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I have been waiting a long time for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway to come out. There have been numerous delays and the game was supposed to come out sometime last year. Well it finally came out and I picked up the game yesterday from my local Game Retailer.
The game follows up the first two Brothers in Arms games that came out earlier. You play the role of Sergeant Matt Baker who leads squads of men through Holland during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 during World War II. Operation Market Garden was the last German victory in Europe during the war.
I think the game has a great story line. The game in my opinion is very well done and acted out. It really shows what I think every soldier has to endure and go through during wartime. It is very emotional and gripping. You find out that soldiers have to make life or death decisions that can effect them the rest of their lives. This game shows not only soldiers struggling through this conflict, but also Dutch civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the Allies and the Germans.
If you are looking for a game where you make tactical decisions about how to fight battles during Operation Market Garden, this is it. Your decisions can decide the life's of your soldiers under your command.
The AI is very good in this game. I read some game reviews from other gaming websites where the game reviewers were complaining about German Soldiers who were just standing around when you shoot at them. First of all, you can now sneak up on German Soldiers to plan an attack without them knowing your there. In other words, you can set up an ambush. You set up you and your squads where you want them to fight the Germans. Of course the Germans are going to stand around if they don't know that you are there hiding. Second you can now set up you and your men where the Germans are caught in a cross fire when you fire at them with your weapons. The Germans get confused because there is no where to run and hide. So of course a lot of them are going to stand around because of the crossfire. That happens in real life too.
The graphics are real good in this game. I understand the developers of this game went to actual locations around Holland and took thousands of pictures to make the game looked like Holland during World War II. That is very impressive.
I think the game has a lot of replay value to it because the Germans react differently every time you play the game again. Each time you try to figure out how you will fight different battles throughout the game. I recommend buying this game especially if you like playing World War II games like me.
October 5, 2008
UPDATE: I just finished playing Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway and I noticed a couple of things I wanted to update about this game. I'm a true gamer who likes to give honest opinions about the games I play. The above opinions were given when I was only half way through the game. Here are the updates.
1. The graphics are great at the beginning of the game and toward the middle, but not at the end. It seems like the game developer got into a big hurry to finish this game and just threw in graphics from the "Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood" game into the end of this game. The trees and buildings at the end of game just look dull and not very detailed like at the beginning and the middle of the game. The game was already a year behind schedule and I'm sure the game developer got pressured into finishing the game as soon as possible. I was wondering why I never saw any game trailers that show any missions that were at the end of this game. Now I know why.
2. None of the mission maps you play through are very big throughout the game. You play a little way through a mission and then you get a cut scene. That scenario plays over and over again throughout the game. Too many cut scenes and not enough playing time. If you want a comparison in map sizes, try playing Battlefield: Bad Company and you'll see what I'm talking about as far as map sizes go. Battlefield: Bad Company maps are a lot bigger with less cut scenes.
3. Operation Market Garden was all about the Allies taking and holding major road bridges along Hell's Highway throughout Holland during World War II before the Germans could blow up any of the bridges. Well in the game I didn't see one major bridge shown in any missions. There is one small bridge in the game that goes over a small canal but I don't count that. I'm talking about big huge bridges over major rivers. I didn't see any at all. I was really disappointed. Why were there no major road bridges shown in the game? That is what Operation Market Garden was all about.
4. There were lots of different vehicles used during Operation Market Garden by both the Allies and the Germans. In the game, I only saw one kind of Allied tank (Sherman Firefly) used in the game and one kind of German tank (Panzer IV) used. I didn't see any German Panther tanks, Tiger tanks, German Halftracks, German Volkswagen Kubelwagen, etc. I also didn't see any other American tanks or any British tanks of any kind. What is up with that?
5. Not every mission in this game has you play with squads of men. In fact in some of the missions, you fight alone against the Germans. And in some missions you don't fight at all. Running through a building that is on fire is one of them. There is no shooting at all. I thought in every mission I would control squads of men.
