Arica Harbor – Battlefield: Bad Company 2
The Battlefield: Bad Company series is one of the most popular off-spin for the franchise, with fans flocking to the humerous and often arcade-y titles every time they release. Though we haven’t had a Bad Company title in seven years, the have stuck with us all this time.
Arica Harbor was the very first map players got a chance to experience when Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was in the early-access Beta. Players on PlayStation 3 were able to dive into a mode of Rush and get a taste of the type of map designs they’d seen in the full game.
By using Arica Harbor as a preview of the game, DICE cemented it as one of the best maps in the Battlefield series. What made Arica Harbor so addictive was its multi-segmented design, thanks to being built around a balanced Rush mode, a gametype that was only recently added to the series.
With bold colors contrasting against the sandy-whiteness of the desert, Arica Harbor’s color pallet wasn’t the bland and drab of other games. The positives didn’t end at the visuals, the design and balance of the map was also a selling point. Whether you were attacking or defending, you had paths to take, places to hold up, and key locations to play around.
As you progressed further into the map, the verticality evolved with buildings offering ground floors and secondary levels, construction buildings boasting sniper roosts, and even shipping containers and train carriage granting critical positions. The map just felt fun to play on, whether you were a Recon, Assault, Engineer, or Medic.
That ended up being a bit nostalgic, looking back on those old school favorite Battlefield maps. What are some of your all-time favorite Battlefield maps - perhaps you have some from Battlefield Vietnam? Speaking of which, Battlefield needs to revist Vietnam.
