Debuting in 2002 withBattlefield 1942, theBattlefieldfranchise has come a long way in the last two decades. FromWorld War 2 Pacific arenasto the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, and even the futuristic cities of the year 2142,Battlefieldhas worn many faces over the years. However, none have been quite so beloved as theBattlefield: Bad Companyseries, which fans are still desperate to see a third installment of.
Releasing in 2008 and 2010 respectively,Battlefield: Bad Company 1and2acted as the first big steps into the modern age of gaming. Coming right afterBattlefield 2andBattlefield 2142,Bad Companyused the seventh generation of consoles to great avail, showing what next-generation gaming could look like. And coming beforeBattlefield 3, theBad Companyseries defined what the franchise would become in the future. Over a decade later, fans are still asking for EA to create aBattlefield: Bad Company 3, and the publisher is just leaving money on the table by not delivering one.
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One of the biggest selling points of the originalBattlefield: Bad Companygame was its destructible environments. A feature that would go on to defineBattlefieldmoving forward,Bad Companylet players destroy 99% of its open environments. From houses to walls to scenery, players could blow it all up, and that level of player-freedom just wasn’t that common back in 2008. Though its enemy AI wasn’t great, and its multiplayer needed ironing out,Battlefield: Bad Companywas a true next-gen game in the franchise, and one of the few truly next-gen games of the time.
In 2010,Battlefield: Bad Company 2released, improving on its predecessor in every way. Though its single-player campaign was still a little too predictable, the game’s environments, destruction physics, and gunplay were all elevated significantly. With theBad Companyseries releasing alongsideInfinity Ward’sModern Warfarefranchise, the competition was strong, butBad Companystill managed to carve out its own unique identity, and a third installment could do exactly the same now.
For over a decade, fans have been asking EA to makeBattlefield: Bad Company 3. Fans long for aBattlefieldgame that returns the franchise to its base roots, focusing on a tight single-player campaign and the game’s physics engine. WithBattlefield: Hardline,Battlefield 5, andBattlefield 2042all being disappointments in fans' eyes, EA needs to do whatever it can to ensure a win, and the easiest way to do that is to just give fans exactly what they want.
Of course, game development isn’t as easy as that, and EA can’t just push out a mediocreBattlefield: Bad Company 3, or it would risk losing its fan-base for good. Instead, EA should takeBattlefieldback to the drawing board, and break down exactly what made theBad Companyseries so beloved and unique. Fans remember the impressive physics engine, the single-player campaign with a surprising amount of charm, and the intense, rewarding multiplayer. While fans enjoyed the open-ended environments at the time,EA and DICEhave gone a little too far with it in recent entries, continuing to expand the map size and player count so that it’s reached a point where it can take minutes for a player to reach the objective. A hypotheticalBattlefield: Bad Company 3is the perfect excuse to deliver a smaller-scaleBattlefieldgame that takes less development time, and could potentially generate the most hype and commercial success in the series' recent memory.
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