Customer Reviews

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been waiting a long time for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway to come out. There have been numerous delays and the game was supposed to come out sometime last year. Well it finally came out and I picked up the game yesterday from my local Game Retailer.

The game follows up the first two Brothers in Arms games that came out earlier. You play the role of Sergeant Matt Baker who leads squads of men through Holland during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 during World War II. Operation Market Garden was the last German victory in Europe during the war.

I think the game has a great story line. The game in my opinion is very well done and acted out. It really shows what I think every soldier has to endure and go through during wartime. It is very emotional and gripping. You find out that soldiers have to make life or death decisions that can effect them the rest of their lives. This game shows not only soldiers struggling through this conflict, but also Dutch civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the Allies and the Germans.

If you are looking for a game where you make tactical decisions about how to fight battles during Operation Market Garden, this is it. Your decisions can decide the life's of your soldiers under your command.

The AI is very good in this game. I read some game reviews from other gaming websites where the game reviewers were complaining about German Soldiers who were just standing around when you shoot at them. First of all, you can now sneak up on German Soldiers to plan an attack without them knowing your there. In other words, you can set up an ambush. You set up you and your squads where you want them to fight the Germans. Of course the Germans are going to stand around if they don't know that you are there hiding. Second you can now set up you and your men where the Germans are caught in a cross fire when you fire at them with your weapons. The Germans get confused because there is no where to run and hide. So of course a lot of them are going to stand around because of the crossfire. That happens in real life too.

The graphics are real good in this game. I understand the developers of this game went to actual locations around Holland and took thousands of pictures to make the game looked like Holland during World War II. That is very impressive.

I think the game has a lot of replay value to it because the Germans react differently every time you play the game again. Each time you try to figure out how you will fight different battles throughout the game. I recommend buying this game especially if you like playing World War II games like me.


October 5, 2008

UPDATE: I just finished playing Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway and I noticed a couple of things I wanted to update about this game. I'm a true gamer who likes to give honest opinions about the games I play. The above opinions were given when I was only half way through the game. Here are the updates.

1. The graphics are great at the beginning of the game and toward the middle, but not at the end. It seems like the game developer got into a big hurry to finish this game and just threw in graphics from the "Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood" game into the end of this game. The trees and buildings at the end of game just look dull and not very detailed like at the beginning and the middle of the game. The game was already a year behind schedule and I'm sure the game developer got pressured into finishing the game as soon as possible. I was wondering why I never saw any game trailers that show any missions that were at the end of this game. Now I know why.

2. None of the mission maps you play through are very big throughout the game. You play a little way through a mission and then you get a cut scene. That scenario plays over and over again throughout the game. Too many cut scenes and not enough playing time. If you want a comparison in map sizes, try playing Battlefield: Bad Company and you'll see what I'm talking about as far as map sizes go. Battlefield: Bad Company maps are a lot bigger with less cut scenes.

3. Operation Market Garden was all about the Allies taking and holding major road bridges along Hell's Highway throughout Holland during World War II before the Germans could blow up any of the bridges. Well in the game I didn't see one major bridge shown in any missions. There is one small bridge in the game that goes over a small canal but I don't count that. I'm talking about big huge bridges over major rivers. I didn't see any at all. I was really disappointed. Why were there no major road bridges shown in the game? That is what Operation Market Garden was all about.

4. There were lots of different vehicles used during Operation Market Garden by both the Allies and the Germans. In the game, I only saw one kind of Allied tank (Sherman Firefly) used in the game and one kind of German tank (Panzer IV) used. I didn't see any German Panther tanks, Tiger tanks, German Halftracks, German Volkswagen Kubelwagen, etc. I also didn't see any other American tanks or any British tanks of any kind. What is up with that?

5. Not every mission in this game has you play with squads of men. In fact in some of the missions, you fight alone against the Germans. And in some missions you don't fight at all. Running through a building that is on fire is one of them. There is no shooting at all. I thought in every mission I would control squads of men.

This game reminds me a lot of Medal of Honor: Airborne. That game could of been awesome too if it had of been done right. I remember that game went through a lot of delays just like Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway did and it came out about a year later than it was suppose to. Medal of Honor: Airborne was great the first few missions and then it went downhill the last couple of missions. This game is the same way. After playing the game, I'll have to change my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars. Sorry. I just feel this game could of been made better.

