The year is 1944. In
mid-September of that year, American troops prepared for a massive
airborne invasion to capture a corridor through Holland; one that
would soon come to be known as Hell's Highway. As Staff Sergeant
Matthew Baker, squad leader of a Recon unit of the 101
st
Airborne, it is your
duty to lead your squad through the coming missions. This is one of
many stories of Operation Market-Garden.
As
in previous
Brothers
In Arms
titles,
Hell's
Highway
puts
you in the role of Sgt. Baker, a squad leader who has been through
some of the worst battles of World War II, including D-Day. Based on
actual missions from Operation Market-Garden, a plan to destroy the
German forces by Christmas of 1944 using the largest airborne
invasion in the history of the world, the game puts you on the front
lines of an assault that, in the end, was a complete failure.
Gameplay
The
controls for
Hell's
Highway
are
pretty basic for a first-person shooter, which makes them quite easy
to pick up. The left and right sticks control movement/crouching and
looking/focusing respectively, the right trigger shoots, the right
button throws grenades, the X button is reload/use/pick up and the Y
button switches weapons. The environments in the game are quite
interactive, so you can also hop over short walls or obstacles using
the A button. If you hold down the A button while moving forward,
you'll lower your weapon and go into a sprint. This is very helpful
when you need to run for cover, but if you don't plan you sprint
carefully and an object is in your way, you'll stop running as soon
as you hit it. That can leave you pretty vulnerable if you're still
out in the open.
Hell's
Highway
also
incorporates a considerable team element, because you are able to
command your squad for all of their attack formations and maneuvers.
The development team has even claimed that it is possible to complete
the game without firing a single shot yourself, and just commanding
your squad's attacks. A tap of the B button will switch between your
squad's specialty teams – Assault, Base of Fire, Bazooka, etc. –
while holding the B button will call them to you. Holding the left
trigger will bring up a command ring for whichever team you are
controlling at that time, which you can then focus on a specific area
for your team to move to or attack. If that team is close enough to a
target, or if the team you're using is the Bazooka team, they can do
a targeted explosives assault. While in longer fire fights, targeted
firing on specific enemy positions will also help suppress them,
giving you, or other members of your squad the opportunity to fully
flank them and take them out. The squad commands in the game are a
great feature and add a lot of realism to the game, but I've got my
doubts about the possibility of going through the game without firing
a shot.
The
last two parts of the main controls are extremely important to
completing your missions. The first is the tactical map, which is
accessed with the Back button. The tactical map shows you where your
objectives are, where reconnaissance positions are and give you a
basic, though oddly scaled, view of the area. The second, and
probably the main thing that will keep you alive on your missions, is
the left button, which controls Dig In (taking cover). Whenever under
fire, your view will become increasingly darker and redder. If you
don't find cover, you're going to get shot. Taking cover gives you
the chance to protect yourself, plan your shots and take aim or
command your squad without the worry of getting killed. Just don't
rely on a wood fence as useful cover for very long.
Aside
from foot missions, some of the levels include tank missions. Tank
controls are quite simple. Movement and targeting are the same. The
left trigger controls the tank's machine gun and the right trigger
controls its cannon. Instead of taking cover by going up against a
wall or ducking under a small embankment, you can close the lid on
the tank and only use the cannon. Best of all, the tank missions are
ridiculously fun, because you get to blow stuff up.
I
found myself becoming quite obsessed with this game while playing
through the missions, and I'm quite sure that, aside from the game's
squad command and assault style, it is because of the story bits
interspersed between the levels and different areas of various
levels. You get a great feeling for the stress that Baker and his
squad are under, and what they've been through in the past. Gearbox
and Ubisoft also did a decent job of giving a good introduction to
the franchise for first time players with the “Previously in
Brothers
In Arms
”
scene
at the beginning of the game.
You
also get a good feel for how tactical gameplay should feel, as your
squad doesn't just take an movement order and stand around, but they
also have self preservation “in mind”, so they take cover while
under fire. The game's artificial intelligence in quite good on both
sides. Your own forces will work together to suppress enemy forces or
protect themselves. Similarly, the German forces will switch cover if
they are taking excessive fire. The only problem that arises from
this sometimes, even with your squad having a self preservation
system, is that they don't always set themselves up properly at their
movement point. Instead of taking cover on one side of an object,
they may jump in front of that object and get killed. It's rare, but
it can happen, and when it does, it's annoying.
One
final major gameplay component to mention is the Authentic mode.
While most first person shooters increase their difficulty by
throwing more enemies at you or making every hit you take more
damaging,
Hell's
Highway
turns
up the heat by taking away the assisting interfaces. Say goodbye to
that crosshair, the don't exist in the real world. Nope, they didn't
have ammo counters back in World War II, you'll have to get by with
firing with your hearing alone to know that your clip is empty.
Suppression meter, what's that? Yes, it's way more difficult, and far
more challenging, and well worth going through the game once just to
unlock that mode.
