Author: random515
Title: Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Review
Posted: Monday, July 6, 2009 at 2:18 am
What do you get when you cross Call of Duty, Ghost Recon and the World War II TV miniseries Band of Brothers? Why, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway of course!
The third game in the Brothers In Arms series, Hell’s Highway takes place during Operation Market Garden; a daring and ultimately doomed Allied plan to drop several divisions of paratroopers into occupied Holland to secure several key bridges and open up a corridor for British tanks to roll into Germany. This corridor is the so called “Hell’s Highway” of the title.
As in the first Brothers In Arms game, Road To Hill 30, you play as Staff Sergeant Matt Baker, a squad leader in the 101st Airborne’s elite Reconnaissance Platoon, a man haunted by the memories his actions and of lost soldiers. There are numerous other returning characters from earlier Brother’s In Arms games, as well as several new faces, and terrifically well written and engaging cutscenes really make you begin to care about the men in your squad.
Unfortunately, many of the story points rely heavily on events from previous Brothers In Arms games, so if you haven’t played them you will be missing out. There is a “Previously in Brothers In Arms” segment that plays when you start a new game, but it doesn’t really convey the critical information well enough for someone new to the series to understand everything. Your knowledge of the previous events in the series develops as you play through the game, but it is a shame this knowledge isn’t established earlier.
As I mentioned previously, the story in Hell’s Highway is truly excellent; a gritty look at the dark and horrifying reality of war. Coupled with absolutely top notch voice acting, the games sometimes lengthy cutscenes are truly enthralling.
In terms of gameplay, Hell’s Highway is essentially a tactical squad shooter. It features a regenerating health system and a cover system similar one found in many tactical shooters like GRAW or Rainbow Six: Vegas. The game strongly discourages the traditional run’n’gun gameplay typical of many first person shooters, with effective use of cover and your squad necessary to survive.
Fortunate then that your fellow soldiers are generally a pretty intelligent bunch; they are usually capable of finding cover on their own when under fire, which negates the need for too much micromanaging. They will mostly respond to your commands quite effectively; however there are times when they will accidentally run to the wrong side of a piece of cover, often getting themselves killed in the process. Don’t worry though; they’ll only stay dead until the next checkpoint.
The enemy AI is equally good, often actively trying to flank or surround you. They do seem to have a bit of a delayed reaction time, though. When you launch a surprise attack on an enemy, they often just stand there for a split second before fighting back. While this pause is not that long, it is noticeable.
The game’s combat essentially boils down to the “Four Fs”: Find your enemy, Fix them with suppressing fire, Flank your enemy and attack from the sides and finally Finish them. Your squad members are essential in doing this successfully. You are given a short training period at the beginning of the game in which to get used to the different types of commands and issuing them to your squad or squads. After this training mission is finished, however, you’re on your own against legions of Nazi soldiers.
At first your squad can seem more of a hindrance than a help, but as you get used to controlling them, they become more and more helpful until you end up wondering how you ever managed without them. Commanding them is simple and easy; they are almost like an extension of yourself. Dispatching a field full of entrenched enemies as a single coordinated and elite unit is immensely satisfying, and that feeling is a big part of what makes Brothers In Arms so much fun.
The need for flanking has also made for surprisingly open environments. While the game is certainly still linear, there are numerous sections that can be approached in different ways, giving a boost to the game’s replayability.
The games environments are visually detailed and quite beautiful to look at (although you usually don’t have much time to appreciate this as German soldiers are trying to blow your head off), although in the cases where you can see outside of the playable area, you will notice that these areas are quite bland in comparison.
Your squadmates are also quite detailed, something you will especially notice during cutscenes. Their facial expressions are excellent, and in one scene in particular, almost heart-wrenching.
There is the very occasional visual glitch, a few frame rate drops during cutscenes, and the characters eyes don’t look quite right, but overall the game is visually quite good, which contributes greatly to the realism.
Also contributing to the realism is the excellent audio. The voice acting is terrific, as mentioned earlier, but the game’s other sound effects are equally as good. Each of the game’s weapons has a variety of different sounds depending on the situation, explosions leave your ears ringing, temporarily dulling or blocking out all other sound and the sound of bullets whizzing past your head can leave you truly alarmed.
On the surface, Hell’s Highway’s multiplayer might seem pretty standard; two teams face off in a series of capture-the-territory style contests, with players respawning at the beginning of each round. However, the multiplayer is much deeper than that. Each player has a specific role to play, from machine gunner to squad leader. With up to 20 players able to participate in a battle, well populated matches are hectic and fun. The success of a multiplayer match does rely on people being team players, though, which does not always happen.
All in all, then, Brothers In Arms is an immensely fun experience that is worth playing through twice or more. It features great visuals and sound and a very well written and acted story. Its few flaws (and they are definitely very few) are overpowered by the positive elements.
Summary
The Good:
- Fun and challenging squad based gameplay
- Excellent story with interesting characters
- Great voice acting and sound effects
- Generally good friendly and enemy AI
- Great character models and visually detailed environments
The Bad (and the Ugly):
- Occasional minor visual glitches
- Story relies on knowledge of previous games in the series
- Delayed enemy reaction times
- Some frame rate drops during cutscenes
Overall: 9/10
- By Ira Herbold
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