If you are looking for another Call of Duty 4, this is NOT it. Sure its an FPS with shooting and explosions, but there is so much more to this game. Don't get me wrong, COD 4 is awesome in its own right, filled with fast paced action, great graphics, explosions and Hollywood moments; the Golden Standard for any new FPS to come out. So, with that in mind, if you play Hell's Highway with this mindset, you might disappoint yourself, which is too bad because Brothers in Arms is a great game in a category all of it's own.

If you have ever seen the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, that same look and feel from the series is obvious within the first 15 minutes of the game. The opening of the game is presented in a style similar to a Hollywood picture, with great camera angles, music score, and just overall presentation. If you enjoy playing games with a good story and enjoy seeing what is happening behind the scenes of all the shooting and gameplay, then you will certainly enjoy the ride as the folks at Gearbox went to painstaking efforts to portray a grand story filled with emotion and presentation.

Now on to the bread and butter, gameplay. If you enjoyed the previous installments of the Brothers in Arms games you will be pleased to know that the formula has remained the same, albeit with some minor changes. You can now hug the walls similar to Rainbow Six: Vegas for added cover, as well as issue orders to a machine gun team for fire suppression, and a bazooka team to battle entrenched enemies and tanks. Now, if you want a challenge from the simple run and gun gameplay of most shooters, then you will love employing your own strategies to tackle every single mission. There are multiple ways to tackle every single firefight, from setting up a base of fire and flanking left or right, using grenades, or just throwing caution to the wind going head-on and hoping for the best (which doesn't bode well at all). I remember one instance when two big groups of Germans were walking towards me in formation and I had about 5 seconds to set up an ambush or risk being slaughtered since I was out in the open. Naturally, it took several tries, but when I got it right the feeling of victory was SWEET!! It is times like this when you feel your adrenaline pump because while you have to accomplish your missions, you still have to take out the Germans while issuing orders to your teams with loads of bullets whizzing all around you. This sort of action gets your brain going this way and that, and though it may be hard to concentrate and keep your focus, you begin to understand how hard and stressful war really can be, and not just another Hollywood-sized Call of Duty 4 spectacle.

I love WWII be it films, books or games and I have been looking forward to this one for a long time and from the very beginning I found myself letdown be it graphics or gameplay. The A.I. was kinda a disappointment since I could tell my squad where to go in a firefight and I would stand up my guys would not get shot at since all the fire would come at me. Sometimes I wouldn't try to flank but just suppress the enemy with my guys and pick off the enemy with head shots even when they were crouched behind sand bags. I had some enemies displace and come a couple of feet from me or right toward me. The graphics just didn't seem on par with a game that has been delayed so much. I thought the slow mo aspects would be way to often but I found myself not being able to get enough of it. Story wise I loved this game being a fan of the previous installments. I still hope for another installment for the series considering it is a good series deserving to go on. Multiplayer for me was a giant letdown and I found myself wondering what were they perfecting in this game for the last couple months of delay. Fans of the series will probably buy this game no matter what I say and if you like it that much than that's good. For me this game is a 5 star rental and a 3 star buy and just not good enough to buy.

First off, let me start by saying that this game is definately NOT for those who love the Call of Duty WW2 games where you're pretty much a one man army. This game has to be one of the most intense shooters I've ever played, mainly because it's so realistic and graphic. BIA is very similar to Rainbow Six Vegas (1 & 2), so if you liked those games, then you'll probably like this one. This game is a squad game, where you take the place of the man barking out commands, and your guys listen to you (most of the time). Issuing commands is VERY simple: you pick your squad (sometimes you have more than onne) then pick your target, and issue your command to attack where to go. The enemy AI is good, they fire at you and give you a good challenge, sometimes to good of a challenge. our friendly AI is fairly decent, but sometimes they do get a little mixed up. For example, they may stop firing at an enemy, they ight be on the wrong side of cover, or even get lost...but they're still decent enough.
The gameplay is pretty solid, intense, and fairly realistic. The guns are good, each has good stopping power and a good feel. The sound is AMAZING! Bullets whiz all around you, explosions leave your ears ringing, etc, etc.
All in all, this game is good. I didn't play the online mode, only the single player, but I still recommend the game to anyone seeking an intense, graphic, and fun World War 2 shooter.

