Written by Andrew Burwell, 3/7/2010
Bad Company 2 has been out for about a week now, and gamers seem to love it so far - well, except for the mob of PC players who are apparently too much for EA's servers to handle. Still, it's important to know what you're doing once you get in-game, and while the single player mode is a half-decent primer for learning how to shoot, most of the gadgets in the multiplayer modes are unavailable in the campaign and there are a lot of nuances of the online play that aren't immediately obvious. This isn't Modern Warfare 2, as team interaction and cooperation is really necessary for you to get points and win games.
Spot people
One of the most important tools you'll have in Bad Company 2 is your ability to spot enemies for the rest of your team to see. On the PC version, just tap Q (on 360 it's the Back button, on PS3 it's Select) and you'll pop a little red triangle above the opponent's head for everyone else to see. This is a good idea even if you're reasonably sure that you can kill the enemy yourself, because you never know what might happen - plus, someone else might have a better angle and take a guy out if he runs behind cover. You'll still get points for the assist if the enemy is killed while your spotting marker is up, too. Remember that the better zooming ability you have, the more likely you are to be able to spot someone, so Recon players often have the best chance at doing spotting - with the 12x optics upgrade or the mortar strike binoculars, they can spot half a dozen people in just a few seconds from the right vantage point.
Note that most Hardcore servers on PC have no spotting (unless the admin has specifically gone and enabled it as well), so spotting simply doesn't work there.
Being a Medic
While Medics in the release version of BC2 inexplicably start out with any of their medic tools, it is worth playing as one early in order to unlock them. Your light machine gun is fantastic for spray-and-pray due to its powerful bullets and massive clip sizes, and it can be fired on full auto. If you find that the muzzle flash is too much and you can't see once you start firing, try spotting a target first.
But the real meat of the Medic is in healing your teammates and reviving them when they go down. When you're the attackers in Rush mode or in Conquest mode at all, this is especially important, as a revived teammate doesn't use up a ticket. Toss down medpacks wherever your buddies congregate, too, as you can get hundreds of points off of one medpack. And if you have to choose between killing an enemy and raising up a buddy, well, choose whatever path is most likely to have you and your buddy alive (and the enemy dead) at the end.
Not every little EKG squiggle on your minimap deserves your attention. Some people just run out into the open and are immediately cut down, and it's not worth it to you to hang your butt out just to bring them back up. More likely than not, he'll fall over dead again, and you'll just be another body lying in the road.
Being an Engineer
The engineer is just as helpful to a friendly tank driver as he is deadly to the enemy's. There are some important unlocks you'll need for good efficiency first, but they don't take that long to get. For me, I had the repair tool right from the start, even though I supposedly had to unlock it, so your results may differ, but you'll also get the extremely useful Anti-Tank mines and some very solid shotgun options once you've ranked up a few times.
My favorite load-out is the tracer dart gun and the first unlocked rocket to set up some great guided missiles you can fire from behind cover, along with the Saiga semi-auto shotgun with the ammo upgrade that lets you pack 12 rounds into the chamber instead of six. This ensures a kill on a soldier even at medium range as long as you've got half-decent aim and the time required to fire all twelve shots. You'll need to play as the engineer for a while to unlock these, but you'll be a rare and very valuable part of most teams.
But you also need to be sneaky when you're dealing with enemy vehicles. You can see where the occupants are aiming, so choose the moments when they're not looking to pop out and fire an RPG, then quickly find different cover to fire the next from. And the mines can be shot and blown up, so take care when laying them down and make sure to put them in tough-to-see spots that are still well-traveled, like inside blast craters, in dark areas, or at the top of an incline. Hell, you can even use AT mines to damage MCOMs or set traps for enemy foot soliders if you play it right!
Finally, don't be afraid to fire the RPG at things other than enemy vehicles. If an enemy ducks into a house and you're relatively sure he's on the other side of a thin wall that you can see, fire your RPG right at the wall to take it (and often your enemy) out at the same time.
Driving a tank
One important thing you need to understand about being a tank driver is that rushing headlong into enemy territory will get you killed fast. Play it slow and safe, watching for enemies and mines, and only getting out to repair when you think it's relatively safe - and try and leave a buddy in one spot so that it doesn't get carjacked from you. If you're repairing, make sure that you're doing it on whatever side that's not exposing you to enemy fire, and if you are on the sides, try and do it at an angle so that you can still see - you never know what Recon or Engineer enemies will try to do some up-close damage.
When driving with people that are hopping out and repairing, you need to understand that protecting them is just as important as avoiding the next shell from an opposing vehicle. Rushing forwards when your buddies are behind you may expose them to enemy fire, and it also stops the much-needed repairs. Try making smaller, slower movements if the repairs are keeping your vehicle alive, and remember that moving backwards will simply push your buddies, generally keeping them safe and allowing them to keep repairing.
If you see the big red warning about a missile lock, it means someone hit you with a tracer dart. Don't panic! Keep your cool, especially if you're being backed up by repairs, as most people don't seem to understand how the tracer system works for missiles.
You can hit the Enter key on PC to switch squads at any time, so if you want to maximize points all around, join the squad that your tank crew belongs to.
-calimer
