Well, after about 3 years of previews, developer demos and anticipation, Brother's in Arms: Hells Highway is out and I've been playing it for over a week now. Back in the day, this game was #1 on my list of anticipated games. Every delay killed my anticipation a bit, so by the time it was released 2 weeks ago, while I was happy it was out, it was more like a sigh of relief than anything else. Anyway, on to my impressions.
I beat the game this past weekend. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I feel a bit cheated by Gearbox. The game did not live up to the expectations they themselves set by showing the game in what appeared to have been "playable" form in their many developer walktrhoughs, and pointing out and highlighting certain aspects of the game that did not make the final version. Turns out those playable demos were kinda bogus and extremely scripted. I have no problem with a developer having to show a scripted demo of their game early on, but don't intentionally point out items in those demos to get your fans excited when you know you are probably not going to be able pull it off in the end.
So, what does the game do right?
- Commanding your squad is still a smooth affair. By holding down the left trigger you can send your squad to any location or ask them to attack a group of enemies. Quick and simple. Your squad is aware of what is going on so they will whisper and sneak around when appropriate or hustle when in a fire fight.
- The atmosphere of the game is very effective. The music, sound effects, ambient noise, and locations do a great job of transporting you to the time period.
- The game is fun to play. Its squad-based mechanics separate it from the million other WWII shooters and the fact that you cannot "run n' gun" only benefits the game.
Negatives:
- Visually the game does not hold up to today's games. If this would have been a launch game it would have faired better in the visual department. Some things look good, but overall it is dated.
- Your squad can still be extremely stupid at times, taking terrible routes to their destinations, often putting themselves in harms way when they could have easily avoided it. They don't do a good enough job of taking care of themselves unless you give them an order.
- Why can't you still not go prone in this series?
- Enemy AI is weak. They find their cover and they will stay there for eternity if you let them. If you flank them they will try to move to new cover, but they are always in "defense mode" and they never advance and are never aggressive, even if they out number you. Gives the game a bit of an artificial feel.
- Another thing that gives the game an artificial feel is that enemies are never just wandering around the maps, they are triggered by events or when you cross a certain invisible boundary. This is similar to Gears of War. All the skirmishes come off at pre-determined and it does not give a very natural feel to the encounters.
The maps can be pretty large, but I would really like for this series to open up the gameplay by giving you greater freedom of how to reach your objective and allowing you to pick and choose your combat spots by having enemies patrolling a map, instead of being triggered by your presence in an area. As is, all the battles are basically a "puzzle" that you need to solve, since all the cover placement and enemy locations have been carefully chosen by the developer. That can be fun for a while, but ultimately it kills the immersion and replay value.
Not to spoil anything, but it looks like a sequel will be coming eventually. I hope now that Gearbox has the foundation set for next-gen BiA, they spend the majority of their time tweaking the engine for optimal performance and really look at opening up the gameplay to make it more organic and dynamic and not as scripted and linear.
Overall, I give the game a 7.5
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