After playing all the way thru to the end, my opinion of this game was changed significantly from my first impressions. While it does lack some of the more technical and realistic aspects that made the first game for X-Box so appealing, it is still a very fun game in its own right. The environments are beautiful, the sound effects are okay but not spectacular, and the storyline is really first rate. I couldn't wait to beat each level just so I could see where the story was going.

There were a few weaknesses however. Firstly, you don't really feel like you have to work as hard to fire and maneuver so that you can get a good angle on your targets. A good example would be that machine gun nests are no longer the squad killers they used to be in the first game. In fact, an MG42 isn't really to be feared much at all so long as you have some patience and can place your shots right in the head of the gunner (which again, is not very difficult). Secondly the sniper and tank missions feel like they were tacked on almost as arcade-type mini games. In the first game having a sniper rifle meant you were not only powerful but that you also had to again work at it, as the crosshairs would sway and rock just like they would in real life. When you're a sniper this time around your hands are rock, ROCK steady and you can place your shots wherever you want. Add to this the fact that most of the rifles sound like they recorded banging on trash cans and it can really subtract from the game. And as for the tank missions, while they are a bit of fun and a nice change of pace, they're arcade-like nature tend to detract from what would otherwise be a very serious experience.

Overall though these represent relatively small weaknesses believe it or not, and as a whole Hell's Highway is still a highly enjoyable experience. Just try to leave your preconceptions about Road to Hill 30 behind.

I'm getting a little tired of WWII games. Well, that's what I said before I played Hell's Highway. This game has reassured me that there are aspects that even the terribly whored out WWII genre has yet to touch. But with that aside, everyone's asking the same question, "Should I get this over Call of Duty: World at War?" Well...no. This is Call of Duty we're talking about! But Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is just too good to pass up.

Hell's Highway follows the mission of Operation Market Garden, and if you know your history you would know that the mission wasn't necessarily the Allies' finest hour. You assume the roll of Sgt. Matt Baker, and you're tasked with leading your squad through war ravaged Holland in order to push through the heavily fortified, tank ridden, and infamous route known as "Hell's Highway".

In many ways, Brothers in Arms is a black sheep when compared to other conventional WWII shooters. Hell's Highway is no exception. One of the biggest differences is it's emphasis on it's story and narrative. The game plays out kind of like your average high-budget war drama, like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan. We've seen these kinds of stories in movies and TV shows, but you'll probably never find a WWII game this side of Call of Duty with this kind of dark and complex narrative that just sucks you in. You'll find a plethora of truly cinematic cut scenes and A plus dialog through out the game that all advance the story. That's right, it has a story. A good story as a matter of fact. The characters all look and sound like real people in a real life-or-death situation. In some ways, you start to care about some of them, and sometimes you'll hope that they'll make it out of this alive. To be frank, the story is not a pleasant one. Not only is Hell's Highway trying to focus on the horrors war, but also on the major loss of the mission the game is based off of. So when you do beat the game, you probably won't be feeling too good.

Besides focusing on it's story and narrative, Brothers in Arms also plays unlike any other WWII shooter. While most games like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor have you running into the battle and tell you to start shooting anything that speaks German, Brothers in Arms is the total opposite. The game is more strategy than a straight shoot-em-up. If you try to tackle the game like a run 'n' gun FPS, you're not going to last very long. Hell's Highway tries to focus on what it calls "The Four 'F's." "Find him. Fix him. Flank him. Finish him." This mechanic is presented virtually flawlessly with the command controls and suppression meters. Giving commands is easy and practically impossible to unlearn once you learn it. You select the team you want use with either the D-Pad or the B button, and you issue commands by holding down the left trigger. Depending on where you point the curser, the team will go to that destination selected, or start suppressing the enemy you selected. This brings up the art of suppression. Your enemies all have red circles hovering over their heads called suppression meters. They might look like the enemy's health meter, but they aren't, so don't get confused. When the suppression meter is red, it means the enemy isn't suppressed and the moment they see your movement, they'll open fire on you and your squad and probably kill you in the process. To counter this, your squad must open fire on the enemy to make the suppression meter turn gray. This will mean that the enemy is now suppressed, and this is the perfect time for you or one of your teams to go around and flank the enemy and finish them off from behind. Yes, the meters sort of make the game a bit easy. So if you want a little more challenge, just turn them off. But this whole suppression thing wouldn't work if the game didn't have good friendly and enemy AI, and boy, do they have good AI!

