Yes, I know Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been out for quite a while. I had to wait until it was on sale to buy it, which I did a few months back, and finally got around to playing it. I’m very glad I bought it on sale, because it certainly isn’t worth a full-game price. I’ve seen in on sale on Steam recently for as low as $5, so that it totally worth it. Even $10 is worth it.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a first person shooter that has the reputation as having the best single player story of all the Battlefield games to date. While that may be true, it’s a very short story and not a very good story, so “best” doesn’t actually mean good or great.
That isn’t to say everything is bad about the game. The combat is good fun, with lots of guns to choose from. The banter between your squadmates is well done and funny and sets the mood well. The graphics are okay, particularly for an oldish game. The destructible buildings and scenery are great – you can’t hide behind cover forever, because the enemy weapons may damage or destroy your shelter. So the combat, gun selection, and game mechanics are good, and it is lots of fun to take out enemy held villages and such. There are even occasions where the player drives tanks, jeeps, quad bikes, and is a helicopter gunner (the latter is fun, but only happens once and is too short. It also isn’t quite as great as the door gunner part of Halo Reach).
Sadly, the game uses a checkpoint system, which isn’t done very well. Most of the checkpoints are fine, but there are a few where you need to wipe out a bunch of baddies, then when you move to a certain spot, helicopters or other very deadly enemies are triggered. The problem occurs if you die in this latter stage, the checkpoint was before the initial fight. This only serves the purpose of being frustrating and dragging out the game (possibly intentionally, because it is so short). Some games have good checkpoints. The Gears of War series never put me too far back after a death. I just started play Far Cry 3, and it also seems to have a very good checkpoint system (although a save-anywhere feature would be better).
I didn’t play the multiplayer, which is the big draw for Battlefield games, but if I were going to play multiplayer, I’d play it in Battlefield 3 or 4, not Bad Company 2.
In summary, Battlefield Bad Company 2 is pretty fun, but has a short single player campaign. If you’re primarily a single-player person, get it on sale.