Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway has one of the better storylines of any WWII game that I have played in recent years. It was so good I thought it was a game based on a movie or TV show (like Band of Brothers on HBO). You are commanding the 101st Airborne squad during Operation Market Garden (read up on it) which basically was a plan to end the war by Christmas 1944 (which didn't work).
I have never played any of the previous installments of Brothers in Arms and had to find out the main character you play, Staff Sergeant Baker, is a character in the previous installments. This point is moot as you can easily follow the storyline without knowing a whole lot about his character, a nice intro movie helps that fact. As I said the storyline is topnotch, dealing with the stress that can happen to soldiers fighting for a long time in a war. The movies during and between levels are interesting and really do add to the gameplay.
The gameplay is very different than the typical Call of Duty or Medal of Honor game. It is squad based and if you think for a minute that you can run out and take all the enemies out yourself you will find out that the Casual mode is not so easy. I found this to be very refreshing for a WWII based game, since it is much more realistic. You need to effectively command your squads to eliminate multiple enemies without getting yourself or your squad killed. Unfortunately your squad will magically revive at different points throughout the levels, which takes away some of the realism.
The squad AI is in turns wonderful and terrible. It is wonderful when you are not directly commanding your squad, when they are following you, or sitting at a place you ordered them to go. As soon as the enemy starts firing, they take cover and fire back. The downside is when you command them (which is primary to the gameplay) it is glitchy sometimes. If you order your squad to go up closer to the combat and take cover, they don't always take the most direct (and safest) path, and sometimes they will take "cover" in an area that they can easily be shot. One of the other plus sides to the game is that much of the cover is destructable. Enemies behind a sandbag cover? Simply use your bazookas to take out the sandbags (also happens to be an achievement).
All in all the single player mode was challenging and fun, although it felt a bit short. On casual mode it would take most gamers between 6-12 hours (I finished it in 7). Once you beat it in either available mode, you unlock an ultra realistic mode where you don't have crosshairs or radar to make the war feel much more real.
The sound was also very good, the orchestra music adding to the feel of a war movie. Though the dialouge outside of the cutscenes seemed a little glitchy as well. It does have mature language, but in a great move you can turn this off. I was able to play it in front of my 8 year old with no f-bombs being spouted off.
As much good can be said about the single player, equally as much can be said bad about the multiplayer. The graphics look downplayed so you can have up to 20 people playing at one time, you only have a handful of maps to choose from, and your only real gameplay mode is a territory like capture the flag to which you can either capture the flag or kill all the enemies on the other team. I did enjoy the fact that during each round you do not respawn, making tactics and using cover much more important. Good luck finding people to play with though due to a bonehead move of making all mutliplayer achievements worth 0 points. Though it might have been wisdom due to the lack of options in multiplayer, it gets boring very quickly.
All in all the game was good, but not great. The wonderful storyline was brought down by weak multiplayer and a fair amount of game glitches.
As for the achievement whores this is the breakdown - You can get 775 achievement points for playing through once in single player mode. A handful of achievements are for finding Recon points and Kilroys. The Recon points are clearly marked on your map (not on your radar) and are extremely easy to find, though I did have two glitch and not activate. The Kilroys are harder to find and I would recommend using a guide as they are in weird places that you would not normally go to continue the missions. 4 achievements are for playing a certain number of days or playing on a certain day of the year (sept 17th) which add up to the remaining 225 points. However I finished the game in a day and didn't really feel any desire to play again to get those achievements.
I purchased this game from Gamestop for $19.99 (unadvertised Black Friday special). I feel I got my money's worth for this price, but I would not recommend spending 60 dollars for a game that does not have much replay value. Achievement whores can get 775 points on a rental basis.
I have never played any of the previous installments of Brothers in Arms and had to find out the main character you play, Staff Sergeant Baker, is a character in the previous installments. This point is moot as you can easily follow the storyline without knowing a whole lot about his character, a nice intro movie helps that fact. As I said the storyline is topnotch, dealing with the stress that can happen to soldiers fighting for a long time in a war. The movies during and between levels are interesting and really do add to the gameplay.
The gameplay is very different than the typical Call of Duty or Medal of Honor game. It is squad based and if you think for a minute that you can run out and take all the enemies out yourself you will find out that the Casual mode is not so easy. I found this to be very refreshing for a WWII based game, since it is much more realistic. You need to effectively command your squads to eliminate multiple enemies without getting yourself or your squad killed. Unfortunately your squad will magically revive at different points throughout the levels, which takes away some of the realism.
The squad AI is in turns wonderful and terrible. It is wonderful when you are not directly commanding your squad, when they are following you, or sitting at a place you ordered them to go. As soon as the enemy starts firing, they take cover and fire back. The downside is when you command them (which is primary to the gameplay) it is glitchy sometimes. If you order your squad to go up closer to the combat and take cover, they don't always take the most direct (and safest) path, and sometimes they will take "cover" in an area that they can easily be shot. One of the other plus sides to the game is that much of the cover is destructable. Enemies behind a sandbag cover? Simply use your bazookas to take out the sandbags (also happens to be an achievement).
All in all the single player mode was challenging and fun, although it felt a bit short. On casual mode it would take most gamers between 6-12 hours (I finished it in 7). Once you beat it in either available mode, you unlock an ultra realistic mode where you don't have crosshairs or radar to make the war feel much more real.
The sound was also very good, the orchestra music adding to the feel of a war movie. Though the dialouge outside of the cutscenes seemed a little glitchy as well. It does have mature language, but in a great move you can turn this off. I was able to play it in front of my 8 year old with no f-bombs being spouted off.
As much good can be said about the single player, equally as much can be said bad about the multiplayer. The graphics look downplayed so you can have up to 20 people playing at one time, you only have a handful of maps to choose from, and your only real gameplay mode is a territory like capture the flag to which you can either capture the flag or kill all the enemies on the other team. I did enjoy the fact that during each round you do not respawn, making tactics and using cover much more important. Good luck finding people to play with though due to a bonehead move of making all mutliplayer achievements worth 0 points. Though it might have been wisdom due to the lack of options in multiplayer, it gets boring very quickly.
All in all the game was good, but not great. The wonderful storyline was brought down by weak multiplayer and a fair amount of game glitches.
As for the achievement whores this is the breakdown - You can get 775 achievement points for playing through once in single player mode. A handful of achievements are for finding Recon points and Kilroys. The Recon points are clearly marked on your map (not on your radar) and are extremely easy to find, though I did have two glitch and not activate. The Kilroys are harder to find and I would recommend using a guide as they are in weird places that you would not normally go to continue the missions. 4 achievements are for playing a certain number of days or playing on a certain day of the year (sept 17th) which add up to the remaining 225 points. However I finished the game in a day and didn't really feel any desire to play again to get those achievements.
I purchased this game from Gamestop for $19.99 (unadvertised Black Friday special). I feel I got my money's worth for this price, but I would not recommend spending 60 dollars for a game that does not have much replay value. Achievement whores can get 775 points on a rental basis.