This game reminds me a lot of Medal of Honor: Airborne. That game could of been awesome too if it had of been done right. I remember that game went through a lot of delays just like Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway did and it came out about a year later than it was suppose to. Medal of Honor: Airborne was great the first few missions and then it went downhill the last couple of missions. This game is the same way. After playing the game, I'll have to change my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars. Sorry. I just feel this game could of been made better.
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If you are looking for another Call of Duty 4, this is NOT it. Sure its an FPS with shooting and explosions, but there is so much more to this game. Don't get me wrong, COD 4 is awesome in its own right, filled with fast paced action, great graphics, explosions and Hollywood moments; the Golden Standard for any new FPS to come out. So, with that in mind, if you play Hell's Highway with this mindset, you might disappoint yourself, which is too bad because Brothers in Arms is a great game in a category all of it's own.
If you have ever seen the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, that same look and feel from the series is obvious within the first 15 minutes of the game. The opening of the game is presented in a style similar to a Hollywood picture, with great camera angles, music score, and just overall presentation. If you enjoy playing games with a good story and enjoy seeing what is happening behind the scenes of all the shooting and gameplay, then you will certainly enjoy the ride as the folks at Gearbox went to painstaking efforts to portray a grand story filled with emotion and presentation.
Now on to the bread and butter, gameplay. If you enjoyed the previous installments of the Brothers in Arms games you will be pleased to know that the formula has remained the same, albeit with some minor changes. You can now hug the walls similar to Rainbow Six: Vegas for added cover, as well as issue orders to a machine gun team for fire suppression, and a bazooka team to battle entrenched enemies and tanks. Now, if you want a challenge from the simple run and gun gameplay of most shooters, then you will love employing your own strategies to tackle every single mission. There are multiple ways to tackle every single firefight, from setting up a base of fire and flanking left or right, using grenades, or just throwing caution to the wind going head-on and hoping for the best (which doesn't bode well at all). I remember one instance when two big groups of Germans were walking towards me in formation and I had about 5 seconds to set up an ambush or risk being slaughtered since I was out in the open. Naturally, it took several tries, but when I got it right the feeling of victory was SWEET!! It is times like this when you feel your adrenaline pump because while you have to accomplish your missions, you still have to take out the Germans while issuing orders to your teams with loads of bullets whizzing all around you. This sort of action gets your brain going this way and that, and though it may be hard to concentrate and keep your focus, you begin to understand how hard and stressful war really can be, and not just another Hollywood-sized Call of Duty 4 spectacle.
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I'm getting a little tired of WWII games. Well, that's what I said before I played Hell's Highway. This game has reassured me that there are aspects that even the terribly whored out WWII genre has yet to touch. But with that aside, everyone's asking the same question, "Should I get this over Call of Duty: World at War?" Well...no. This is Call of Duty we're talking about! But Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is just too good to pass up.
Hell's Highway follows the mission of Operation Market Garden, and if you know your history you would know that the mission wasn't necessarily the Allies' finest hour. You assume the roll of Sgt. Matt Baker, and you're tasked with leading your squad through war ravaged Holland in order to push through the heavily fortified, tank ridden, and infamous route known as "Hell's Highway".
In many ways, Brothers in Arms is a black sheep when compared to other conventional WWII shooters. Hell's Highway is no exception. One of the biggest differences is it's emphasis on it's story and narrative. The game plays out kind of like your average high-budget war drama, like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan. We've seen these kinds of stories in movies and TV shows, but you'll probably never find a WWII game this side of Call of Duty with this kind of dark and complex narrative that just sucks you in. You'll find a plethora of truly cinematic cut scenes and A plus dialog through out the game that all advance the story. That's right, it has a story. A good story as a matter of fact. The characters all look and sound like real people in a real life-or-death situation. In some ways, you start to care about some of them, and sometimes you'll hope that they'll make it out of this alive. To be frank, the story is not a pleasant one. Not only is Hell's Highway trying to focus on the horrors war, but also on the major loss of the mission the game is based off of. So when you do beat the game, you probably won't be feeling too good.
