Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has an easy job on the PC: it just has to suck less than Modern Warfare 2. There have been videos released showing how the game has been optimized for the PC, there is a server browser, the graphical and sound settings can be tweaked and adjusted, and dedicated servers are back!

Of course, you have to rent the dedicated servers from EA's partners, but baby steps... right?

We've played and beaten the single-player game, and there have been multiplayer servers running all weekend to give reviewers and various street date breakers the chance to play with the final code. Considering we've put more time into the multiplayer beta on the PC than the length of most retail games, there is a fair chance that there is something special going on here. Let's take a look.

Consider this a nice bonus

Title Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Developer DICE Publisher EA Price $49.99 Shop.ars Platform PC (reveiewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The Battlefield games have always been about the multiplayer, and Bad Company 2 is no exception. The story concerns a bunch of misfit soldiers who just want to go home, lead by a grizzled veteran who has seen it all. Sure, these are stereotypes, but at least they're backed up by some amusing writing.

Where Bad Company 2 gets it right is the lack of scripting. While missions are still mostly made up of a path to get from point A to point B, the soldiers you'll be fighting are limited in number. They won't just keep re-spawning until you advance forward. In one scene, I grounded a boat with a grenade launcher attached and destroyed most of a village before disembarking. In another I took a sniper rifle and cleared out a large area without setting foot in it. You can rush in if you like, but that will mostly lead to death. Even on moderate difficulty the enemy is smart, but firefights can end different ways, especially with the destructible environments.

Your cover is a diminishing commodity

If a tank is coming and you hide in a house, a round from the tank's main gun can smash through the wall, leaving you defenseless. Keep pounding away at a structure and you can take the whole thing down. Even cement blocks can be chipped away with heavy weapon fire, and that means you need to use cover when you have it, but always keep an escape route handy. The enemy knows it can blast its way to you, and it takes advantage of that knowledge.

In one tense standoff I was pinned inside a house, fire coming from nearly every angle. My solution? I threw a grenade behind me, blew a hole through the wall, and exited, flanking my adversaries.

The single-player game does have some issues that hold it back from being perfect, however. The save points are few and far between, which can make death very annoying. Do I really need to get into a jeep and drive some place for five minutes again just because I walked into some bullets? Dying only to find you have to replay a long vehicle sequence or the past five firefights is just bad design. It can turn any game from a fun diversion into a tiresome slog.

Also note that some deaths feel very arbitrary. In one scene you have to avoid mortar fire, and if you run into the open, you die. Run into a building? It collapses on you. There is no easy way to survive the first time you play this part, and it's not the only cheap death. I'm not even sure how I finally got past it. I died, the game gave me another waypoint, and when I spawned I was moving to the next objective. Go me?

Another issue is going to be the use of smoke and particle effects. In multiplayer it adds plenty of realism; explosions will actually obscure your vision and give you cover. And when you're gunning in a tank and your driver fires the main gun, the smoke makes it hard to see to pick out targets. It's pretty neat. In the single-player game, the road ahead is often obscured by smoke or even snow effects, and it can make it hard to know where to go. In one case, a twisty road turned into something approaching guesswork.

There was an also a problem with the haze adding an odd level of brightness to some scenes, making sniping impossible. It was a strange issue, which no amount of fidding with monitor or GPU settings would fix.

The cutscenes were also "filmed" with a very annoyingly shaky camera. Not a big deal, but it was distracting.

Special note should be paid to the sound design of the game. The first Bad Company featured strong sound, but Bad Company 2 sounds even better. The guns crack, buildings explode, and you can listen closely to hear where the tanks are. Be sure to turn on the "War Tapes" audio selection from the options; it's not going to be for everyone, but it certainly turns up the intensity. Wait until you get into a shotgun fight in an enclosed space, it's just as amazing to hear as it is to see.

You can beat the single-player game in about 8 hours or so, and it's unlikely you'll want to go through it again. The story, about a very scary weapon that sounds like something out of War of the Worlds, is merely an excuse to get our soldiers into a variety of outlandish and exciting situations. You'll also catch the game taking some snide potshots at Modern Warfare 2, as one scene has a character who jokes that "snowmobiles are for sissies," and in another there's a joke about, and excuse my language, "special-ops douchebags with pussy-ass heartbeat monitors on their guns." It's a little classless, but worth a chuckle.

The single-player is perfectly serviceable, it's a good way to learn the weapons and vehicles of the game, and it keeps a good pace until you see credits; but there's not much fat here. Still, let's be honest: the single-player game is basically bonus content. On the PC, you're here for one reason only: the multiplayer.