With a long running history, World War II shooters still manage to move on and bring new aspects to the genre. In an area of games where titles such as Medal of Honor and Call of Duty rule supreme, it's impressive to see that there is still plenty of room for new entries into this genre. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 creates a very realistic and authentic WWII experience whilst heavily relying on tactical squad-based combat. You may think it's nothing new, but that's where you would be wrong.
Brothers in Arms does an excellent job recreating a WWII-based story in which you, the player, actually empathise with the characters. We've seen WWII shooters parachute you behind enemy lines on the early morning of D-Day before, but never as detailed and epic as what is depicted here. The real life story found in Brothers in Arms places you into the role of Sgt. Matt Baker who was a real member of the 101st airborne. The game spans across one full week starting at the invasion of Normandy, France on D-Day. Of course as part of the airborne, it is not your mission to storm the beaches on D-Day. Instead, you're parachuted behind enemy lines on the morning of the invasion, with the mission to help weaken German forces to prepare for the landings on the beaches.
The game starts out with you literally getting blown out of your airplane as it starts falling apart over the fields of France. Once you hit the ground, you're not only weaponless, but you've also landed far off course and nowhere near your other squad members. You'll then spend the next few days meeting up with your squad and advancing your way to Utah beach and then deeper into France.
The opening sequence really doesn't offer up a unique experience that we haven't seen from WWII shooters before, but you'll soon realize that Brothers in Arms offers a truly cinematic feeling without the linear gameplay which is so abundant in these shooters. The cinematic capabilities of this title really make it seem more like you're watching a film, and it involves you into the environments that much more. For example, when starting out a new mission, the mission name, location, and date will be displayed on a black screen while Matt quietly whispers his thoughts to himself. Matt's thoughts will give you a backdrop on his past life in the US which really helps you to understand where the main character is coming from.
Matt's minor speaker parts may be subtle, but they do add to the overall cinematic effect of the game. It no longer feels like you're just another simple-minded soldier trapped in a desperate fight for survival somewhere in Europe. It now feels more like a movie where you really do care if your "brothers" die at your side. In this respect, each character in your squad does have their own unique personality and past that you'll soon learn from.
Also contributing to Brothers in Arms are the large and realistically mapped environments that actually require you to think when in combat. This is more-or-less a new feature to WWII shooters, as most others just send you in a straight path, or rail system where you must simply shoot anything that moves. Brothers in Arms takes this concept, throws it out the window, and places you into a completely new area of WWII shooters that offers true authenticity. Well maybe squad-based combat in a WWII shooter isn't a completely new concept. After all, we have seen it before in titles like Hidden and Dangerous , Deadly Dozen , and last year's Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault . However, none of these games have perfected this type of combat until now.
Brothers in Arms does an awesome job at recreating effective squad-based tactics in the heat of battle. Basically your abilities come down to suppression and fire tactics. The aim is to have one team suppressing the enemy with a barrage of gunfire while the other team sneaks around to finish them off. This is accomplished in the game by giving the player up to two teams at a time. Of course you don't control two teams until later in the game, but once you do you'll find yourself dishing out orders more than just shooting. Some missions even see you controlling one team and one tank. While others give you the opportunity to control a suppression team of three soldiers who carry rifles, and a fire team of three soldiers who carry automatic weapons.
Ordering your team around couldn't be any simpler. All you have to do is simply select which team you wish to order and then right-click your mouse. A blue indicator will than appear on the ground which can then be pointed anywhere and orders your men to move to that position. When laying down fire on the enemy, you can order your men by using the exact same method except this time you simply just point at the position of the enemy for them to fire. Other such orders can involve charging straight at the enemy and also regrouping.
As mentioned before, the game does offer some less linear gameplay. While still maintaining scripted sequences to move the story along, the larger environments still allow ample paths to be taken in order to flank an enemy. This provides for much replayability. Another factor that will have you playing the game over again is the inclusion of the bonus features. These features normally include videos about the making of the game and even cheats such as playing the game in an old, movie-style black and white. All of which can be unlocked by playing on the various difficulty levels.
