Gaming Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/10/14/brothers-in-arms-hell-s-highway/1

Pull on your fatigues and grab your Thompson, it's time to head back to World War 2 with Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Returning with the unique squad based gameplay that made the original game such a hit, can Hell's Highway prove itself under fire, or will it be shipped back to Blighty? We find out!

 

Is it just me or are the images not loading properly? I tried clicking on the links but nothing happens.

 

There was a brief period of downtime on our image server this morning but it has been resolved.

 

I have never been a big fan of the Brother in Arms series. I never mastered the squad controls plus your squad mates were so so stupid. They would be getting shot at and only take cover if you told them to. I prefer GRAW, very smart AI.

 

The squads now take cover pretty well. If you just tell them to go to a location without specifically clicking on a piece of cover, they will try and get cover between them selves and the enemy. Definitely an improvement over the first game.

 

Like the first game a lot, but often ended up screaming at my squads when they walked directly into enemy fire on their own.

I must say that your review has convinced my to go via Game on my way home and pick this up.

Thanks BT for another great review.

 

comments like this make it worthwhile - enjoy!

 

An excellent and I think pretty accurate review. Captures both the highs and the lows of the game.

While the lone wolf, sniper and tank sections certainly weren't anything to write home about, I actually enjoyed them. One of the things about the original game, was that in terms of pacing, the four Fs style gameplay can get a bit repetitive. It's fun and rewarding, but at times (especially after a decent play session) a bit of monotony can set in. I found that these interludes did a great job of breaking up the other chunks, so that for the most part the game experience felt fresh. And they weren't long enough to be a distraction, so that they were just short enough to give a nice breather from the rest of the game.

The multiplayer really is a crying shame. Gearbox screwed the pooch on this one (supposedly simultaneous multiplattform development on next gen was a little bit more work then they initially thought). Originally they had planned something special, but it seems they had to outsource it to another shop just to get something included in the box. I would have been *much* happier (and actually was anticipating) a "Next-gen" version of the previous multiplayer as it really was quite fun. Adding in bazooka teams, a cover system, destructable environments (somewhat ) and better graphics, would have been great.

All in all it was still a good game. But if only not for it's shortcomings, it could have been an excellent one

 

hmm, i was tempted by this game, but i'm not a fan of the squad based shenanigans crossed with a FPS. Plus i was more interested to see how the multiplayer would pan out, which appears to be woeful. Will wait for COD 5 and Far Cry 2.

 

I have noticed the complaints that your squads run into MG fire? Well you...just ordered them to? You need to suppress or kill the MG and make sure all the germans heads are down before you really move your team. My only encounters with the squads being stupid was ordering bazooka fire. Unless it was an MG or defensive emplacements that squad is not hitting anything lol.

The tank parts are a little cheesy but fun. The sniper part was just odd and broke the immersion no doubt.

I kind of think though the reviewers scrutiny for this game was really hard compared to others, but in the end I agree with number score. The biggest downfall of this game is the multiplayer. It is just is not there. Also for the PC I don't know what the point of finding all the kilroys was for...it didn't get me any rewards. To complain about the solo parts is biased to me. They were done very well and the immersion was top notch (man that hospital was creepy). The battle fatigue of inching towards the enemy only happened to me a couple of times but I agree that it detriments the overall game. It just sucks - because you will look for a way out and your trapped by the map. I would get it if it was the heavy urban environment in the city (where this didn't happen).

I really enjoy the Brothers In Arms series on the PC. I feel this game just barely progressed as a better game over the last two, and in that it was just a little bit of let down. I wish it had come out sooner, sucks that the UE3 engine caused them troubles with their release schedule. Last but not least; I hate how the developers tout realism and include an authentic mode. Just stop it! Tout authentic story, characters, and the WWII setting all you want. But give me a break on the realism!

 

Does any one know how the game deals with wide screens? Do we get a zoomed and cropped view (like the original Bioshck) or a proper 'you see more' with WS (like Bioshock after it was patched)?

 

It's when you order them to some new cover, and they run a stupid way infront of an unsupressed enemy squad rather than the direct and safer route, that I was refering to.

Was I bit harsh with the solo and vehicle sections? Not really - they just aren't at home in the BIA game setting, and broke the attempt at realism Gearbox had obviously been aiming for everytime one cropped up.

 

i think your review was spot on in pointing out all the pros and cons but i don't agree with score of 8. a 7 seems more fitting. i mean, crysis warhead got an 8 but had great multiplayer and a polished singleplayer, not to mention it was cheaper.
just my 2p.

 

Just a comment on not always being able to flank enemy positions. This is actually realistic. Sometimes in the real world you can't attack from cover or flank their position, and so you either have to use supporting arms or slog it out the hard way.

 

I know this is a bit older thread, but I gotta say that this game leaves me with much woe. For every five minutes of game play, there is five minutes of cinematics that you can't get away from. On occasion, the game will allow you to skip the cinematics, but usually you have to sit there and deal with it. Nothing like getting into it, then having to kick back for several minutes with your arms crossed waiting for the theater to close...LOL. You need a story in a game, but does the story have to pop in every two minutes. FPS games are all about the action....this game goes all out to kill any pace you may try to get into.