Besides focusing on it's story and narrative, Brothers in Arms also plays unlike any other WWII shooter. While most games like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor have you running into the battle and tell you to start shooting anything that speaks German, Brothers in Arms is the total opposite. The game is more strategy than a straight shoot-em-up. If you try to tackle the game like a run 'n' gun FPS, you're not going to last very long. Hell's Highway tries to focus on what it calls "The Four 'F's." "Find him. Fix him. Flank him. Finish him." This mechanic is presented virtually flawlessly with the command controls and suppression meters. Giving commands is easy and practically impossible to unlearn once you learn it. You select the team you want use with either the D-Pad or the B button, and you issue commands by holding down the left trigger. Depending on where you point the curser, the team will go to that destination selected, or start suppressing the enemy you selected. This brings up the art of suppression. Your enemies all have red circles hovering over their heads called suppression meters. They might look like the enemy's health meter, but they aren't, so don't get confused. When the suppression meter is red, it means the enemy isn't suppressed and the moment they see your movement, they'll open fire on you and your squad and probably kill you in the process. To counter this, your squad must open fire on the enemy to make the suppression meter turn gray. This will mean that the enemy is now suppressed, and this is the perfect time for you or one of your teams to go around and flank the enemy and finish them off from behind. Yes, the meters sort of make the game a bit easy. So if you want a little more challenge, just turn them off. But this whole suppression thing wouldn't work if the game didn't have good friendly and enemy AI, and boy, do they have good AI!
Brothers in Arms also tries to focus on realism. Not just in it's story, but in the battle field as well. Yes, the cover system can be used on virtually any kind of wall or barrier, but depending on what it is (like say a picket fence or wooden barrels) they can be destroyed with a few well placed shots. Even sand bags can be demolished with a well placed rocket or grenade. Hell's Highway also implements an incredibly brutal gore system. Depending on what kind of stopping power the weapon you used has, heads and limbs can be blown off and even entire bodies can be blown apart. Right when something like this happens, the game will slow down and zoom in on the, ahem, action. So if you're a fan of gratuitous blood and guts, you might find a liking here.
But probably one main thing that sets Hell's Highway apart from all other WWII shooters (that I've played at least) is that it has one thing most of them don't have, color. When ever I play Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, heck, even Wolfenstein, the main color I see is grey. Lots, and lots of boring, uninteresting grey. Grey buildings, roads, skies, everything is just so... grey! That's not the case with Hell's Highway. Blue skies, different colored buildings, sharp green foliage, red orange fires, and of course, dark scarlet blood.
I think you get the jest of my review. If you're one of those gamers that believe that WWII shooters have all but lost their touch, you NEED to play Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Just, don't start playing it like you would with Call of Duty or something similar. In order to really appreciate this game, you need to play it using your squad and not your trigger finger. This is one highway you should really consider going through!
Honest reviews on Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - Xbox 360
The Good: Engaging story, great audio/visual package, squad based gameplay keeps it separated from the rest, decent length
The Bad: Still WWII..., relies too much on knowing other BiA games, pointless slow-mo cams, must...be...patient...
I never really liked BiA back when they first came out because 1. I didn't have a PC that could run it or an Xbox. 2. I preferred the run & gun aspect like in Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, and 3. I was too impatient back then for the tactical gameplay. I have changed since then and am not an impatient little teenager with raging testosterone. I have picked up Hell's Highway expecting a bit of a mix and thankfully there was. BiA has been known for it's tactical squad command gameplay with great AI, a great non-fictional story around the fictional WWII setting, and that's here, but it's even better.
The story goes a little something like this: You are Baker who goes through an emotional roller coaster ride with his squad mates and you really feel what the soldiers are feeling...and even tear jerking at the end. The only problem is that you have to have played previous BiA games to fully understand the story from the beginning. The story does one of those looping plot twists where it starts out at the end and goes 3 days back, then goes forward after that. The plot holes are jerking when they are filled and you really get pulled into the story. As far as I know this is the only WWII story like this. I guess you can say this is my favorite WWII game story wise and it makes me want to pick up the other two original Xbox games.
