Rusty's Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 review.
When Call of Duty came out in 2003, it made a lot of things change in the FPS genre, and shooters in general. Large scale firefights and aiming down the iron-sights has become the norm in any shooter developed from anyone who isn't id or Valve. So in 2004 when Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was coming out, I passed it off as just a World War II game that isn't Call of Duty (I fucking loved Call of Duty). When Steam had a weekend deal a few weekends ago to get all the three Brother in Arms games, I decided to give them a shot, and I'm rather excited to play through the other two after finishing this great first person shooter.
The story takes place in Normandy during D-Day. While you're not actually storming the beaches like in all the other World War II games, you are dropping in from the sky. You take control of Matt Baker, a sergeant in 101st Airborne. There are monologues before each mission, where Baker provides some back story (all it really is is him going, “aww man why am I a sergeant.”) The story takes place over eight days; there are a maximum of 2 missions that take place during each day. Overall, the story has it's best moments when it is helluv scripted. The first mission has you jumping out of a plane that gets shot, and the last mission when you're defending Hill 30 is very immersive.
The thing that set this game apart from Call of Duty was the firefights. You had control of 2 squads: a fire-squad and an assault-squad. The game would kick your ass if you didn't flank. The fire-squad is the one that is used mainly for suppressing, as they are armed with rifles. The AI is generally good at finding cover to hide behind if you command them to go to the general area. If you tell them to suppress someone they don't see, instead of moving to actually see them, they'll just spew out, “I CAN'T SHOOT WHAT I CAN'T SEE SARGE” every five seconds. So when your fire-squad is shooting at the enemy, a red circle appears over their head, and will lose parts when bullets go over their heads, and lose even bigger parts if they are shot. Once the red is all gone, the circle becomes gray; the enemies stop firing. This is the time to flank with your assault-squad (who have Thompsons and Carbines) to finish them off from the side.
All the guns in the game I presume handle like their real-life counterparts; really inaccurate. The camera sway when aiming down the iron-sights is strong. So in order to actually shoot a dude, you'll need to get your sights on him, and take account of sway. Even if you have those two points down, you'll somehow miss. The only way to truly tell if you shot a guy was if he yelps and there is a blood splatter somewhere around him. The enemy AI is also kind-of bad like the friendly AI. The game puts major emphasis on flanking, so why doesn't the enemy do it too? No, they just hide behind a wall. When they become suppressed, if you move in with your assault squad, they will remain hidden behind the wall until you trip some invisible trap that makes them pop out and have their last futile stand.
On the graphical front, I think that the filters that are put onto the screen look really good. The bloom works and isn't overly... bloomy. I think that some of the textures look great, but the model the texture is on is low poly. The foliage is great also; trees look lively and healthy, so does the grass. In the end, the game just reminded me how great Half-Life 2 looked the year past.
The soundtrack to the game definitely sounds like something out of a war movie. A majestic orchestra fills the background of all the menus and cutscenes. The sound effects are good; all the guns sound like they would in real life. The voice acting is the best part of all the sound. Your squad mates will be yelling at you, so will the Germans.
So even after all the weird AI business and rather low poly counts, Brothers in Arms is not just another World War II shooter. The emphasis on squads, tight firefights and a great story make Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 a great choice for anyone who wants to play a World War II game that isn't Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.