The missions themselves thankfully have a little variety. After a while it may seem a little monotonous as you constantly issue orders to suppress and flank the enemy, but the mission objectives do vary quite nicely. Some missions will see you going up against tanks, capturing select locales, taking out enemy mortar teams, and even clearing a field of poles so that your gliders can land. Many of the environments you encounter include small towns and large country fields. The best part about this, though, is the fact that everything has been greatly modeled after real life reconnaissance photos of France during WWII. This also gave the developers at Gearbox (responsible for Half-Life's Opposing Force expansion pack and the PC port of Halo) the ability to recreate the entire story of the 101st airborne landing in France. In other words, all the missions that you embark on were real missions that these soldiers underwent in WWII.
Some of these realistic missions that you'll participate in include Objective XYZ. This was a real life mission involving a small group of US soldiers, that had previously had never met each other, who stealthily barged into home after home of a small German occupied town in France. When they got to the last building they found that it was a mess hall with German soldiers gathered around the table eating. The German soldiers paid little attention to the gunfire in town as they had been hearing the sounds of war for days. Unexpectedly, and without warning, the US soldiers rushed in and gunned them all down. Another realistic mission, Cole's Charge, sees you and fellow soldiers following your commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Cole, through a field filled with German automatic weapon emplacements. Under the cover of smoke, you and your men literally charge into the German fire in an attempt to take them out which seems more like suicide. It's especially crazy considering the fact that only a few shots will get you killed in Brothers in Arms.
Speaking of getting killed, prepare to die a lot here. After all, a game wouldn't be realistic if you didn't die from just a few shots. However, this can become annoying rather quickly, mainly due to the inability to save whenever you want. Instead, Brothers in Arms uses a checkpoint system that automatically saves when entering a specific area. Thankfully these checkpoints are positioned right before major battles, but it's still a pain to constantly load back and have to replay a certain level every time you get killed. It's especially annoying when you consider the fact that this title has some very long load times which will have you sitting and waiting in-between missions.
Despite this, there is a 'handicap' of sorts that does give you a slight edge if you're dieing often. Basically, if you die at least three times in the same area and load back the same checkpoint three times, a message will show up saying something along the lines of "War isn't fair, but a game should be", and gives you the choice of either simply loading back your checkpoint or loading back your checkpoint and receiving full health and ammo.
Another feature that aids you during combat is the Situational Awareness View. US soldiers studied the lay of the land before they embarked on their missions, but since you don't have this ability in a game this feature comes in handy. Basically it pauses the game and goes to a bird's-eye view of the whole level. From here, you can check out your own squad and find enemy artillery and soldiers. This allows you to know your environment much better and also gives you the opportunity to plan your attack.
Some more helpful features include the suppression indicator and a small health meter. This consists of a small circle icon that appears above your enemy's head to indicate whether or not they are suppressed. When they are not suppressed the icon is fully red, and when they are suppressed the icon is fully grey. This enables you to more easily determine if an enemy squad is carefully suppressed so that you can then send your fire team around to the side to flank them. Of course for a more realistic experience this feature can be disabled. Also, the crosshair can be disabled which means you'll mainly need to aim down the sights of your gun in order to hit your target. It gets very realistic and even more challenging with both of these features off. The small health meter that's included is in the middle of your compass, but it's really a useless feature. As much as we would like to know where our health level is at, it really doesn't matter in this game considering that only a few shots will have you lying on the ground.
