World War II Isn't Dead Yet
The Brothers In Arms series has been giving gamers a new way to play World War II, and has become a well known franchise for it's blend of intense action and squad-based tactics. In the first game, you took control of Sergeant Matt Baker, and the series starts off with a bang as your are thrown out of an airplane into Nazi infested territory. The series made a sudden change with the next game as you are put into the boots of Baker's pal, Hartsock. With the newest entry to the series and the first to appear on next-gen consoles, you are once again playing as Matt Baker during Operation Market Garden, which was a huge failure for the Allies.
The story of this game seems to be one of the bigger focuses, and it's safe to say that Gearbox pulled it off really well. The game is noticeably much more emotional and story-driven. All of the characters you'll meet have a certain personality and look about them, and they all act a specific way. Throughout Hell's Highway, you'll notice Baker's state of mind slowly deteriorating until he's driven to the point of near-insanity. There are plenty of cutscenes to be had within the game, and each and every one of them does nothing but help to drive the plot further. As I've stated previously, the game uses Operation Market Garden as a backdrop in order to set a much more personal adventure for Baker and his crew. Although the plot can get a bit funky at times, overall I thought it was well-thought out.
Expect to see this often throughout the game
A big thing that the Brothers In Arms series had going for it was the unique ability to lead your men through battle. Because you are playing as a squad leader, you are given control of you guys and it is up to you to keep them alive. Moving your men to different positions and having them fire on certain targets could not be easier. Everything squad related is mapped to the Left Trigger, with B allowing you to switch between squads and pressing down on the D-Pad causes your men to fall in. Because you can't simply run-n-gun your way through (you'd get killed quickly, even on Casual), you'll need to put your teams to work. You always have plenty of cover wherever you are, so getting your guys behind something solid isn't all that difficult. Unfortunately, they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and often times they will take non sensical routes to get to wherever you told them to go. This usually resulted in one or more teammates getting killed on me, which made the game even harder. Thankfully, however, your men will actually kill enemies once in a while in this game, which is nice.
In Hell's Highway, you're given control of two brand new squads. The MG team and the Bazooka team are arguably the most useful. You're also given the basic Assault team and Base of Fire team, although you won't ever be able to control all four at once. Out of the two special teams, the Bazooka one seems to be the most destructive, but they are also the dumbest. I've run into many encounters where I've told them to fire on a target that's easy to kill. They will either miss the target by a bunch, or won't even shoot all together which quickly grew frustrating. When they were competent enough to work with me, they were very effecient.
Enjory the view while you can. It will be covered in flames in about 2 minutes
Visually, there really isn't anything about Hell's Highway that is disappointing. The game is very bright and colorful, which is a welcome change for me at least from the recycled gray and gloomy environments you'd find in most WWII shooters. The characters models look okay. During cutscenes you'll often see texture pop-ins and some general weirdness going on with the graphics, but it didn't seem to be all that bothersome. The game also has a lot of gore, which looks awesome. The all around detail of the environments in Hell's Highway was impressive.
The game is very competent when it comes to combat. There is a healthy selection of weapons, and all of them feel and operate the way they should. The new cover system is genius and works wonderfully, although it did make it seem as if killing enemies outside of cover was more difficult then it should have been. Some wooden cover, such as fences, can now be destroyed, and it's really cool seeing each individual board pop out when they're shot. Your squad does a pretty good job of eliminating enemies whenever they get the chance, and the Nazis do a great job of mowing you down if you aren't careful. Throughout my time playing, I don't think I ever experienced any hiccups or slowdowns during combat, which is nice. There are some parts in the game where you play alone without your squad, and it was at these parts where I began to question Gearbox's sanity. The game encourages tactics wherever you go, and throwing you into a German infested building to clear it out by yourself just seems out of place for this kind of game. There are also some missions where you are given control of a tank, but these missions weren't as satisying as they should have been. Also, occasionally during battle, you'll get something called an Action Camera to trigger. Whenever you pull off an epic headshot or an awesome explosion occurs, the game will slow and the camera will zoom in on the destruction for maybe 4-5 seconds. 
Bummer, duder
All in all, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is the best entry in the series by far. While it isn't perfect, it does so many things right that any FPS fan should give it a go. Even though the multiplayer is pretty awful (it shouldn't even be in the game), the story is enough to make you go back and play it through again. So in conclusion, Hell's Highway is an exciting ride from start to finish, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys shooters. You won't be disappointed.
