@ChugKendall @ChugKendall but bots vs single player or coop with and against bots is how bf games started and were always expected to come with them. The most enjoyable, the most non-repetitive SP experience was the BF experience. No campaigns that you played twice. Bfbc 2 looks like was made by a completely different company or leadership or had these strange orders from EA, I do not know, it really wasnt a bf game in the traditional sense.
No bf game prior to bfbc 2 on PC had any sort of campaign, SP was purely with bots. 1942 bots were not awesome and great, but they were there and they worked.
Back in the day I liked it that I could start a game, no need for unlocks, nothing extraordinary and it was I who decided what to do on the spot.
I dont remember Vietnam well, but there were more maps/modes not playable with bots. Quite a shame considering that the game was very good for bot gameplay, without internet, lag, whatever.
There were no stories and it got down to business for its time, rather refined gameplay.
Then we can get to Bf 2 on console called Modern Combat that actually had a seemingly long campaign, different vehicles than PC bf 2 (more known/epic selection imo)
From the standpoint of the campaign, modern combat has NATO assaulting Kazachstan something that NATO todays propaganda enforcement (like Atlantic Council affiliates) would stomp down on since they started cold war 2.0 years ago, but 16 years ago there was much more freedom back in the day.
I actually liked that the Chinese werent depicted as an enemy off the bat,(campaign playable as them even) something that would get shot down immediately today by no-good folks in various state agencies in the West that put a weird ideology above all their people. If you will Cold War 2.0 started showing back in August 2008 as for going kinetic. (1999 NATO bombing showed Russians western good intentions+Chinese embassy bombed in Belgrade) I remember this very well and know the difference to the stories aired by orchestrated propaganda between US and EU 'propaganda ministries'. (or NATO aggressors, often by proxy, NATO overthrew govt in my country in 1998 - installed puppets, looted the country and its people and this story continues to this day)
So, from then on, increasing western hostility was mirrored in the media, games that sought to sell the message of good west bad east, which was not the facts of the ground.
I am very against one-sided stories that games 'love' (or are ordered to) to sell with propaganda points commanded by some military/spy chiefs, our guys good guys, we cant do wrong, just Impossible. (as opposed to Everybody can do wrong) I absolutely distaste false narratives that plague games. For this very reason, there is no way for a campaign that would not offend somebody that Western countries leadership have in their 'peaceful' and 'democratic' sights.
Do you want to sell the game in Russia ? Then dont offend their nation, state, their leadership, history, you offend them as well, especially with made up bs or blame for things your country did. Wanna sell in China ? The same. Do you want to sell in the US or western Europe ? Orders are to offend the previously mentioned countries, raise tensions, confrontation is thus sought. (+NK/Iran) + sell some weirdosoviet ideology. Which is again unacceptable for people desiring to live in freedom.
For this reason, campaigns, if there are any, should not consider either future ideological possibilities, or serve as a provocation. And past or wars in past that did not even happen do not risk the rewriting history scandalous approach that is no good. When you go rewriting history, you will be offending loads of people. Such actions are called subversion, meaning 'covert' warfare. Maybe look up certain lecture with Yuri Bezmenov to get the idea what it means.
The best you can do is never be political because your reputation will get hit and you will never satisfy all sides. Some sides will then demand you step up which will come at your expense. Then they tell you: We did not force you to do it. Though they most likely did.
If you wanted to offend western countries leadership and their propaganda campaigns, narratives, there is so much of it that happened no need to make stuff up. Truthful Ammunition of this kind is plentiful. If they tell you to not tell the truth about westerners wrong doings, apart from the stories (I dont mean facts and real findings) they were repeating in their media, then at least dont tell falsehoods about others, especially if you want to sell them what you are making.
Traditional SP in a BF game was from the very start, offline, without internet. You had to have that CD to run, but then I think you could have 2 people play with and vs bots from a single copy I think, disc 1 and disc 2.
That all-beatiful and super-awesome multiplayer online wasnt even a thing for most people that I knew here at least from 2004-5.
If you got internet, great, you could connect to others if you felt like it.
Campaigns can be ok, but they should steer clear off serious political issues that make one side good guys the other bad guys, because in all likelihood, the picture is far more complex.
There was years ago a color coup in the making by 'democratic forces' and a promoted guy by certain company was deluded that it was a human rights and wanted the company to obey and follow his political line/stand in a foreign country. The company shut down their promoted guy because their relationship with the country/market was more worth it in money, as well as their financial stability. I fully agree with that, while there were 'democratic' people calling on the company that they are shameful, supposedly promoting human rights violations and what not. They thus managed to stay out of politics and at least by my standard did well.