While slow-paced, this is a must have of all Battlefield fans.
The Bad: The story is extremely boring, some vehicles are unbalanced, no team deathmatch (only squad), no spawn camping protection, sniper rifles can be/are considered overpowered.
Note: Due to it being out so long, the game is pretty cheap, so you can get your money's worth, and then some.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 plays like a Battlefield game should, in the sense its multiplayer is admirable, even if it is a bit slow-paced. With maps of significantly large size, and vehicles, this should be expected. The map-size, in fact, leads to the only balance issues in the game. (I must say, the balance is way better than what you would find in most other shooters, such as Call of Duty, Halo, any of the free shooters, etc.) Recon class (snipers) tend to have a large advantage due to the size of the maps, as well as how open they often are. While easily overcome by veteran players who can handle fully automatic weapons at long range, new players might have trouble adapting to this. However, even then, there are vehicles to cause some imbalances. (I know, I know. Vehicles? Imbalanced? That just can't be.) Tanks can cause problems to assault classes who's only defenses against vehicles are grenade launchers, and medics who have none (that I have found, but since I have everything unlocked now...), but can be taken out rather effectively by a recon or engineers. This adds an extra element of strategy, but might prove annoying most of the time. Helicopters, on the other hand, are rather difficult to take out (mainly for beginners who aren't sure of how to take them), and most players in helicopters tend to know how to circle a base, shooting missiles as often as allowed. This can prove very annoying as, I mentioned, helicopters can be rather hard to take out of the sky. But what is worse is that if the team exploits these enough, or is just good enough, they can cap all bases and push your team back into your spawn, and exploit both these to further ruin your experience. (Nothing like two tanks and a helicopter circling your spawn) However, from my personal experience, this degree of spawn camping is a bit rare. Spawn camping in general though, is not. Not much to say other than its to be expected when the spawning area is open to enemies. Enough about the imbalanced aspect, let us move onto the surprising side, the balanced gameplay. The guns, (aside from Recon class weapons) are balanced really well. I have seen players do good with a gun I found so useless, I couldn't stand to use it, while being able to use a gun they weren't. Pistols are useful in-game as an actual side arm, which is not seen in too many shooters, for they are either too strong, or too weak. This allows the game an even more rich experience, at least in the multiplayer section of the game.
The singleplayer campaign, however, was not so "rich." The plot was rather dull, and honestly, I can't remember what it was about, other than you were searching for a military agent or something along those lines. I do, however, remember credit goes to the "collection" system. And often, you got to try out weapons you didn't get in the multiplayer section until later on. As fun as collecting the weapons was, it was not even remotely close enough to save the experience. However, another redeeming feature in the campaign was the missions that were of a larger scale and felt somewhat sandbox. Most first person shooters, especially military based shooters lack these missions, and seeing it differently here was actually fun. But again, these missions were few, and did little to allow me to enjoy the story overall. But the story, in all honesty, is not what makes a "Battlefield" game a Battlefield game. It is the multiplayer, and Bad Company 2 delivers.