four stood alone.

Squad Rush, Battlefield Bad Company 2's newly unlocked game mode, is intense.

It's the same idea as Rush, where there's an attacking team trying to blow up a series of objectives, while a defending team tries to hold them off. But regular Rush is two teams of 12, where Squad Rush is two teams of 4. The map size, respawn count, number of objectives and vehicle placement (Squad Rush seems to have no vehicles) have changed of accommodate the smaller scale.

You might think the decreased scope would make things a little less hectic. Maybe there are less explosions than when 24 fools are running around shooting rockets, blowing up buildings, flying helicopters and laying tank mines. But it's the probably one of the more exciting and stressful modes I've ever played.

With just 4 people to a team, everyone matters more, everyone's more accountable, and the class system is even more valuable than ever. You can't keep throwing respawns away in a war of attrition. You don't have enough respawns, and since there's so few teammates, you can't count on someone always being there to keep the pressure on when you die. You have to really have a plan of action and carry it out effectively.

We played quite a few games, maybe 5 or 6, and won a majority. But it was close, and there were upsets. And those upsets were much more hard hitting and personal than in regular Rush mode, where things can change somewhere else on the battlefield that you might never be aware of. In this mode every death is a big deal and every enemy seems all the more dangerous.

If you have told me "you know what would make Battlefield more exciting? less people" I probably would have said "whhhaaaa?" but it's true. Squad Rush might be a mode I only play on occasion, when we have all four of us ready to roll and we really feel like getting into it, but it's a damn fine mode.