User Review : Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway

A truly Authentic WWII Expierence

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the third rendition in the realistic WWII FPS series. It follows an Allied soldier (Squad Leader) named Matt Baker through the brutal and epic mission, Market Garden. Unlike most WWII shooters, BiA:HH follows only one mission throughout the whole game, but that doesn't mean its short. I spent about 12 hours in BiA:HH, and it was an entertaining and addictive expierence the whole way through. What makes it different from other WWII shooters though, is that it enforces the player to suppress, flank, and then kill the enemy. These three steps can help you out in every situation in the game, and using your commandable squad units, it can be very strategic and intense (albeit difficult sometimes too). Suppressing the enemy is as easy as shooting at them indirectly. Machine guns like the Thompson or MP40 are very useful for this. A circle above every enemy squad unit will start out red, but as you suppress them , it'll slowly turn grey. Once they are fully suppressed, you can freely move your units, or yourself, around the battlefield without having to put up with very much incoming fire. That leads to flanking. Flanking is maneauvering your men around to the back or side of the enemies location and firing at them when they stand non-protected without any cover. You can also do this yourself ofcourse, and it can be difficult sometimes later in the game, but its worth it for the rewarding achievement. Below, I wrote a review of the game split up into 3 categories. These categories are: Gameplay, Presentation, and Story. Please enjoy reading. :D

Gameplay
BiA:HH is one of the few WWII games these days that stay challenging and fresh 100% of the time in the campaign. At the beginning of the game, after finishing a very short tutorial, you'll be killing large numbers of nazis and face new kinds of threats very soon. The game doesn't BS around with realism. If something happens in real-life that was very difficult, the game will also be very difficult in that part too, no matter what part of the game your in. Theres still a difficulty curve that climbs higher and higher as you get closer to the end of the game, but you won't ever be relaxing once. This has always been a trademark of the series, and BiA:HH is surprisingly easier than the previous iterations in the franchise, but newcomers will notice the challenge faced throughout the game very quickly. You cannot play through the game like it's Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, run n' gun type of playing is absent in BiA:HH, and even Easy Difficulty will force you to take this route. Thankfully, a well-working cover mechanic in the game will help you out alot. The previous BiA games were so much more difficult (especially Earned In Blood) most likely because of the lack of a cover system. BiA:HH finally fixes this problem and the game is alot more fluent and enjoyable with this implemented. Destructable cover is fully featured too, so don't expect to hide behind a picket fence long, because machine gun fire can rip it to shreads. Even things like sandbags aren't guanteed cover, as grenades and bazooka fire can destroy those.

Commanding your squads in BiA:HH couldn't have been easier. Clicking the right mouse button on the mouse lets you move around a circle on the map, which designates where the selected squad will move. You won't be doing very much micro-management at all though, as the squad soldiers are smart enough to automatically suppress the enemy, take cover, and let you know about the current situation of the battle. They'll even tell you if their not in a very good spot. This isn't perfectly done actually, since there will be multiple times when your soldiers will run right into the middle of enemy fire, even for simple commands, so the AI can be hit or miss in that kind've situation. Enemy soldiers are fairly smart in BiA:HH, but they aren't as smart as they were in the previous titles of the BiA series. They might flank you sometimes, other times they might surprisingly surround you with grenades, while other times, they might just run right into your machine gun fire. The AI overall, isn't a problem in BiA (it can actually be very good), but it can still be an annoyance at times. The squads you will be commanding aren't just any riflemen squads, they can be bazooka teams, base of fire teams, and even assault teams (which throw lots of grenades). You can tell these men when to do specific things, like to fire a rocket at an enemy encampment, but they can miss alot more times than you'd think they would.

The difficulties in BiA:HH are Easy, Normal, Verteran, and Authentic (you get this once you beat the game). Authentic can be brutal, expecially since you don't have very much of a HUD, but it just adds to the expierence if your into that kind of stuff. The game also rewards you with a medal for every mission you complete on Authentic, with makes it much more viable to do. Other than commanding your men and fighting with them, the game keeps things fresh by allowing you to command a tank, and also fight by yourself in specific moments. These parts of the game can be just as fun, and they don't lose any of the challenge within the core parts of the game. Commanding a tank can be very fun, especially since you can drive over numerous different kinds of cover, along with blowing a whole bunch of stuff up (including enemy tanks:)). The parts of the game where your alone (or with one other computer-controller character), can be the most difficult parts of the game for some. If you go through these parts too fast, you'll find yourself ambushed and killed. What I found pretty weird, but intriguing, was that these parts of the game can be very well taken out of a horror game. The atmosphere is amazingly well done in BiA:HH and the very first part of the game is like this. Gearbox (the developers), definitely gambled on this choice, but since it was thoughtout and well executed, it fits great into then game and I hope more parts like this will be in the next BiA game.

Story
The plot in BiA:HH is authentic and very engaging. It might be a bit slow at first, but ½ way into the game, it can have some unexpected twists and turns that make is awesome. Most of these happenings, are very depressing and sad, but they still fit very well into the story. The game sums up what happened in the previous titles of the series, in a cinematic, but if you want the best expierence from the storyline, play Road to Hill 30 and possibly even Earned In Blood too. BiA delivers on an emotional, chilling story,and what more can you ask for? Its not MGS standards, but I found some parts of the game to be very memorable.

Presentation
The graphics, sound, and voice acting are all very well done in BiA:HH. The graphics, first of all, do look a bit dated (the game was in development for awhile), but something about them have an artistic but also realistic vibe to them that makes the game much more immersive. The enviroments look good, surprisingly even more at the night sequences, but the character models are what make BiA:HH shine. Every soldier is very detailed and your men all have finishing touches to make them look just like their real-life counterparts. The animations are also very polished, some of the best in it's genre actually. The sound is very nice. The game on a 5.1 surround sound system with high volume can make it seem like your right in the middle of the battlefield, something that few games can make you feel these days. As for the voice acting, it's very good for most of the main characters, but some people might not match their specific voice, but it's nothing major. Gun sounds crackle, and they sound great no matter what enviroment your in, they feel very much like their real-life counterparts too.

Verdict
BiA:HH is yet another WWII game from Gearbox that stays engaging for even people that thought WWII games are all the same. If your sick of the numerous WWII games out there, its still worth checking out Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. It's loads of fun and history junkies will get into it too. The strategic elements just add more to the expierence and since you've also got some basic multiplayer, along with the ability to play through the game on 4 difficulty levels, it's worth 60 bucks without a doubt. 4/5 stars