I cannot believe that another WWII game would be enjoyable. After the disappointment with Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, I wonder if the WWII genre is going to last. Although Call of Duty 2 is on the work, and hopefully not disappointing. BIA is a very enjoyable game, comparable to Medal of Honor Allied Assault and Call of Duty.
The graphics for BIA is good, but is a little backward compare to Far Cry, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2. Even Chronicles of Riddick has a more powerful engine. However, BIA did a good job modifying the Unreal 2004 engine to make it "the last good ones of the old engine." Newer ones have to deal with physics (Source), dynamic lighting and shadows (Doom 3), and a huge environment (Far Cry) in order to compete. In general BIA deserves an 8.5/10 for graphics just because it does its best to look good with the new guys.
The music and sound of BIA is good (though the gunshot could be a little better). The surround sounds are nice, but not one of the best. There were little configuration that could be done with sound. The ambient background is a little dull. But the dialog and action sounds are right-in-your-face, which is nice. I also give this an 8/10.
OK, so now comes to the good part. The 1st-person shooting thing is normal, nothing really special. At first, I also hated the poor firing accuracy. However, after playing through, I realized the purpose for that. There were not flocks of Krauts to take down. But the few of them are smart, and they fight you tactically. If it were like MoH, you can head-shot them from your hiding place one-by-one and end the game in a few hours. But in real life that is not the case. So you have to organize your fight in ways such that you can get close to them, around them, and shoot them were you can hit them easily. The tactic control is simple and fun, making this the most enjoyable tactical shooter yet. I usually hate the planning and strategy in Rainbow 6 or similar games. This game presented the action of the games I like with a simple twist that makes it different and as good as the "good-old days."
The chapters/campaigns are fun too, but to me not that special. I especially could not enjoy the sceneries of Europe because I was never in Europe before, and so the effort of BIA to make the game exactly the same as in real-life was lost on me. But I assume if you know those places, BIA would have enlightened you, since the level design seems superb.
Finally, the gameplay is nice in terms of organization. You start out as Baker, the one-man-team following orders. Later you control Hartsock. Later you added 2 more guys. More and more you control more people, but slowly advancing, so you don't get overwhelmed with the new game play style. In the harder difficulty levels, you start immediately with more people and involve in more action, and in the crazy mode (play and you know the real name of the mode), you really need those kids.
So for gameplay, I think it deserves a 10/10. And if this game have had the graphics of Far Cry, Doom, or Source, I would have killed just to get a look at it, let alone playing it.
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