Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

"Best WWII shooter yet"

The game is a brilliant continuation from Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, it follows Baker and his men through the daring airborne drop of Operation Market Garden, the biggest airborne drop in history. The game starts with an easy training/tutorial mission that takes you through the basics of moving, firing and using the cover system to your advantage. The game then moves on to the second mission, it starts with a beautifully put together sequence showing Baker and his men landing in Holland. You then get another 'training' mission which takes you through the basics of squad based combat and the 4 F's, Find, Fix, Flank and Finish, this is the basis on which most of the combat in BiA:HH is based.

THE GAMEPLAY:
The Gameplay in BiA:HH is incredibly enthralling, and sucks you in to the point where you feel like you're in the thick of it, with bullets whizzing over your head and the dirt getting in your face! The squad based gameplay is just as good as it was in the original BiA, if not better. The flanking on the game is helped by the introduction of the 'Tactical Map' as opposed to the spacial awareness view in the old games. The AI of your team mates is good however, they occasionally move to a totally illogical piece of cover which soon results in them getting cut down and you losing all capabilities of suppressing your enemy. The enemy AI is also good but has the occasional flaw, they react to heavy fire by being less accurate and not moving out of cover as much but they also seem to be totally unaware of grenades exploding behind them or cover being destroyed until it's totally gone. Over than that they do a good job of making the missions challenging and fun as you have to think out every move and can't just run out guns blazing. The threat effects you receive just before you are going to be hit is very useful and there is no real, 'regenerating heath bar' like there are in most modern games, this brings a welcome change to the genre as you have to be more conservative and patient.

THE GRAPHICS:
The graphics of the game are generally very good, there are rumors of rendering problems and popping, but I personally haven't seen any of these (well, the PS3 does seem to handle the game a bit better than the X360), as well as this, many people are moaning about how some of the smaller features in the game are 2D, personally I'm not that bothered, I don't run up to a bush crouch down and say ooooh, it's only 2D, how disappointing! No these are small thing that make little difference, as well as this, other reviews say that everything has a grainy, sheen to it and it's 'constantly drawing attention to itself', personally I think the balance is just right, the colors are rich and aesthetically pleasing. The models of the characters, weapons, enemy, and vehicles are brilliant, each model has separate parts, moving independently from each other depending on what the character is doing, also the footplanting in the game is good, characters don't just rotate on the spot, each foot moves separately, staying and moving.

THE SOUND:
The lip-sinc of the characters are great but not brilliant, the weapons have brilliant sound effects, each with a different sound. The Germans all speak German, not the dodgy English you get in many games. You get nice ambient noise in the game, gliders swooping overhead, fire crackling and the sound of distant fire fights.

THE MULTIPLAYER:
The MP is great but not fantastic, you only have one game mode and you can only play as Attacker, or Defender. The MP is really fun and quite addictive, you get to use the similar squad mechanics as the singleplayer if you choose to play as the Squad Leader, however as a grunt you get to choose from, Tank Driver, Specialist or Squadie. You can choose from a Rifle, SMG, Squad Support Weapon, Sniper Rifle, Recoiless Rifle, or an LMG. Choosing to play as a tank operator you can be either the driver, gunner or spotter (top hatch MG). The basic aim is to defend your flag, kill all the attackers, raise your flag or kill all the defenders. (Depending on what role you play).

OVERALL:
This is the best World War II game yet and a must-have for any shooter fan.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/26/09

Game Release: Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway (EU, 09/26/08)