Brothers in Arms does include a wide variety of weapons all of which have been authentically modeled after their real life WWII counterparts. There are many different rifles, bazookas and submachine guns as well as grenades and explosives. Explosives can be set on enemy artillery, and grenades can actually be thrown down the hatch of a tank in order to guarantee a quick kill. Most missions will have you starting out with a rifle and submachine gun giving you the choice of whether you'd rather stay mainly with your suppression team or follow your fire team. Other weapons can also be picked up from your fallen comrades or from the corpses of your enemies. There are also a few machine gun emplacements that you can man, but it's odd that you can't tell your squad members to man these guns. So whenever you need to use one of these powerful machine guns, you'll find yourself dishing out the barrage of fire while you must rely on your teammates to help defend you.
The multiplayer certainly is unique when compared to that of other WWII shooters. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that it's so unique considering that the single-player campaign behaves in exactly the same way. Put simply, you can have 2-4 people playing against each other. When two people play, one player controls a suppression and fire team on the US side, and the other player controls the same on the German side. When four players come in then two people play on each side controlling only one team which means you'll need to coordinate your moves with your teammate. The maps are setup just as well as in single-player, and you can also tackle objectives.
The graphics in Brothers in Arms are quite good. Some of the textures may look a little low resolution, but it's just enough to get the job done. Explosions and muzzle flashes look great, and even blood and dirt will fly up onto your screen. Speaking of blood, Brothers in Arms has plenty of it. It may not be as gory as games like Soldier of Fortune , but a grenade or explosion can result in the loss of a limb. You don't actually see a limb go flying, but if you examine the corpse of an enemy that just got hit with a grenade, you may notice some bloody stumps where there should be arms and legs. There are also a few other parts where your fellow squad mates die and become a gruesome heap of blood and flesh. Obviously the developers wanted to show the horrors of war, and they've done it quite well.
Like any WWII shooter the sound effects are great and highly detailed. You can easily hear every bullet and explosion around you as well as the high-pitched humming noise that you'll experience when receiving some shellshock. The AI is exceptional, and they use the same tactics that are at your disposal. In other words, they will suppress you, flank you, and run away if need be.
Conclusion
Overall, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 creates an amazingly realistic and authentic WWII experience. Even though this title emphasizes the need for squad-based combat, the missions are still pretty fierce and crazy. Add to that some nice replay value and a great, as well as realistic, storyline and you'll notice a unique WWII shooter laying beneath an overpopulated genre.
Brothers in Arms does an excellent job recreating a WWII-based story in which you, the player, actually empathise with the characters. We've seen WWII shooters parachute you behind enemy lines on the early morning of D-Day before, but never as detailed and epic as what is depicted here. The real life story found in Brothers in Arms places you into the role of Sgt. Matt Baker who was a real member of the 101st airborne. The game spans across one full week starting at the invasion of Normandy, France on D-Day. Of course as part of the airborne, it is not your mission to storm the beaches on D-Day. Instead, you're parachuted behind enemy lines on the morning of the invasion, with the mission to help weaken German forces to prepare for the landings on the beaches.
The game starts out with you literally getting blown out of your airplane as it starts falling apart over the fields of France. Once you hit the ground, you're not only weaponless, but you've also landed far off course and nowhere near your other squad members. You'll then spend the next few days meeting up with your squad and advancing your way to Utah beach and then deeper into France.
The opening sequence really doesn't offer up a unique experience that we haven't seen from WWII shooters before, but you'll soon realize that Brothers in Arms offers a truly cinematic feeling without the linear gameplay which is so abundant in these shooters. The cinematic capabilities of this title really make it seem more like you're watching a film, and it involves you into the environments that much more. For example, when starting out a new mission, the mission name, location, and date will be displayed on a black screen while Matt quietly whispers his thoughts to himself. Matt's thoughts will give you a backdrop on his past life in the US which really helps you to understand where the main character is coming from.
Matt's minor speaker parts may be subtle, but they do add to the overall cinematic effect of the game. It no longer feels like you're just another simple-minded soldier trapped in a desperate fight for survival somewhere in Europe. It now feels more like a movie where you really do care if your "brothers" die at your side. In this respect, each character in your squad does have their own unique personality and past that you'll soon learn from.
