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Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Brothers
in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is based on a true story that is set in the
turbulent era of World War II which revolves around the famous airdrop
before the invasion at Normandy. Gamers get to play a real-life hero
called Sergeant Matt Baker who leads his men to victory behind enemy
lines. Unfortunately for Baker, not everything went according to plan
and you and some of your fellow paratroopers find yourselves way off
target and the rest of your squad. It’s time to find your way to the
rest of your brothers and kill as many Nazis along the way as possible.
Although Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 may sound like a traditional
World War 2 first person shooter, what sets Brothers in Arms: Road to
Hill 30 apart from just about every WW2 first person shooter is that
this game successfully uses squad based mechanics.
As the squad leader you have a great variety of strategy you can order
your troops to pull off. Ordering them to a specific spot on the map,
telling them who to suppress with fire and who to charge towards
requires quite a bit of strategy, after all you want your men to make it
through alive. That can be somewhat challenging though since you and
your men can only take a few hits before going down, so keep an eye on
the status of yourself and your squad. While you order your teammates to
do their business via your first person view, you are given the ability
to switch to an overhead awareness survey of the area. This shows your
positions, enemy positions and gives you ideas on where to best maneuver
your team to strategically flush out those Nazis. For a first person
shooter I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of strategy
implemented here and it really requires you to think on your feet.
You can’t leave the job of killing Germans up to your buddies though;
you have to pick up some of the work too. You are given a great supply
of authentic weapons and can pick up dropped gear as you make your way
through the game. Through the option menu you have the ability to set
use of crosshairs if you want to, it may be less realistic but it’s a
hell of a lot easier to aim with them. Otherwise you’ll have to look
down the barrel of your gun and manually line up a shot. It’s not just
the single player action that makes this game enjoyable it’s the fact
that the entire game involves you in every aspect. You have your hand in
almost everything your squad does and the sense of immersion into the
war is fantastic. Strong AI helps add to this realism and even though
many war themed games trivialize what is possibly humanities darkest
hour, Brothers in Arms does a great job of telling the inspiring true
story of Matt Baker. The in depth gameplay only adds to the story
telling in a way that is unparalleled with other WWII FPS titles.
For those gamers that have a Network Adapter, you can also bring your
wartime experience online and play in a variety of modes. Don’t be
looking for death match or capture the flag here though, you’ll find
mainly team based goals and two sides to every game. One team will play
as the Nazis and the other will be the Allied forces and you’ll each
have an objective to complete.
Graphically, Brothers in Arms looks absolutely beautiful in all aspects.
The environments are all richly detailed with a hint of realism to them,
just don’t stop and stare for too long. Looking intently at brush, road
and building will reveal a plethora of pixels, but when in motion your
surroundings are a thing of beauty. Stages vary from opened areas to
confined spaces and the balance between the two is great. The characters
each have their own personality and animate wonderfully. While shooting
one Nazis is like shooting another, your teammates each look unique and
have some great facial expressions. By the end of the game you’ll
understand the hell these guys went through and you can tell by the way
they wear it.
You’ll also be able to hear it in the sounds of their voices since
nearly every character is portrayed very well. Since he is the main
character, Baker shows the most personality and introduces each chapter
with some deep insight and reflections and by the time the game is over
you’ll feel pretty attached to him. Sound effects like gun fire and
ambient noise sound a-typical for a game like this and nothing special,
but the feeling that you are smack dab in the middle of the conflict is
very strong. Tons of gunfire, explosions and shouting in the distance
play on the tips of your ears as if taunting you for the trials up
ahead. The music is very good too with somber tunes straight out of Band
of Brothers and other war stories, featuring slow emotional scores.
In conclusion, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 will take the
professional gamers around 15-20 hours to complete and those fortunate
PS2 owners who have network adapters will be able to get added longevity
out of the title. The game supports a very engaging storyline, beautiful
graphics (even on the PlayStation 2) and some of the best game mechanics
to land on the PlayStation 2 in a long time so if you're looking for a
very cool WW2 game than this is the one to get! Check it out!
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