Fat Ninja

There’s no question that the second World War has been thoroughly pillaged for gaming content. The Medal of Honor series continues to thrive with the upcoming next-gen title, Airborne. The Outfit took an entirely new approach to exploiting the subject material. Despite this, many developers continue to keep the sub-genre of the World War II first-person shooter (FPS) alive and well. One such developer is Gearbox, whose Brothers in Arms series brought a strategic element in to play, forcing players to rely on separate units, or Fire Teams, to perform tactical advances on enemy positions.

Command & Conquer

Using actual tactics employed by U.S. forces in WWII, Brothers in Arms stressed the need to use multiple squads simultaneously to achieve victory. For instance, you would rely on one Fire Team to provide supression fire against an assigned target in order to cover the movements of you and an assault team. While this tactical element wasn’t completely unheard of (i.e. See Full Spectrum Warrior), Gearbox’s use of the feature was different for two reasons. First, it hadn’t been done in a WWII game prior to Brothers in Arms. Second, Full Spectrum Warrior was entirely third person, and you would simply assign targets to your units and watch the battle unfold; Brothers in Arms actually has you commanding in the field. As such, you would, like your men, take fire and return it. The result was a gameplay experience that required the player to be as quick of wit as they were of trigger.

It doesn’t get any more “next-gen” than this

I played the first entry in the Brothers in Arms series, The Road to Hill 30 (Hill 30), and grew quite fond of it. It was a versatile game that presented a number of challenges that I hadn’t encountered in a FPS. Level design and enemy positions were carefully calculated, meaning that completing objectives was simply not possible without the aid of your Fire Teams. To that end, effective management of your men became the very key to your survival, as well as their’s. I enjoyed the game so much that I would easily count Hill 30 as one of my Top 10 games on the original Xbox. Despite this, I never got around to playing the follow-up to Hill 30, Earned in Blood. You can thank Blizzard and World of Warcraft for that.

We’ve since jumped to the next-generation of console gaming, and, thankfully, the guys at Gearbox have tagged along, bringing with them the Brothers in Arms franchise. This time around, we have Hell’s Highway. Relating the story of the doomed Operation: Market Garden, Hell’s Highway promises to be a worthy follow-up to its predecessors. Graphically, early screenshots hint at high poly-counts, highly-detailed texturing, and incredibly realistic lighting effects. In fact, they are so incredibly polished that many question whether they were actually representative of what we can expect in-game.

However, as we build up towards what is sure to be a climactic E3, Gearbox has seen fit to start the hype-machine rolling, releasing the first bit of in-game footage from Hell’s Highway. Now, I’ll be the first to admit to my being a graphics whore of the highest order. I realize that gameplay is tantamount, but the packaging’s gotta be there too. Fortunately, Hell’s Highway looks absolutely marvelous thus far. Character animations are handled with just as much attention to detail that is found in their modeling and texturing. Environments appear to be equally well designed, lending an immersive level of tangibility.

Better Hardware, Better Game

Gameplay doesn’t seem to venture too far from the formula found in earlier iterations, however using the multiple processors, Gearbox is now looking to expand the range and number of units at your command. For example, you can direct fire from a mortar team in order to pound a fixed position, or use a bazooka team to blow a hole in the enemy’s lines. You’ll also now have three Fire Teams to direct as opposed to the two you had in Hill 30 and Earned in Blood. Also, if its predecessors are any indication, I expect Hell’s Highway’s enemy AI to expand in order to match these new capabilities.

You’ll have more men to keep alive in Hell’s Highway

While details surrounding any major changes to the gameplay mechanics are hazy, Gearbox has indicated that Hell’s Highway will change the way we perceive first-person shooters. They’ve hinted that environments will be a great deal more interactive, allowing you to vault over walls, for instance. Though this ability might not necessarily be something completely unheard of, Gearbox suggests that in addition to the impact on gameplay, the aesthetic impact of their execution will redefine the presentation of the FPS. They describe it as almost a third-person perception of a first-person perspective. That is to say, for example, when vaulting over a wall, you can actually look down and watch as you plant your hand on the top of the wall and see the animation unfold. Or, in the video link provided, you’ll notice that when your avatar goes for a grenade, he actually looks down and sees his torso and grabs a grenade off of his belt. In the past, you would never actually see your avatar’s character model or the mechanics of these sorts of actions unless you were watching someone else to do it; but Gearbox is looking to change all of that in the hopes of fully immersing us in the Hell’s Highway experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m altogether excited about the Brothers in Arms series transitioning over to the next generation. I hold Gearbox in high esteem for what they’ve achieved with their past efforts, and I expect equally great and astonishing things from them on this latest iteration. Every bit of media I’ve seen to date has done nothing but reinforce my faith in what I honestly feel is the best single-player experience in the World War II FPS sub-genre. I suspect that as we move into E3 I’ll soon be completely innundated with more eye-candy and articles to further incense my growing anticipation for Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Until then, I will just continue to wait in quiet agony.

Can I have this game yesterday?

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