Also contributing to Brothers in Arms are the large and realistically mapped environments that actually require you to think when in combat. This is more-or-less a new feature to WWII shooters, as most others just send you in a straight path, or rail system where you must simply shoot anything that moves. Brothers in Arms takes this concept, throws it out the window, and places you into a completely new area of WWII shooters that offers true authenticity. Well maybe squad-based combat in a WWII shooter isn't a completely new concept. After all, we have seen it before in titles like Hidden and Dangerous , Deadly Dozen , and last year's Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault . However, none of these games have perfected this type of combat until now.
Brothers in Arms does an awesome job at recreating effective squad-based tactics in the heat of battle. Basically your abilities come down to suppression and fire tactics. The aim is to have one team suppressing the enemy with a barrage of gunfire while the other team sneaks around to finish them off. This is accomplished in the game by giving the player up to two teams at a time. Of course you don't control two teams until later in the game, but once you do you'll find yourself dishing out orders more than just shooting. Some missions even see you controlling one team and one tank. While others give you the opportunity to control a suppression team of three soldiers who carry rifles, and a fire team of three soldiers who carry automatic weapons.
Ordering your team around couldn't be any simpler. All you have to do is simply select which team you wish to order and then right-click your mouse. A blue indicator will than appear on the ground which can then be pointed anywhere and orders your men to move to that position. When laying down fire on the enemy, you can order your men by using the exact same method except this time you simply just point at the position of the enemy for them to fire. Other such orders can involve charging straight at the enemy and also regrouping.
As mentioned before, the game does offer some less linear gameplay. While still maintaining scripted sequences to move the story along, the larger environments still allow ample paths to be taken in order to flank an enemy. This provides for much replayability. Another factor that will have you playing the game over again is the inclusion of the bonus features. These features normally include videos about the making of the game and even cheats such as playing the game in an old, movie-style black and white. All of which can be unlocked by playing on the various difficulty levels.
The missions themselves thankfully have a little variety. After a while it may seem a little monotonous as you constantly issue orders to suppress and flank the enemy, but the mission objectives do vary quite nicely. Some missions will see you going up against tanks, capturing select locales, taking out enemy mortar teams, and even clearing a field of poles so that your gliders can land. Many of the environments you encounter include small towns and large country fields. The best part about this, though, is the fact that everything has been greatly modeled after real life reconnaissance photos of France during WWII. This also gave the developers at Gearbox (responsible for Half-Life's Opposing Force expansion pack and the PC port of Halo) the ability to recreate the entire story of the 101st airborne landing in France. In other words, all the missions that you embark on were real missions that these soldiers underwent in WWII.
Some of these realistic missions that you'll participate in include Objective XYZ. This was a real life mission involving a small group of US soldiers, that had previously had never met each other, who stealthily barged into home after home of a small German occupied town in France. When they got to the last building they found that it was a mess hall with German soldiers gathered around the table eating. The German soldiers paid little attention to the gunfire in town as they had been hearing the sounds of war for days. Unexpectedly, and without warning, the US soldiers rushed in and gunned them all down. Another realistic mission, Cole's Charge, sees you and fellow soldiers following your commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Cole, through a field filled with German automatic weapon emplacements. Under the cover of smoke, you and your men literally charge into the German fire in an attempt to take them out which seems more like suicide. It's especially crazy considering the fact that only a few shots will get you killed in Brothers in Arms.
Speaking of getting killed, prepare to die a lot here. After all, a game wouldn't be realistic if you didn't die from just a few shots. However, this can become annoying rather quickly, mainly due to the inability to save whenever you want. Instead, Brothers in Arms uses a checkpoint system that automatically saves when entering a specific area. Thankfully these checkpoints are positioned right before major battles, but it's still a pain to constantly load back and have to replay a certain level every time you get killed. It's especially annoying when you consider the fact that this title has some very long load times which will have you sitting and waiting in-between missions.
