Brother's in Arms: Road to Hill 30 : Games : Web Wombat

When all those war movies are giving Rambo, and Schwarzenegger-like impersonations of one man armies, who can take out tanks with hand guns and platoons of soldiers with a bow and arrow, we're led to believe that what wins wars are super soldiers, the kind who snort gun powder for kicks and eat boot leather for breakfast.

In stark contrast to these questionable representations, Gearbox software brings to the table Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (or BiA for short), a simulation of a realistic WW2 experience.

The game encircles the war experiences of the 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon and Fox Company of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment during the liberation of Normandy in France.

After Playing BiA for a few hours you really get the gist of just how full of shite sly Stalone's Rambo 1, 2 and 3 actually are. You begin to understand how harmless a guy running around in the jungle, bare-chested, armed with a knife and dramatic background music really is in context to real war. This concept is more like some guy's homosexual wet dream than realistic warfare.

Rambo would have been made some guy's bitch early on in those movies, that's for damn sure. BiA on the other hand is the result of three and a half years of research and development. Not flights of fancy here.

A truer depiction of war is about strategy play, not powerplay, it's about teams and numbers, blueprints, information and weaponry. And BiA is certainly more in tune with chess rather then checkers. The art of war meets the war of art.

You play the role of the reluctant Sgt. Matt Baker, and it's your job to command your squad.... to survive. Band of Brothers: Road to Hill 30 is a first person perspective shooter and its got plenty of cool feature that make it stand out from the crowd.

You have the ability to command your squad members to take cover in certain area's of your choice, open fire on the enemy, charge at the enemy or go where you go at the press of a button. It's pretty easy going, as these are trained soldiers who can handle their own quite well. Put simply, they have intelligence.

Good communication, that's what wins wars. Your soldiers are always talking to you. Telling you what their doing, "reloading"," covering fire," "I got one," "checking the bodies for smokes". It's all good stuff and helps draw you into the events on screen.

The graphics are big and bold, but have an
intense realism about them at the same time

'Situational Awareness' mode is an element of the game that allows you to examine the a current conflict within a paused, 3D rotating view of you and your enemies positions, the number of Germans and what firepower they have. From this information you can make a decision about what to do next, without having your frontal lobes shot out.

A typical situation maybe that you have a trio of enemies nesting themselves in a nearby cemetery using the tombstones as cover. 'Situational Awareness' mode allows you to nut out the safest way for you and your team to take them out.

In one such similar situation I opted for setting up my team in some good cover behind the church wall, ordered them to put some heavy fire on the Nazis, as I crept around behind the enemy troops, mowing them down with machine fire at close range.

Such fun. And it proved to be a good method as no member of my team or myself was hit during the attack.

If the enemy is heavily suppressed by the covering fire provided by your team, it is safe for you to move about without the enemies knowledge of your motion, as they are busy ducking for cover, allowing you flank.

Gameplay momentum is increased and kept interesting through the levels via your responsibility increasing. As you get further through the game you will find yourself commanding multiple teams and even vehicles, including tanks. This variety opens up the depth of the level to create multiple attacking options and ones which will probably see you redoing some levels just to experience the other attack options.

What makes BiA so impressive and enticing to play is the intense realism and detail. There's impressive dialogue and cinematic video sequences, the characters and personalities of your team are strong, and distinct voices and scripts add to the vitality of every scene.

Your team is humorous and highly likeable, and it is clear why this game is entitled Brothers in Arms; by the end of the game you will know the names of every man in your squad.

The story line is powerful, it's emotional stuff. Bombs come down like raindrops, exploding upon impact with the ground and creating fountains of dirt surrounding you and your team and, as the leader, the older brother, the lives of your team rest with your commands. Make a decision now. Huh? BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Oh no! Garnet and Alan now have a big red cross next to their names, meaning they have now passed on to soldier heaven, courtesy of a well-placed German mortar shell and your dithering.

You only carry a realistic amount of ammo and weapons, but it is a war, and discarded weapons are freakin' everywhere, so if you are running low just go and find a soldier or two that you whacked out 30 meters back. Simple and realistic.

"Hold on to your hats boys!"

Not like some first person shooter's where you are lugging about 6 or 7 automatic weapons, a flame thrower, and a rocket launcher and still managing to do 360 degree scissor kicks. To the trash with that unrealistic bollocks!

But on the flip side of realism, I still cannot jump a waist high fence, so realistically this aspect is still a bit shizen howzen.

The scenery is quite beautiful, the grass and plants are a glistening vibrant green, the skies are usually overcast with bright orange lights (bombs) soaring overhead and when explosives go off in the dirt it's quite mesmerising.

There's never been something so graphically pleasing, exploding into rich visuals of clusters of dirt, fire, smoke and grass soaring up into the air looking highly blissful and accompanied by some detailed sound effects make for some memorable battle scenes.

When using elements such as fences or mounds of dirt as cover, it's a gallery of intricate visual and audio delight. As the enemy unloads, fragments of dirt and grass, fencing or stone flicker away from the cover as you are tucked in neatly behind, inches away from peril.

Your vision is sometimes splattered with dirt or blood. When a grenade is detonated around you, the screen goes white and there is an intense ringing in your ears as you slowly pick your self up of the ground.

The 3D soldier modelling could probably use a few more polygons, but the way your team move more than balance things out; there's high levels of animation for running, shooting and diving for cover (with the exception of some of the hand gestures Baker makes when giving an order, which look freakin' ridiculous).

The sound effects are brilliant. Every step through the woods has a sound effect, and rattles let you know that you are carrying a range of equipment. Every bullet that narrowly misses and goes zooming by has a whistling effect, every speck of dirt dug up by stray bullets is accounted for with its own sound effect.

The multiplayer aspect is enticing enough, even without all the play modes and variables you would expect to find in any self respecting shooter. There's no deathmatch or anything like that, just objective based missions, and only four players can toil at once, but each player can command multiple AI units. It's good enough and will have you and friends mucking around for sometime to come, although I feel the single player mode is the main event here.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is one of the best war titles available to date. And it's educational as well as fun, making some war titles seem watery and a little too "lubed up".

A wise man once said "There is no "I" in team, and there are no hero's in..arr...this game, So you should buy this game if you want." The end.

Game: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
System: Xbox
Players: 1-4
Online: Yes
Developer: Gearbox Studios
Distributor: Ubisoft

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is on the shelves now.

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