Blow stuff up! Blow stuff up real good! If you have any interest in FPS then you owe it to yourself to play this game!
GAMEPLAY (9.0) - This is a military FPS in a modern environment where for the most part you'll be fighting along with three fellow soldiers, though you'll find that usually you'll be the one that takes care of most of the enemies. But that's OK, because it's loads of fun. The shooting is very smooth and responsive. As you progress in the game you'll come across an amazing assortment of weapons that all look, sound and feel very unique. Unfortunately you're limited to keeping only one basic gun/grenade/grenade launcher combo, though of course that is a bit more realistic. You'll need to accomplish a variety of objectives as you make your way through the campaign, and firefights can get pretty intense on a battlefield that includes tanks, APCs and helicopters, machine gun nests, RPGs, artillery, and more. The missions move along at a fast clip and there's literally never a boring moment. The AI in the game puts up a decent fight as they'll take cover, keep moving, take over a machine gun for a fallen comrade, etc., as well as knowing how to take advantage of the game's destructible environments. It's these destructible environments that take this game up to another level. Can't get into a building? Blow the door open. Enemies firing at you from within a cottage? Blow a hole in the side of it and pick off the survivors. Trapped in a building by enemies outside? Punch a hole in a back wall and make your escape. The possibilities are virtually endless.
GRAPHICS (8.5) Considering what's involved the graphics are pretty decent. The character models and environments look pretty solid, but it's the destruction that's really going to impress you. Being able to nearly decimate almost every object in the environment adds a great element to the game. Also of note is that in spite of all of the action going on I never noticed any frame rate issues.
SOUND (9.0) - The voice acting is good and while the comedy between your buddies can be pretty corny it's still funny and gives some humanity to the soldiers, something that most military FPS games lack. But more importantly, the sounds of battle are incredible. The deep bass of explosions will challenge a subwoofer in ways that no 360 game has yet, and the rattle of your rifle giving it all it's got is very satisfying. This is one of the few games that create a war zone just with sound, something that even the most epic of war games don't always succeed at and rarely do as well as this one does. If you've just bought a sound system and really want to stretch out its capabilities with a new game, make it this one.
VALUE (9.0) - The single player game took somewhere between 12-15 hours, not bad at all for a FPS, especially since you should be able to get this for a good price. Now even though I haven't taken advantage of it yet the BF games are known for their multiplayer, so anyone that enjoys that type of game will certainly be getting more then their money's worth.
SUMMARY - Unlike many other military FPS this one actually has an intriguing story to go along with it. This is not just a "go after the bad guys" deal. Right from the start it's unique in that your character has messed up in the past so the Army has placed you with three other expendable misfits, and before long you'll end up going in quite a different direction then what you anticipated. This game was definitely one of the pleasant surprises of 2008 for me and I'm glad I took a chance on a game I didn't know that much about. Obviously there's a glut of FPS games out there but this one has enough unique and fun features that I'd definitely recommend it for any fans of the genre, and this might be the type of game that could even win over non-fans as well.