fun and enjoying. The campaign, while short, is interesting and funny at times. The comments from your partners actually made me crack up sometimes. The online multiplayer is fun and compelling. And of course, blowing up buildings is a hell of a lot of fun.
My overall standpoint is that this game is appropriate for 11 and up for sure, and some kids within a couple years of 11 (eg. 9) could play it if parents believed it was okay. This game is almost on par with the CoD MW franchise in terms of adult content, so while I rate this for 11 year olds, MW2 I believe would be a great game for a mature 13 year olds as it gives a stronger message about warfare.
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GamerDad NOTE: These are the opinions of a 13 year old boy.
September 7th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Thanks for putting this up! Although I was talking about the original Bad Company, which is rated T.
September 7th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
That being said 2 isn’t all that worse and I could edit this review a bit to make it fit BF:BC 2 if you want.
September 7th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Battlefield Bad Company 2 is much the same game play wise as the first one.
In regards to mature content however, it is different.
The two main differences are firstly the addition of blood, and secondly the language.
The blood is on par with games like Uncharted (which is rated T) and bodies do not fall apart or etc…..
The language however, kind of annoyed me. The developers seemed to decide that all the *cool* games could only be rated M. So they destroyed an excellent T rated FPS franchise but stuffing F-bombs into every sentence they possible could.
To be honest it is used so often (and this may sound weird) that it is offensive…..kinda.
What’s offensive to me is the fact that they just stuck the F Bomb wherever they could. I mean I could understand that maybe they were going for realism because I’m sure soldiers don’t yell “Golly Gee” out on the battlefield. But even in cut scenes without combat, you might find 3 or 4 F Bombs in one line of casual dialogue.
It disappoints me that developers feel all the best games have to be Mature. 🙁
Anyway in reality, as a Fifteen year old, I can assure that any kid over the age of 13 is hearing the F Word in millions of shapes forms and varieties every single day. So I would say if you let your kid play MW2 or such games then this one is fine.
Oh and on another favourite side rant of mine! If developers want to put that kind of stuff into a game, great! All power to em. BUT there should be content filters in all M rated games that if not completely drop them down to a T rating when used, at least make them better. It’d also nice for those who don’t necessarily want Nasty Profanity spewing from their sound systems. I don’t understand why developers don’t add a simple filter. Games such as COD5 and Brothers in Arms Hells Highway both have excellent filters. The blood and gore is switched off, and Profanity is filtered out. I mean surely if they can make a “Nude Raider” code for Tomb Raider, they could easily include a Blood&GoreProfanity filter.
I mean c’mon developers it’s a simple formula:
‘M’ Game + Filter = Wider Audience = more $$$$ = happy developers = better games = happy gamers = EVEN MORE $$$$$$$
/rant
Good Review Vincent
And it might be a good idea to change the title to just Battlefield Bad Company as we don’t want people to read this and think BF:BC 2 doesn’t have any F- Bombs because it certainly does.
Thank You 🙂
September 7th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Yes, BFBC used the F*** a ridiculous amount of times, sort of like District 9, and after while you just ignore the word. That’s not a good thing by the way.
I totally agree with you on the filter, in fact, I would much rather play through Assassin’s Creed II with the blood turned off. But I sort of disagree with you on the filter = $$$$$. Really, the only people in which filters can be deal breakers or not are younger children whose parents will not allow the game because X, and usually X means the big M on the box. From my experience most parents won’t care if there is a filter or not, but if the rating is the same age group as the child. I think the real question is would a game be rated T if the original settings were with no blood, and no language, ect., but you could turn them on?
tl;dr IMO M Game + Filter = slighter more people =slightly more $. Of course, really, why not provide a filter?
September 8th, 2010 at 12:42 am
Apologies Vincent! I think I changed it to “2” because you kept mentioning naughty words and I figured you couldn’t be talking about the Teen one.
October 14th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Would the second one be appropritate for a 14 year old who plays halo
October 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I totally agree but i think any call of duty should be for any 13 year old. Even though you said mature 13 year old.
July 31st, 2017 at 2:02 am
Wait the CMS said there was an f bomb.