Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Quite simply, DICE understands that you don't necessarily need martyrdom perks, killer dogs or even hundreds of simultaneous players to make an excellent multiplayer game. You just need two very simple, yet often overlooked, factors: maps and balance.

The eight maps available (10, if you use your VIP code to get the two bonus DLC maps for free) are a masterclass in how to gently guide and funnel the player experience without intrusion. In other shooters you can tell which maps have been designed for which modes or with certain class abilities in mind, but Bad Company 2's skirmishes take place in large, roomy environments that feel effortlessly organic.

Drawn from the same broad locations as the single-player without lifting the layouts wholesale, there are no choke points because there are dozens of ways up and down, to and fro, across the map. They feel like real places where war has made its home, rather than artificial arenas designed for videogaming. And if it can all be brought down with the right barrage of explosives or a cunning flanking route, no single player can have an unfair upper hand, no matter how skilled.

For example, I was dropped into one Conquest game already in progress, on the losing side. At this late stage, all our base were belong to them and a particularly skilled enemy had taken to the skies in an Apache helicopter, performing an elaborate aerial ballet and bombarding our last refuge with rockets whenever anybody tried to make a break for safety. By taking advantage of the open environment, however, I was able to lurk out of sight in the scrub, make my way down the coastline to a shipwreck with an AA gun mounted on the deck and bring him down with no small amount of vengeful vindication. Almost immediately, the tide turned; my squad mates were able to commandeer tanks and APCs and start taking back the bases that had been complacently left unguarded, so sure were our foes of air superiority. Back and forth, the glorious flow of Battlefield is still a joy to behold.

The game is full of fantastic little stories like that, and the maps do a great job of letting such things happen, providing the playground but leaving the game up to the players. Scamper up to an attic, use C4 to blow out one of the walls, and create a sniper spot that nobody will think to look for. Lose yourself in the rusty snarl of a beached freighter and wait, shotgun ready, for someone to dash past on their way to an objective. It's endlessly, brilliantly immersive stuff, fully deserving of the Battlefield legacy.

There are just four game modes, but sometimes less is more. Between Conquest (the de facto Battlefield base capture mode) and the objective-driven Rush, the game finds room for every style of online play other than the mania of a free-for-all deathmatch. Squad Deathmatch tickles that itch, setting four teams of four against each other, while Squad Rush caters for the gamer in a hurry, trimming the ebb and flow of the long-form Rush mode down to a deliciously simple "two objectives and you're out" morsel.

Career progression is similarly well handled. Experience is earned for the usual things - kills, objectives attempted and completed - and there are several ways to tweak your score higher, either by getting headshots or designating targets for your squad to attack or defend. There are over 90 pins and insignia to earn, ranging from simple killing sprees to long-term awards for supplying hundreds of allies with ammo. Each offers yet more XP which accumulates and unlocks a range of benefits, some specific to class, others applicable across the board. It's a balanced system, as befits a developer that has honed PC multiplayer to a fine art; it ensures that there's momentum to your progress up the ranks while preventing any single player from becoming a super-charged killing machine.