Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway Hands-on Preview

When you broach the subject of there being too many WWII themed first-person-shooters, the eternally enthusiastic Gearbox CEO and President Randy Pitchford has a quick and snappy retort. ‘How many can you name?’ demands the Hell’s Highway lead with a wry smile. It’s at that point you think to yourself how easy it’s going to be to answer. We’ve all read the articles and interviews and forums posts, and we all know it’s a fact: there are too many WWII shooters.

Then you start to answer. Randy has an incredible ability to make seconds feel like hours, and as he beams back at you your argument starts to crack. It’s easy to name Medal of Honor, and Brothers in Arms of course. Call of Duty’s off the list since its change of theme, and already you’re scraping the barrel. Hour of Victory maybe, but that barely warrants a mention. Of course there are others, but Randy has a point. Firstly, plenty of other themes like sci-fi escape the same criticism, when there are probably a dozen alien blasting shooters for every one military one. Secondly, series like CoD, MoH and BiA are generally absolutely brilliant. It’s then you start to realise that the actual fact we should all realise is ‘there’s plenty of room for more good WWII first-person shooters’.

It’s that kind of thinking that seems to form one of the cornerstones of Hell’s Highway’s development. Brothers in Arms doesn’t want to try any naff twists, or feel the pressure to change its setting, and though there are plenty of new features it’s not pursuing reinvention of the genre. Instead, it just wants to make the WWII FPS better; more immersive, more atmospheric, and rammed full of far more action, and why the hell not?

Sitting down to play Hell’s Highway for the first time, it really does feel slick. Of course final code doesn’t yet exist, so there was the occasional bug and glitch, but on the whole it seems like the new Brothers in Arms is smooth, responsive, and packed with neat ideas.

Initially, as you sit down to face your enemies, and ready your trigger finger to pour lead into hordes of deserving Nazis, it’s easy to get excited about the most obvious enhancements. The destructible scenery really is quite staggering, and far improves on the thoroughly workable model in CoD 4. Objects splinter and collapse with wonderful realism, and it really does feel like every surface behaves differently under fire.

Visually, the game is immediately impressive too. The cut scenes have a genuine filmic feel about them, and the character animation and voice acting is truly striking. It’s easy to get genuinely drawn into the drama as it unfolds on-screen, perhaps thanks to appearances by the likes of cast members from hit TV show Band of Brothers. Rendered in full HD, without any upscaling, in game the graphics are very solid, and the lighting is notable for its quality, but it is the more subtle improvements that actually make a real difference when you finally have a controller or mouse in your hand.

The enemy AI for example, currently feels superb, but like so many of the signs of a good game, it impresses because you don’t notice it. While your conniving rivals aren’t utterly brain-dead, neither are they blessed with the abilities of a Black Ops specialist. Let’s face it, being gamers most of us like to spend a lot of time in comfy chairs, which means if we were faced with realistic rivals we’d probably be the first to fall to the floor clutching a bullet wound and looking meekly into a comrade’s eyes as we slipped away into the darkness, muttering our last words. In Hell’s Highway, though, you feel constantly challenged, and really have to second-guess your enemies, but at the same time the AI is balanced enough to let you feel like a bit of an action movie hero, leading a squad through death defying skirmishes and outwitting those dastardly Nazis.

The fighting itself is centred on the famous Operation Market Garden; a long running battle that is stalwart of video games and cinema, but that many of us know very little about. Essentially you must help to hold open a corridor of highway for a number of days to let allies pass through, holding off perhaps the most sustained and intense German force of the war. While it may seem absurd to focus so much energy on just one battle, it does give the game more of a purpose than is usually achieved by a game model that carelessly hops from one famous operation to another, and it goes a certain way towards making you care a little more about the troops under your command. Whether it will make the game repetitive is yet to be apparent, but there’s a small chance that may happen.

Of course, Gearbox’s obsessive persuasion towards historical accuracy returns.. Here, apparently, allies and characters look as they did in real life. Villages and courtyards are accurately represented, and battles play out exactly as they did in the genuine war over half a century ago.

Other than that, much of Hell’s Highway will be familiar. A simple ‘point and place’ system allows for simple yet effective squad commands, and the brilliant suppressing fire device lets you work as a team, flanking and advancing towards your goals as you pin enemies behind walls and trees. An automatic stealth system is in place that currently works well, and a simple model for firing from cover is effectively realised.

It seems like those expecting a revolution will be disappointed, but if you have plenty of time left for the WWII FPS, then you might find Hell’s Highway to be one of the most developed examples of the genre yet released. Its theme will of course bring it plenty of undeserved criticism, but turning a blind eye to that flak, this looks like one to watch out for on its release early next year.