Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway - Xbox 360 Review

by Chris Reaper at Oct 19, 2008 2:47pm

Game: Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
System: Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox Software

Players: 1
Online Players: 2-20
Genre: First-Person Shooting, Tactical Shooting
Release Date: September 23, 2008

Continuing on with their Brothers In Arms franchise Gearbox Software brings us their third installment, Hell’s Highway, to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, with a release on Windows PC shortly after.

I had the pleasure of playing this title on the Xbox 360, and it turned out to be a pretty good game. However not without it’s flaws, of course. While the game has a lot of strong points going for it, there’s also a lot of problems that may turn some people away from it, which is a shame because this game does have a lot of what people seek for in a good game. Story-wise it’s excellent.

There’s a very nicely detailed story that continues on from the previous Brothers In Arms games, but even if you aren’t familiar with the previous titles this one will fill you in on everything that’s happened with flashbacks and such so you won’t be at a total loss of what’s going on with the main character Matthew Baker and his squad. And the story is full of twists, turns, and surprises to keep you on your feet and really in to it. And it all comes down to a very heartfelt and good ending for the game.

And to go along with a wonderful story, the game has an excellently composed score that makes you feel as if you’re watching a very well done war-based film. The sounds you hear during gameplay sound good as well. The headshots, explosions, voices, and so on all sound very realistic. Each character in the game has their own unique voice of course as you’d expect, and they also show emotion as well opposed to the monotone and boring character conversations you might get from other titles out there. So the game nails it impressively for story and sound, but what about graphics and gameplay? Well let’s start that off by getting the worst of it out of the way, the graphics.

Unfortunately, the graphics of the game come off quite bad in some cases. Such as with 2D textures that you’ll notice most of the time and think they look kind of horrendous compared to some of the nice visuals that’ll pop up every now and then. So it’s a shame that not everything looks as good as some of the things do in this game, because you do notice it a lot. There’s also a lot of collision detection mishaps during gameplay which is a shame considering that a lot of what you do in the game for strategy consists of running and jumping over walls or digging in for cover. So it’s not as if it happens only every once and a while. There are also a few noticeable problems during cutscenes as well. The cutscenes are really fun to watch too, so it really takes away from them. While these problems may not sound too bad in writing, once you play the game you find that they really take away from the experience.

Apart from these flaws with the graphics though there are other instances where they look really good. The slow-motion bits where you get a kill shot on an enemy and it zooms in to show you a cinematic shot of where you hit and the damage it did is awesome, as well when it does the same thing for a good grenade explosion. The limbs flying everywhere and the blood spill, what more could you ask for than a slow-motion cinematic feature of that? Well, okay so there is a lot more you could ask for from the game for graphics, but those shots really are pretty damn sweet!

The effects of explosions also look very good, and the buildings and rubble are nicely detailed in the game. So some of the environments in the game do come off nicely, but there’s just so many flaws as well that it’s hard to enjoy them when the other factors come in to play. So the graphics and visuals truly are a hit or miss with this game. You’ll get a good experience from them every now and then, but bad one shortly after will make you forget all about it. So we’ve covered story, sound, and now graphics so let’s move on to the gameplay.

The gameplay is actually pretty good. It has the basics of any other first-person shooter, but with its own special elements thrown in to make it unique and fresh. Such as the ability to “dig in” to take cover behind almost anything that is on the battlefield. This is a really good feature to the game to help you carry on with strategy to get across the battlefields when you’re facing a whole pack of enemy Germans. If you don’t take advantage of your surroundings you may very well find yourself getting pummeled with enemy bullets and dying before you can even track where your enemy is shooting from.

Of course while being able to take cover behind almost anything is great and all, your enemies also have that same advantage, or disadvantage if you get them cornered in the right spots. It may be a bit tricky trying to kill one of your enemies while they’re behind cover but if you’re patient enough and don’t stay out of cover shooting like a maniac until you’re taken down, you can pop up at just the right moment and get a clean head shot on your enemy, and if you’re timing is good you can take out his companions as well one after another. Although in some cases the shooting like a maniac idea may not be bad. If your enemies are behind something that’s wooden, you’ll be able to destroy it with some shots and then take out your enemies just like that.

