ic-games Review - Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: Ubisoft
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Tactical team based shooter
UK Release: 18th Mar 2005
Article Date: 07th Apr 2005
Difficulty: Hard
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
0

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 88%

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Pros

Great team based options

Stunning Atmosphere

Unlockable Rewards for each level

Cons

Some silly barriers

Occasional frame rate issues

Screenshots

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Borrowing slightly from Max Payne, the beginning of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is actually the end of the story as you take the role of Sgt Matt Baker reflecting on the past eight days of his life in the 101st Airborne Division during WW2. Now I know what you are thinking, "not another World War 2 game!" However we beg you to read on, Brothers in Arms is actually a worthwhile addition to the massively overpopulated genre.

Before you all pack your bags and head off to France again, it’s actually wise to spend some time watching the Video tutorial. This tutorial (included in the main menu) does its best to teach any would be squad leader what to expect when playing Brothers in Arms. Since most, (if not all) of the missions revolve around the basic tactics of using suppressive fire and flanking it’s worthwhile to watch the video clip before you begin. What really impressed us was the ease at which you control your squads, which in turn leaves the player with more time to actually plan tactics. Moving the squad is as easy as pointing in the direction you want them to move and pressing the left shoulder button to order them there. To suppress the enemy you simply point at a target and press the left shoulder button, and finally to engage the enemy you use the same combination apart from you use the right shoulder button to order an attack.

To help you plan some of these special tactics in advance, developers Gearbox have implemented something called "situation awareness". When you enter this mode (by pressing the back button) the actual battle will pause and you will be presented with a bird’s eye view of the proceedings. From this mode you will be able to examine where abouts your squad is, and where they are in relation to the enemy. This mode is also useful to spot potential suppression zones and back routes to launch surprise attacks. To make the game slightly more realistic you can only zoom in and out so far and any enemy soldier yet to be spotted will remain invisible in the situational awareness mode. It’s also impossible to issue any orders from this mode, you’ll have to enter real time again to make use of any information.

Aside from the squad movement and ordering (which is incredibly easy to pick up), Brothers in Arms plays just like a standard FPS. You can still attempt to go your own way and take out the Germans yourself ‘Rambo style’ but its all the more satisfying ordering your squad into tactical positions and picking off the enemy one by one as the game intended. Since at times you will be battling against heavily fortified German units, going alone will be almost impossible anyway, and so making best use of your squads, whilst making sure they remain protected becomes a more sensible plan. Because of this hidden depth, placing Brothers in Arms into a tidy genre is pretty difficult since it features ideas from many different types of games like Full Spectrum Warrior, Rainbow Six and Call of Duty.

On occasions you’re also lucky enough to have a tank under your command and even though the conventional tactics do not apply to a tank, you will still have to protect the tank from any possible hidden mortar fire. The way you control the tank doesn’t change though, you simply point at which area you want the tank to go and press the left shoulder button, or if you wish the tank to engage a target you hold down the left shoulder button and then press the right shoulder button when you have a target. When using a tank it’s always wise to scout the area ahead for soldiers using panzerfausts or other anti-tank weapons as losing the tank will usually spell the end of the mission, or at the very least, make the mission decidedly harder. Naturally the Germans will have access to one or two Panzer's and unless you have a tank under your command at the time, when you see one appear on the map you have to make plans to take it out before it cuts up the whole team. Generally speaking there are two effective ways to take out an enemy tank, if you get close enough to the rear of the tank you can climb aboard and drop explosives down the hatch or you can use a bazooka and fire from a distance. As it should be, fighting tanks with only infantry is fiendishly difficult and it will take some brilliant mission planning to come out of the battle alive.

Graphically Brothers in Arms does its best to portray the full horrors of the Second World War. Planes will fly overhead whilst bullets whiz past you as you scramble for cover. If you take a moment to look around your surroundings you’ll be impressed to learn that the maps and indeed missions were based around real locations and events. The graphics may not be push the Xbox to the limit and there isn’t really any “wow” factor but Gearbox have still managed to create a believable setting that does look the part.

The sound effects are probably the finest you’ll encounter on the Xbox; it’s as simple as that. The digital sound has been used to great effect and explosions and gunfire all sound as scary as they should. Bullets whizzing past your head with mortars being fired at a close proximity sound particularly realistic and just add to the overall atmosphere. Voice acting is also a major plus with the whole squad generally adding to the convincing story. Also worthy of note is the narration from the lead character, Matt Baker, which forwards the story after each successful mission.

For the multiplayer side, Gearbox have obviously gone out of their way to change the way you play the game online. Multiplayer modes are essentially objective based affairs with between 2-4 players frantically ordering around their teams to protect or attack key targets. Those without Xbox Live can engage in some team based split screen action with two players able to sit at one Xbox. The game modes on offer will not suit the average deathmatch junkie, but for a change from the norm, Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 does serve up some pretty addictive multiplayer shenanigans. There are around 10 different maps on offer, and depending on which side you decide to fight for your mission goals will change. The Allies are (as you would expect) normally tasked with destroying bridges or disabling anti-tank guns whilst the Germans normally just have to sit back and prevent the attacks from being successful. If that wasn’t enough, normally these multiplayer missions will be set against the clock which makes the game already on a knife edge, even more exciting.

When you consider the amount of realism that’s been placed into this title it’s a shame that you’re still restricted at times in what routes you take. On many occasions we had our path blocked by tiny wooden fences that couldn’t be jumped over and thin bushes that couldn’t be climbed over. The whole point being that we thought we had seen a better route, unfortunately it soon becomes clear that you must take the choice of paths programmed (of which there is usually more than one, to give the game credit). It’s also a shame that a game relying heavily on squad tactics doesn’t do enough to make the player want to keep his team alive in the first place. During early missions you may find one or two of your men being taken out, but you soon learn that if you complete the mission without them they’ll be standing around and ready to fight in time for the next mission. As soon as you realise this it becomes natural to take more risks with your team. It’s a shame as the banter between the soldiers does its best to give each man a personality of their own. During the game the only soldiers that you actually lose forever will be during the animated scripted scenes that forward the narrative.

"Brothers in Arms is so much more than just another WW2 game.

Apart from these two points Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is still a stellar WW2 title, and it ranks highly amongst the plethora of titles based on this era. When we first heard that Gearbox was going to be developing another title based on the Second World War we questioned if the gaming world needed one, well the answer is a resounding "yes". With an atmospheric single player mission mode and an addictive multiplayer mode, Brothers in Arms is so much more than just another WW2 game, it’s actually one of the finest ones to be produced yet.

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