Great squad based WWII shooter that met my expectations based on the previous installements of the series.
GRAPHICS: At first I thought they were not very good, but not as bad as others felt. After I got into the game, the refreshing brighter color pallet and a number of wow-that-was-cool moments won me over so I will now rate them as GOOD. The cut scenes may not be up to snuff with some "next-gen" games but they certainly are not "last-gen" and they portray the emotion they are supposed to.
SOUND: Sound was GREAT. VO, environmentals, music, and fighting sounds were all top notch IMHO. The only potential drawback (and this occurs in almost every game with squad) is your squadmates screaming the same crp at you when you KNOW what you are doing is dangerous. "Just shut the hell up and worry about suppressing the enemy you igit". However, even those sounds added to the stress and confusion of what a real battle may be like, sometimes annoying enough I just wanted them to shut up so I could think… and that's good as it's supposed to be stressful like a war.
STORY: I like the BiA story so I will call it GREAT. This one kind of adds a little creepiness as Baker starts to lose it a little it seems. It plays like an episode of Band of Brothers. The only downside here is remembering the previous installments of the "show". They do have a previously on feature at the beginning but that may not be entirely helpful. (It was more helpful when I started my second play through). It would be nice if the previous versions of the game were backward compatible.
GAME PLAY: I really enjoyed this so I will call it GREAT. I really like squad based games, I like cover, I like WWII confusing battles. The default controls took some getting used to but in the end I am glad I didn't mess with them. I like the battles the best but some of the single missions were fun too.
I DID NOT like the stupid obstacle course through fire mission, thankfully it's short (after your figure out what's going on and where to go). I also thought the tank missions were a little out of character. They were fine, fun enough, they broke up the intense action and let you spam shells and blow the crp out of everything. I just like the intense action and the tanks didn't really have that as they were somewhat arcade like.
Lastly (for gameplay) I just started on Authentic and I do not like the fact you do not have iron sites in cover. They tell you to kneel or "dig in" to steady the weapon the best, so I am not sure why you can't have the iron sites when "dug in". I understand no cursor and if you are going to run and gun no indicator, but if I am actually dug in and aiming I should get some sights.
Anyway, I liked the WWII war feel in the fighting, I liked the recon points and hunt for Kilroy side items. Squad AI seemed about the same as my squad in RB6 or GRAW…sometimes they were good at getting into cover, sometimes they needed babysitting. Once I figured out their quirks I never had an issue (well except sometimes accidentally sending them to their deaths when I hit the LT subconsciously thinking it would put me into cover or zoom or something):). The game does have a lot of cut scenes but unlike COD3 they did not annoy me as I was interested in the story and none seemed disruptive or overly long (except the ending but the short credits compensated for that).
In the end I am happy I got this game and would recommend it at full price for anyone that likes this type of WWII squad based, story heavy, single player experience… it's the best one this gen (so far).