You also have grenades you can throw, but for some reason those don’t work out too well, for me they usually didn’t anyway. In some cases there were about 3-4 Germans all huddled together behind some cover, so I figure I’ll just take them all out with a grenade. So I go for it, it lands in a perfect spot right near them, yet when it blows not one of them gets hurt. I didn’t understand why, since it went off right in the middle of the pack. When it blew they were right in the explosion yet no damage was taken. In other cases however sometimes the grenades did work, so I guess it’s just a hit or miss thing with the grenades, and if you’re lucky they’ll work for you.

You can also command your team to move forward and point out where you’d like them to be. This is another hit or miss type of thing. Usually however, it is a complete miss. Your team doesn’t do too good on the battlefield like you’d hope, and there’s usually a casualty or two before they even get to the position you’ve commanded them to go to. Sometimes they won’t even listen and go to where you had planned. Instead they’ll completely pass where you pinpointed them to take cover, and jump over the wall and move on to the enemy’s position, getting themselves killed. So it’s a shame that one of the key elements of gameplay for this title turned out to be a thing of luck. You’re better off just leaving your team where they are and moving on without them, which is usually what I did.

The online play for the game doesn’t feel like a real experience to the game. It feels like it was just added at last minute for the people that would want this option, and like there wasn’t really much work put in to making it a great experience. It’s no COD4 or Halo 3 when it comes to online play, that’s for sure. There’s not much to do online, only a few game options that you get bored with fast since there are not many maps to choose from either. Also, the qualities of the graphics really go down online as well, as if some of the factors for them weren’t bad enough already.

So overall the game isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. It’s good for what it is but not one of the best. It definitely does have a lot of good things going for it, but some of the flaws may bother you quite a bit depending on what you’re expecting from it. I had fun with it though and after completing it found myself still playing to get through the harder difficulty you unlock after completing the game. So it will keep you busy for a while. Just don’t expect much from online play after completing the single player mode.

If you’re fan of First-Person Shooters then I’d say buy it. While it has it’s flaws it definitely has enough good points to keep you entertained and enjoying the game, and it’s fun to go through the difficulty level you unlock after completing the game once so it’ll keep you busy as well for a while.

Graphics:
They’re so and so. You’ll get some nice surprises every now and then from the visuals of some things, but you’ll also see tons of letdowns as well. Big thumbs up for the slow-motion cinematic kills, but an even bigger shake of the head for the ugly 2D textures and bad collision detection.

Sound:
There’s nothing bad to say about the sound. Everything was excellent. The score you hear as the story unfolds, and the sounds of a battlefield you experience during gameplay. Everything here was done perfect and sounds realistic.

Gameplay:
Gameplay is kind of like the graphics, but not as bad. There’s a lot more good than there is bad. Only bad thing really is your squad is full of morons, other than that everything else is alright if not great.

Fun Factor:
The game is fun. Planning out your strategies with the cover and choosing which enemies would be best to take out first is great. Although some times it can be really difficult, which does take a little of the fun away, especially when there’s a whole horde of Germans and you take out all but one of them who gets lucky and kills you right before you get him. That is so frustrating.

Online:
Eh, definitely not a strong point for this game. While it seems fun a first it dies down fast and you’re bored of it rather quickly. There’s not a lot of maps to choose from, nor is there many modes of gameplay. And the graphics actually weaken down even more.

Graphics	Sound	Gameplay	Fun Factor	Online
6.5	9.0	8.0	7.5	5.0

Upside:
• Great story that keeps you interested through-out the game, and is nicely told.
• Incredible sound and score that fits in very well.
• Nicely detailed slow-motion shots for headshots and grenades.

Downside:
• While some of the graphics and slow-motion caps may look really well, there’s also a lot of other things that don’t look as pretty. This especially comes to effect in online play.
• Your team AI, and sometimes your enemy AI as well, don’t move too well and often come off looking really stupid.
• Lots of visual glitches to go along with the so and so graphics.

Overall 7.5 (out of 10) Good - Enjoyable, but definite room for improvement. Rent it first.