Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway Review Part 1

[R3APR]

Well hey guys, I have been playing the Single Player of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway lately and I just finished it. So instead of waiting till I played the multiplayer for a significant amount of time before reviewing this game, and thus forgetting about the single player, i thought it would be good for me to review this game in two parts. So lets get this underway.

Story
As you all know, this is ANOTHER World War 2 game, this time it is set in the infamous Operation Market Garden scenario. But as quoted on the box...

September 1944. It was one of the darkest moments of World War 2 claiming the lives of 17000 allied soldiers in only 9 days.
History books call it Operation Market Garden, vyt tge men of the 101st Airbourne knew it as Hell's Highway.

So that basically sets the scene for this game.


Gameplay
If you have played other Brothers in Arms games before, this game would not have changed much for you. You basically take charge of squads, maneuver them into their positions and let them fire upon themselves. You can command them to fire at specific targets if you wish and aren't too bad. BUT they do get abit dumb sometimes, eg. covering on the WRONG SIDE of the wall, but it is basically your job to put them back in place. The new things in this game is cover and destructive cover, so basically, a picket fence won't help you out much when an MG is firing at you. Sandbags don't help with out against tanks either, but I find it rather odd that stone walls can just be easily run down by tanks, but can't be shot down, this goes the same for some stacks of wood. When I heard this game had a cover system and was made by Ubisoft, I immediately thought of Rainbow Six Vegas, and sure enough, it was very similar. I think they even pulled the same movement actions from that game, for the cover system. Also the commanding part of this game looked similar to Vegas.

Visual
This game is run by a modified version of the Unreal 3 engine, same engine used in Unreal Tournament 3. This game seriously looks good on the highest settings. My computer is a 2.0GHz Dual Core, 512MB nVidia 9600GT and 2GB of RAM, it ran perfectly and it looked great! Only a few visual hiccups here and there when I go through the game. Like sometimes, the game hasn't fully rendered in a particular section, so you will see shaders fixing it up while you are walking towards it, and with the fire going around, it looks similar to a dream sequence in Max Payne.

Sound Design
The sound in this game is fairly impressive as the sounds of the guns and explosions are authentic. Also the squad reacts to the situations, so they will whisper or shout at suited times. The music on the other hand, goes well with the actions and cutscenes, as they will make you feel banded to your mates and will make you emotional when a mate has fallen.

Overall, this game was strong in its execution. If you played Brothers in Arms before, you won't be disappointed. If you love tactical-squad shooters, this game should be looked at. If you are a fan of World War 2 shooters, definitely give this game a look. If you love shooting crazy nazis, you should have a quick glimpse. It is recommended for a borrow, as this game won't last long, in the single player perspective, around 6 hours. Sure there are secrets to find such a recon reports and kilroys, but it isn't worth it unless you got a 360 and are wanting to get the achievement points.

Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Visual -9/10
Sound Design - 9/10

Overall - 8.25/10

Buy Or Borrow - Everyone should have a look at this game, even if it is just a borrow or worth a buy. But I recommend borrow.

[Attack]

I seen this game. But wasn't sure wether to get it.. But from what i have just read.. Seems ok.. Ill give it a go

[Newyboy]

i would like to give ita go might get it after xmas

[R3APR]

If you are JUST "Giving It A Go", and you have a console or a friend who has the PC version, just borrow it. I don't like to ask people to download it. But if you are just to play the single player, and try it out, then yer, download it. I will be bringing in the second part of this review very soon. Just waiting for myself to get some time, so I can fully enjoy the multiplayer for this game.

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