It is quite an experience.
Over the last couple of years there has been quite a lot of talk about how stale WWII games are getting. I think that most gamers can understand why. Most of the games go over the same things, D-day, Operation Market Garden, and other famous WWII campaigns. If we focus on the first person shooters of the bunch (the most popular I would imagine) we find that they are all a bit samey. Some try to mix it up by having you jump out of an airplane or briefly take over an AA gun but you still go through the same French town or the same African desert (This doesn't include the rare Pacific campaigns). Regardless of the facts I just stated we still are occasionally interested in the newest iteration of America's finest moment in history and Brother in Arms: Hell's Highway is a game that definitely tries to separate itself from the herd. It succeeds, in some sense, in that objective.
I am new to the Brothers in Arms series so the first thing I noticed is that there is apparently some other story line at play besides the usual soldier X rampages through the European countryside and defeats Hitler's goons. This squad storyline is confusing at first for newcomers but anyone can follow along and still be sort of attached to it at the same time. The story structure and what it was about did not bother me, how it was presented did.
I would like to say that the voice acting was good in some of the scenes shown in the game, but in reality there was never a moment in any of the cut scenes that had voices that were completely fluid. What I mean is that in one scene one voice actor would be spot on but all the other characters would be saying these flat and horrible dialogue. Most scenes are barley bearable and really you watch them because the story intrigues you. Also some of the cut scenes have funky character animation that seem...I don't know...not fluid I guess. The character models also have problems, some faces look very good, others don't. If you wrap this up into a tight package what you get is a poor presentation of a very good storyline, disappointing.
The story, however important it is to you, is not the selling point of the game (I hope). The game gets good once you start actually playing it. The game play is awesome...the first time around. HH is tactical squad based shooter whatever that means. I'll tell you what it means. You have a squad (or squads), you give orders to that squad, and you use tactics. In HH you have different types of squads (assault, base of fire, etc) and you use them suppress enemy fire so that you can advance them further toward the objective. When this works it is beautiful, but some parts are ugly. Some times the AI is really bad, like not going to the place you told them to go and dying bad. Sometimes enemies make it easy and making the experience less fulfilling. But more or less everything works despite some glitches and bad AI. Which brings me to the sections of the game where you do not control a squad.
There are solo parts of the game, and they suck. At this point they just become Gears/Tom Clancy's Vegas clones. The cover system is like the TC: Vegas series were you are mainly in a first person perspective but when you press the LB you enter a third person view point. When you are with your squads the challenge of directing them around the battlefield is more than enough to keep you amused but the game is transformed to a mundane shooter when you are by yourself. There is also three different points in the game were you control a tank, nothing different from what you probably have all ready experienced. They’re easy and relieve stress.
Before I want to conclude this review I just want to say something. Even though I am giving these game three stars, there are some genuinely good moments in the game. The first time I played through it, on one of the early levels, there was a moment when I had a feeling of total immersion. Bullets were whizzing past my head, and I was frantically trying to get my assault team in just the right position and at the same time trying suppress several different groups of Nazi scum. I had a moment that transcended anything that I ever played in a WWII game before, I spent the rest of the game trying to recreate that moment, never did.
Graphics: Nothing special, they get the job done. Some environments look really good, but some textures are bleh.
Story: Awesome except for the presentation.
Game play: Really good, but hampered by glitches, bad AI, and meaningless solo and tank missions.
Sound: Voice acting bad, music and effects good.
Multi: Eh.
Difficulty: I found it pretty easy even on authentic, can get annoying at times.
Final Verdict: Good but flawed, highly recommend a rental, and buy if a big Brothers in Arms fan.