Multiplayer
and Online
There
is a small multiplayer element to
Hell's
Highway
and,
unfortunately, it is only online. I feel this game would have really
benefited from a cooperative two player campaign mode or, at the very
least, an in-house versus mutliplayer death match free-for-all/team
or something. I understand that squad controls or solo levels can get
a bit complicated with two players, but the game feels like it was
made for a co-op campaign. Instead, the multiplayer mode is a squad
capture the flag for up to ten players on each side. The fact that
you can have so many players is cool, but the limitations of having
only that mode to play make it feel like the multiplayer was a
complete afterthought.
There
are a total of six locations to play in, and the teams are split as
one squad leader and three men on each of the fire teams – Assault,
Specialist and Tank Crew. Each team has to command their squad in the
assault or defence of one of two flags. The defenders simply have to
kill the assault team, flag carrier or run out the clock. The
assaulting team has to either kill the defenders or replace the
defender's flag with their own.
The
multiplayer mode is decently fun for a bit, and can be a lot of fun
for a few hours if there are a lot of players, but it could be so
much more. There is one other problem with this mode, and it's that
the tank controls for switching weapons are different from the single
player campaign. Instead of being controlled by the left button,
players have to press the X button to switch between driving, using
the machine gun or using the cannon. Holding the X button can also
get you in or out of the tank. While I understand that there can now
be three people controlling the gun/cannon/driving of the tank, that
doesn't mean that the controls should change. If it was necessary,
the least they could have done was to mark it in the instruction book
so new players would know that the left button doesn't control the
entry/exit of the tank or opening and closing its lid.
Environment
and Graphics
The
environments in
Hell's
Highway
are
astounding. There are many different destructible environments,
everything can take at least a small amount of damage, and the
locations all seem very real. I suppose it helped that the team
created a large portion of the game's location from actual documents
and maps. Every place in the game looks like it was designed with a
purpose, and each location has a very involving, war zone feeling.
That feeling is especially enhanced in the solo levels, where you
have to control Baker through tight spaces, without any backup, and
it's just you and his thoughts.
Graphically
speaking though, the game is a bit of a let down. Simply explained,
it looks at least three years old – as old as the franchise itself.
It just doesn't appear that the game was developed to take full
graphical advantage of the next generation consoles. Everything is in
high definition, but doesn't look as refined as games on these
consoles, or high performance PCs should look. The exceptions to this
are the explosions, fire and torn limbs. While the character models
and faces look like they come from a three year old game, the
explosions and fire effects are quite good. The game's gore system
also makes flying limbs and exploding heads look pretty cool.
The
biggest graphical issue is lighting, and, thankfully, this issue only
affects the cutscenes. During the cutscenes, it always appears as if
the light source(s) are moving ever so slightly. This leaves
thousands of tiny dots across the environment and characters, as if
you're watching classic newsprint in action. This problem is
particularly noticeable during scenes where Baker is talking to a
squad mate under or near a tree and the camera is close up. While it
isn't a major detriment to the gameplay, it is pretty annoying.
Thankfully, none of these graphical issues are big enough to hurt the
strong gameplay.
Sound
All
of the sounds within
Hell's
Highway
feel
very authentic. The weapons don't have the kind of “
crunch
”
that
you'll get from
Gears
of War 2
,
but that's a good thing. The guns in the game sound like they come
from the right era. The single shot rifles have that “pop”, while
machine guns have that “chink, chink, chink” sound. Explosions
from mortars, grenades and tank shells all sound very realistic as
well, which enriches the experience. When you run out of ammo, you
know. The gun makes a distinctive high pitch metal on metal “clink”.
Almost
all of the game's voice acting is superb. The only exception to that
is the cutscene with the introduction to the tank squad, in which the
voice of the “Irish?” tank commander becomes a British accent in
the middle. I guess switching between different voices and accents
can get to some voice actors every once in a while. Aside from that
one little mess up, the voice actors did a great job of giving each
of the characters their own personalities and feelings, which, once
again, enriched the experience. Hearing their voices is cool for the
cutscenes, but things can get a bit annoying if you're in a long fire
fight and you keep hearing them say the same things over again. The
developers could have made good use of a larger library of phrases
or, at the very least, a library of phrases that changes each level,
so you don't hear the same things over and over again.
The
game's music went from intense to scary to light on a dime. Whoever
scored the music for
Hell's
Highway
deserves
applause, and whoever mixed it within the game does too, because it
fits in perfectly and doesn't overpower the gameplay or have an odd
effect on the atmosphere.
Conclusion
Aside
from graphical issues that make it look like a far older game than it
is,
Brothers
In Arms: Hell's Highway
is
a great World War II first person shooter and impressive game period.
It has a fun team gameplay element and would have been even better
had it had a co-op campaign. A highly recommend
Hell's
Highway
to
anyone looking for a solid single player gameplay experience.
After
playing
Brothers
In Arms: Hell's Highway
I'm
interested in checking out the franchise's original games. Even
better, I think Gearbox Software and Ubisoft should remake all three
of the games –
Brothers
In Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood
and
Brothers
In Arms: Hell's Highway
–
with
up-to-date high definition graphics and re-release them in a pack
together.
Gameplay:
8.5
Environment and Graphics: 6.5
Sound: 10
Story: 9
Fun:
9
Verdict:
Buy It