What really counts though is the game play in one of these types of games right? Well the impatient should steer clear because you CAN NOT, I repeat, CAN NOT run out and go Rambo and their Kraut @$$es. You WILL be shot down almost instantly, and this is not good if you want to restart constantly (and experience the almost too long long time). You have to position your squad mates around the various cover on the battlefield and slowly have them pin the enemies down so you can go around and flank them with...whatever you want, no you can't melee in the game so that's out...sorry only Call of Duty 3 lets you do that. Each batch of enemies has a red circle above them and when it's red they can blow your beehiney apart if you run out, but if you command your squad mates to suppress them with fire it will turn gray and you can run out...for a few seconds. The game gives you plenty of ammo so don't worry about wasting shots. I mainly used single shot rifles since head shots were mostly needed due to enemies taking cover. That's what also makes the AI so great, so say for instance you run up to the cover the enemy is behind they'll run away and hide somewhere else. Throw a grenade and they'll boogy on out of there even if their on a Flak 88!
Now you can command four types of squads: Bazooka, Base Fire, Assault, and MG. Go figure on what those all do, but they are all essential to keep you alive. Another thing that makes you REALLY think is that if you send your squad out in open fire they'll die to (but only until the next cut scene because they are all main characters...) so you have to have one squad pin the enemy down while that squad runs, so it's a leap frog type thing. This is really great and keeps things from being boring since you have to think...psh yeah who woulda thunk that a WWII shooter would make you think! Of course you have grenades, but you get a grenade ring and it's basically an auto-lock thing so just hold RB and the grenade will fly over to the enemy on it's own.
Speaking of all of that something new here is the "action cam" thing. It's kinda cool since BiA is the only game that seems to realize there was actually blood and guts in war...they don't try to purty it up for kids. Sometimes when you make a cool headshot you get a cut-a-way cam of the guys head getting all bloodied up and his helmet falling off. The same goes for explosions so you'll see guts go everywhere (get a clue EA and Activision!!! Stop being sissies!!)
If you've been wondering about the audio/visual experience this whole time it's because its good or I would have said something! The game uses the UT3 engine (you know the same one in BioShock and Gears of War?) Its nice and all yet still seems like the game came out last year. Maybe that's because the game was delayed almost a year (yet I have NO idea why). The game has great lighting effects, explosions, fire, concrete, rebar that blocks your view sometimes in the 3rd person cover...it's good but not amazing. The voice acting is really great and the whole game feels like WWII (you probably wouldn't give a damn at this point though...)
If you want to know about multiplayer don't come here because I never bothered playing it since it was a rental. I'm sure it's great and has all the multiplayer goodness that most WWII shooters have. I highly recommend this game since it has a pretty long campaign (takes about 8 hours to beat) and really concentrates on Operation Market Garden instead of the whole damn war!!! So, you really get a good idea of what that battle felt like. Don't spend $60 on this though just rent it or wait for a price drop...please...get Fallout 3!!!
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - Xbox 360
First off, let me start by saying that this game is definately NOT for those who love the Call of Duty WW2 games where you're pretty much a one man army. This game has to be one of the most intense shooters I've ever played, mainly because it's so realistic and graphic. BIA is very similar to Rainbow Six Vegas (1 & 2), so if you liked those games, then you'll probably like this one. This game is a squad game, where you take the place of the man barking out commands, and your guys listen to you (most of the time). Issuing commands is VERY simple: you pick your squad (sometimes you have more than onne) then pick your target, and issue your command to attack where to go. The enemy AI is good, they fire at you and give you a good challenge, sometimes to good of a challenge. our friendly AI is fairly decent, but sometimes they do get a little mixed up. For example, they may stop firing at an enemy, they ight be on the wrong side of cover, or even get lost...but they're still decent enough.
The gameplay is pretty solid, intense, and fairly realistic. The guns are good, each has good stopping power and a good feel. The sound is AMAZING! Bullets whiz all around you, explosions leave your ears ringing, etc, etc.
All in all, this game is good. I didn't play the online mode, only the single player, but I still recommend the game to anyone seeking an intense, graphic, and fun World War 2 shooter.