Despite this, there is a 'handicap' of sorts that does give you a slight edge if you're dieing often. Basically, if you die at least three times in the same area and load back the same checkpoint three times, a message will show up saying something along the lines of "War isn't fair, but a game should be", and gives you the choice of either simply loading back your checkpoint or loading back your checkpoint and receiving full health and ammo.
Another feature that aids you during combat is the Situational Awareness View. US soldiers studied the lay of the land before they embarked on their missions, but since you don't have this ability in a game this feature comes in handy. Basically it pauses the game and goes to a bird's-eye view of the whole level. From here, you can check out your own squad and find enemy artillery and soldiers. This allows you to know your environment much better and also gives you the opportunity to plan your attack.
Some more helpful features include the suppression indicator and a small health meter. This consists of a small circle icon that appears above your enemy's head to indicate whether or not they are suppressed. When they are not suppressed the icon is fully red, and when they are suppressed the icon is fully grey. This enables you to more easily determine if an enemy squad is carefully suppressed so that you can then send your fire team around to the side to flank them. Of course for a more realistic experience this feature can be disabled. Also, the crosshair can be disabled which means you'll mainly need to aim down the sights of your gun in order to hit your target. It gets very realistic and even more challenging with both of these features off. The small health meter that's included is in the middle of your compass, but it's really a useless feature. As much as we would like to know where our health level is at, it really doesn't matter in this game considering that only a few shots will have you lying on the ground.
Brothers in Arms does include a wide variety of weapons all of which have been authentically modeled after their real life WWII counterparts. There are many different rifles, bazookas and submachine guns as well as grenades and explosives. Explosives can be set on enemy artillery, and grenades can actually be thrown down the hatch of a tank in order to guarantee a quick kill. Most missions will have you starting out with a rifle and submachine gun giving you the choice of whether you'd rather stay mainly with your suppression team or follow your fire team. Other weapons can also be picked up from your fallen comrades or from the corpses of your enemies. There are also a few machine gun emplacements that you can man, but it's odd that you can't tell your squad members to man these guns. So whenever you need to use one of these powerful machine guns, you'll find yourself dishing out the barrage of fire while you must rely on your teammates to help defend you.
The multiplayer certainly is unique when compared to that of other WWII shooters. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that it's so unique considering that the single-player campaign behaves in exactly the same way. Put simply, you can have 2-4 people playing against each other. When two people play, one player controls a suppression and fire team on the US side, and the other player controls the same on the German side. When four players come in then two people play on each side controlling only one team which means you'll need to coordinate your moves with your teammate. The maps are setup just as well as in single-player, and you can also tackle objectives.
The graphics in Brothers in Arms are quite good. Some of the textures may look a little low resolution, but it's just enough to get the job done. Explosions and muzzle flashes look great, and even blood and dirt will fly up onto your screen. Speaking of blood, Brothers in Arms has plenty of it. It may not be as gory as games like Soldier of Fortune , but a grenade or explosion can result in the loss of a limb. You don't actually see a limb go flying, but if you examine the corpse of an enemy that just got hit with a grenade, you may notice some bloody stumps where there should be arms and legs. There are also a few other parts where your fellow squad mates die and become a gruesome heap of blood and flesh. Obviously the developers wanted to show the horrors of war, and they've done it quite well.
Like any WWII shooter the sound effects are great and highly detailed. You can easily hear every bullet and explosion around you as well as the high-pitched humming noise that you'll experience when receiving some shellshock. The AI is exceptional, and they use the same tactics that are at your disposal. In other words, they will suppress you, flank you, and run away if need be.
Conclusion
Overall, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 creates an amazingly realistic and authentic WWII experience. Even though this title emphasizes the need for squad-based combat, the missions are still pretty fierce and crazy. Add to that some nice replay value and a great, as well as realistic, storyline and you'll notice a unique WWII shooter laying beneath an overpopulated genre.