Brothers in Arms also tries to focus on realism. Not just in it's story, but in the battle field as well. Yes, the cover system can be used on virtually any kind of wall or barrier, but depending on what it is (like say a picket fence or wooden barrels) they can be destroyed with a few well placed shots. Even sand bags can be demolished with a well placed rocket or grenade. Hell's Highway also implements an incredibly brutal gore system. Depending on what kind of stopping power the weapon you used has, heads and limbs can be blown off and even entire bodies can be blown apart. Right when something like this happens, the game will slow down and zoom in on the, ahem, action. So if you're a fan of gratuitous blood and guts, you might find a liking here.

But probably one main thing that sets Hell's Highway apart from all other WWII shooters (that I've played at least) is that it has one thing most of them don't have, color. When ever I play Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, heck, even Wolfenstein, the main color I see is grey. Lots, and lots of boring, uninteresting grey. Grey buildings, roads, skies, everything is just so... grey! That's not the case with Hell's Highway. Blue skies, different colored buildings, sharp green foliage, red orange fires, and of course, dark scarlet blood.

I think you get the jest of my review. If you're one of those gamers that believe that WWII shooters have all but lost their touch, you NEED to play Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Just, don't start playing it like you would with Call of Duty or something similar. In order to really appreciate this game, you need to play it using your squad and not your trigger finger. This is one highway you should really consider going through!

Single Player is really where BIA:HH hits its stride. The story is awesome, the environments are beautiful and this is the high water mark for strategic shooters. I had the most fun when the game gives me two squads to control. The bazooka team is my favorite. It's all about supression and flanking. I dig the feeling of pinning enemies down with my squad and sneaking up behind them for the kill. Awesome.

Multiplayer is very run n' gun. It reminds me a bit of Counterstrike.

BoA: Hells Highway is a cool variation to the WW2 First Person Shooter that would appeal more towards the strategy oriented player and far less to the Rambo, go it alone fan. The game takes the traditional FPS format and puts you in charge of up to 2 squads with various abilities. For all those vets of Medal of Honor or Call of Duty who would have loved to lay down suppressing fire or order some cover will love that angle in this game. On top of the squad based angle there are some other alterations that set BoA apart from other shooters.

For instance you have no health in the game and you really can't get shot. Instead, the screen flashes red when you are exposed and someone is shooting at you. This adds a tad of realism in that you aren't physically being shot and you have to react quickly before being killed. Also, the game is sectioned out into numerous segmented maps or what I call skirmishes. Basically you walk into an area and are faced with a set number of enemies and you need to adapt to the lay of the land. Clear the enemies and then move on. There are numerous ways to beat each level. Soloing or going Rambo will rarely work unless you get really lucky.

As a budget title I have found solid value for the price. The graphics are decent for a 360 title, the music is good, the format is that of Band of Brothers, etc. The story was a bit odd, jumping around and the tone doesn't have any continuity. The main characters seem to always be cracking jokes at the most inopportune time, etc. Whatever, the story is not that integral to the game.

Unfortunately, there are a series of flaws, bugs, or shortcomings in the game that will significantly hurt the experience for some gamers. Ideally I would have rated this 3.5 stars to indicated a decent title with flaws but I opted for the higher rating because I have fun playing it. Some of the flaws are as follows.

1. The game cheats. BAD! What I mean by this is that the enemy AI constantly reminds you that it always knows where you are. Not sure if this was intended or not but the developers need to work on the AI's detection ability to increase the realism of the game. Basically, no matter whats going on in a battle, the AI will really key in on you. I assume this is because the base engine is for a standard FPS. It makes sense that the enemy would key in on you as you are the only one technically playing. However, this kills the games intended strategy as well as makes things annoying.

For instance, the game basically is designed for you to lay down cover fire and then move you and/or an assault team under that fire, around to a flanking position and take out the enemy. Sometimes you can achieve this flank completely under cover. Unfortunately, no matter how good your move, the enemy always knows you are there. In one instance I ran completely around a house hidden and came up behind 2 enemies. Before I even could fire they turned around 180 and shot me. You basically just have to get used to it and hope your fire teams kill them when they expose themselves to key on you. It's worse though when you have 6 guys firing suppression and yet a machine gun still picks on you when you are just crawling around behind cover.

