Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway attempts to present the player with a harsh, realistic insight into World War II. While it certainly does this more successfully than any other game before it, it does comes with its fair share of flaws.
You assume the role of Sergeant Baker, a D-Day survivor determined not to lose any more men in battle. A determination that is somewhat undermined when the player takes control, and Baker shows little emotion for his fallen comrades. The story follows this rag-tag team of military men as they make their way through the Dutch countryside, attempting to drive out Nazi forces.
The gameplay in Hells Highway is more reliant on strategy than most First Person Shooters, and attempting to ‘run and gun’ through levels will invariably result in an untimely death. Success relies on carefully placing the squad members you command, and suppressing and flanking enemies. Enjoyment of this will depend largely on your strategic disposition and patience. As a result, fans of aforementioned ‘running and gunning’ may find proceedings tedious.
While gameplay in Hell’s Highway is mostly enjoyable, mission objectives become somewhat repetitive towards the 8-10 hour campaign’s conclusion. Far too often the game asks you to destroy enemy artillery, a request that takes a while to complete and does a better job of showing the game’s flanking mechanics than providing the player with any entertainment. However for the most part, there is enough depth in Hell’s Highway to keep things interesting.
The most compelling aspect of Hell’s Highway is the palpable attempt made by the developers to portray World War II as a horrific military conflict: this is done by showing the implications of this conflict on the game’s characters. Sergeant Baker goes through patches of hallucination and displays believable emotion, as events around him turn sour. This mental deterioration is, at only a few points in the game, displayed through an alteration of the player’s vision in some way. While the implementation is far from original, it is relatively unforeseen in the genre and goes a long way in elevating Hell’s Highway above other WWII First Person Shooters.
On the visual side of things, Hell’s Highway is unremarkable, and aside from some texture loading issues, everything is on par for the current generation systems. The only other feature worth mentioning is the action cam, which provides a gory, close-up shot of an enemy after you’ve taken them out. This only occurs when the kill is significant in some way, such as a headshot from distance or a well-placed grenade. The game’s use of this is scarce enough to prevent it from becoming repetitive, and you’ll probably find yourself amused whenever it actually makes an appearance.
Hell’s Highway features a good, but generic WWII military score, as well as generally solid voice acting. One interesting aspect of the audio is the sound dampening that occurs when something explodes close to the player, be it a grenade or artillery round. This lends itself well to the games atmosphere and helps to cement the seemingly authentic WWII experience.
Essentially, this atmosphere is the most interesting part Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Instead of introducing a group of bonehead tough guys, like many shooters do these days, the game tries to explore the affect of war on it’s cast of believable-as-human characters. Whether the slower paced gameplay is for you or not will certainly affect your enjoyment of Hell’s Highway, but those looking for something more from a WWII First Person Shooter, should absolutely give it a try.
