I bought it a few hours after that along with SimCity DS since I had like 40 in trade in credits.
BIA is just good ol COD2 basically right down to the life bar. Yes, a few less weapons, and I can't pick up the MP40 and Kar98k I appreciate so much more, but I'll live. Strong game, good challenge for sure, and very hectic. The A/V end is jawdropping for the DS with destructable environments and other hardware (TNT'd 88's etc) for sure. Audio is just beautiful with a ton of sfx, called out orders, and the music scores too. Very top notch needless to say. Controls are responsive and slick, grenade chucking I've never enjoyed so much as it's spot on. It gets a lil hairy with questionable objectives you have to die through to eventually get, and rarely you'll have a wall block your line of sight, but it's not a bitch in any means. I've offed the 1st of the 3 campaigns there and it's impressive. I can only imagine how much nastier the medium and harder settings are.
I strongly recommend it as a fan of COD1/2PC and3 on Wii and of the MOH console franchise to date as it snuggly fits right in the middle of those two fabulous lines of games. More than I could have honestly expected with the DS after thinking Metroid would take the taco, but it nicely unseats it with overall presentation across the board (minus multiplayer which I could give a damn about.
CAT:
I see you're on the same page as me as I'm into the COD form of team play and the MOH lighter team/singular aspect. I'm not a fan at ALL of the Soldier of Fortune/Rainbow Six primary strategy, shot in the arm you die type eventing. I knew that BIA as a franchise sat dead between that and COD which had me ignoring this game, but reading up and seeing it went COD style it sold me and it was done excellently. You are right the damage meter is forgiving, just as much so as COD2/3 had it. It's basically a pressure meter...the more pressure from bullets/shells the faster you're toast, but if you back off you can recover if you're lucky. This makes some stages pretty darn easy, but others are still a f'n nightmare like Campaign 1 stages 3 and 4 (the 5th final is easier and damn fun though) where it is just trial and error. I TOTALLY can see why they went that way from doing Goldeneye and Metroid on the DS as while the stylus is very mouse like, it still doesn't have the rate of turn or accuracy without shaky hands fighting you so you need some give so you don't end up dead and pissed in 5sec flat. Game has issues, but nothing ruining, and for the many who care, no WIFI (but does do MP though) I think it's a solid 8/10 type title.