2. Your aim is ATROCIOUS. Again, not sure if this is intentional but you are the worst shot in the whole war. The on screen cross hairs are basically more of a suggestion as to where you MAY shoot but by no means a given. You have several aiming views, all of them unreliable. You have the base walk around view thats just like every FPS. This is the worst view for shooting and you will only use it when moving or strafing, etc. Then there is the standard zoom mode which takes you to a zoomed variation of your guns site. This is ok but some guns are abnormally large and take up so much of the screen it is hard to see. Then you have your base aim from a cover position and a slightly zoomed version by clicking the R-stick. These are the best zooms but you still will plant your pinpointed cross hairs on an enemy and miss more often than not.

I would say they tried to make firing more realistic by reducing accuracy but sometimes it's ridiculous. I can pull off crack head shots with a scopeless M1 at long range and then miss an entire clip at point blank. This is no joke. I have rounded a corner, planted my sites right on an enemy and fired off multiple shots point blank and score no hits. On other instances you will have perfect aim on an enemy and you can watch the tracer rounds fly way off missing by a mile.

When you couple this terrible aim with the enemy AI always knowing where you are and you get a frustrating experience at time. You basically just need to be patient and keep stock of lots of ammo. Obviously some guns are more accurate than others. The M1 or the German rifle are my preferred guns as they miss the least. Machine guns are awful.

On top of AIM, headshots are poor. I have shot some enemies in the head as many as 3 times before they go down. Kind of odd.

3. Your AI is pretty dumb. Your guys do exactly what you tell them but they are dumb about it. They will run out into the open, stand in the line of fire, and sometimes just do nothing regardless of the order, or inexplicably stand right next to explosives as they are about to blow. Also, they are terrible killers. You pretty much have to kill most of the enemies. (I understand the developers probably were worried about you becoming a spectator in the game and thus they make you do most of the work.) I have even seen some of my AI stand right in front of the enemy firing at them and missing at point blank forcing me to come in and shoot them. (Ironically in one of these experiences, I saw 6 Allied AI standing there exposed shooting at 1 enemy also standing. Even though I was far away, the enemy was still shooting at me even though 6 guys were standing around him.)

4. Cover is vital, crouching does nothing. When in cover it is almost impossible for enemies to hit you even if they can see you. (This is the same with enemies. You will see enemies sitting there and you will shoot them with no result, just waste ammo.) However, if you just crouch behind an object, the enemy will still hit you even if they can't see you. There seems to be cover clipping issues. I have even watched enemies shoot in opposite directions and still hit me.

5. Control bugs. Sometimes you can't get into cover when switching through zooms. Some superficial objects will block you or prevent you from shooting like scaffolding, etc. Aiming in tight quarters is a nightmare. Sometimes your characters head will get in the way, other times window sills won't let you see, etc. Very unnatural. This is due to the 3rd person angle when in cover, you are looking over a shoulder and if a wall is in the way, oh well you are blind, even if your character can see fine. Grenade controls are awful. The aiming target is hard to see, and again, your guy has awful aim. Even if you can see the target way away from you, your guy will still throw them off a nearby wall and blow yourself up. (There is no grenade warning either so you sometimes don't know when this happens)

6. Tight quarters AI is broken. I had a very hard time moving AI through tight passageways. They got stuck often, wouldn't follow attack orders, and were unresponsive. I basically gave up and solo'd most of the indoor portions. Enemies also get stuck. More than a few times I have found enemies just standing there looking at me and I can just stand there without getting shot.

That may seem like a lot of gripes but I think they are important. While I still find value in the game as a budget title, some fans may hate these glitches/flaws.

Basically if you can tolerate the bad AIM and the annoying enemy AI, you can find some fun in this game. If you are a stickler for perfection, stay very far away.

i love ww2 games. this game is really good. controlling your squad is awesome. levels are cool. im a fan of the older moh series and cod . if your a ww2 fan or just like realistic shooters try this out.

I enjoyed the hell out of this game. It was cheap and I had lots of fun on the story/single player game play.