Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway
October 1,2008 - “Another year, another World War II shooter” some might remark upon seeing Gearbox and Ubisoft’s Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. It’s certainly wearying to see so many WWII shooters saturate store shelves, making it easy to miss the legitimately good ones. The time period of Hell’s Highway may be shared by a litany of other games on the market, but the similarities end there. Gearbox has yet again created a game worthy of your coveted dollar.

Brothers in Arms doesn’t use WWII as an excuse to create a fast-paced action game full of explosions and testosterone (though they’re definitely present). In reality the setting of war is really just a vehicle for Gearbox to tell the story of a Band of Brothers led by Sergeant Matt Baker as they deal with the stresses and consequences of war. Long cut scenes are used with oftentimes movie-quality graphics to tell players a complex and credible story wrought with emotion on all spectrums. You’ll find yourself playing through the 10 hour game more so to get to the next scene than the next mission.

Like all Brothers in Arms games, Hell’s Highway is squad-based. This shouldn’t be a turnoff for newcomers to the series, as the game introduces the concepts and strategies quite nicely of squad tactics. You are first started with a small assault group, and eventually are graced with a bazooka team, a base of fire team, and a machine gun team in different combinations. Using these squads to successfully lay down suppressive fire while you flank the enemy is essential to victory.

Squad control is streamlined for ease of use. Using the B button on the Xbox 360 (circle on PlayStation) selects the next team and using the left trigger orders them to move to another cover or lay down suppressive fire on an enemy. Enemies have small gray circles over their heads to indicate how suppressed they are and when the circle is full you are safe to move your team. If you move them any sooner you risk one taking a bullet and being incommunicado until the next checkpoint.

However, there are times when your AI doesn’t quite work as well as you’d like them to. For example, an order to take cover near a doorway led to our assault team standing in the doorway obliviously taking fire. Another time they decided an order to take cover at the base of a fence meant to commence an exercise where they would jump over one side then turn around and jump back over. Occasionally a squad mate will flat out not follow an order for inescapable reasons. When the AI fails, the game is only frustrating and broken.

Thankfully the rest of the gameplay is good enough to forgive the occasional hiccup. Hell’s Highway has an “Action Camera” system that slows down the action for long-distance headshots and multi-kill explosions. The novelty refrains from being overused to the point where it is only extremely satisfying. The health system is also unique; Brothers in Arms uses a one-hit death system. Instead of taking x amount of bullets until you succumb, the screen will turn redder when the probability of taking a bullet is high (i.e. you’re exposed to machine gun fire). The health system helps keep the game feeling authentic.

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