Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
Ubisoft
PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
4 stars (out of 5)
Review by Hayden Meikle
When the first Brothers in Arms game reached previous generation consoles about four years ago, Call of Duty fans sniffed and dismissed the similar franchise without hesitation.
But this has to be considered the game that will unite all fans of World War 2-era first-person shooters.
A good game's a good game, after all.
The game is based on Operation Market Garden, Montgomery's plan to drop airborne divisions into Holland to secure key bridges and move towards cutting German supply lines.
Hell's Highway refers to a narrow stretch of land leading to Eindhoven that had to be defended by the 101st Airborne Division.
The game follows the men of that division and puts players in the shoes of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker.
The story is explored through cut-scenes, really intense stuff that explores the emotions of the soldiers and the unimaginable stresses of the time.
Gearbox, the developer of the game, has consistently strived to make BIA more than just a mindless shoot-'em-up, and the effect is powerful.
The gameplay is very similar to the first two games in the series.
It's about tactics more than having the most accurate rifle, less run-and-gun and more a battle of attrition.
Find the enemy, flank the enemy and fire on the enemy - if I remember rightly, that was the key to succeed at the first game.
Now you get to direct a squad of Allied soldiers with specific strengths, bazooka and machine gun teams and such, and use them tactically to fight through a battle.
The buttons are simply and smartly mapped and embedded tutorials make picking up the basics a breeze.
A new health system replaces a slightly unforgiving element of the first two games.
In Hell's Highway, when you are out of cover for too long the screen starts to blur and you know it's time to scurry behind something before you take a short sharp hit of lead to the head.
Nice graphics - not mind-blowing but nice - flesh out the game, which is just a very solid all-round addition to a growing library of World War 2 shooters.
