I knew it
was bound to happen when I started doing this. After a few weeks of
mediocre to good games, it finally happened. I dug one up. And this
one really, really stinks.
Yet, I am grateful. “Brothers in Arms” epitomizes why I began blogging about
games again and my feelings on the industry. A quick web search of this
game will come up with some pretty great aggregate
scores. You will see reviews where its called “brilliant” or “a
masterpiece.” But a quick look at user reviews tells a different
story. They didn’t hate the game like I did, but still there is a
significant difference when compared to critic reviews.
But why
is that? One need only look at the bottom right corner of the box to
find out. Look down there and you will see “Ubisoft” and “Gearbox.”
A-level developers and publishers. I am sure this game
would have been similarly praised had it had “Rockstar” or “EA” in that
corner. But if it didn’t, I am positive it wouldn’t have the
reputation it does. I am not one to hate on A-level developers or
publishers just because of who they are. I love Gearbox’s Borderlands. Ubisoft and EA have released plenty of great games. But this
game is just bad. The graphics are bad. The gameplay is boring. It’s
slow. It’s tedious. The AI is okay at best. It’s...just...bad.
I will
say this though, the attempt at doing something different storyline-wise
was appreciated. World War II games usually just boil down to simple
“‘Murcia good, Nazis bad” narratives. “Brothers” tries
to personalize the war experience a little more, trying to focus on the
true nature of war and how terrible it is for everyone involved.
The voice
acting is pretty good and the presentation outside the game is strong,
the instruction booklet stylized as a soldiers field manual is a nice
touch. The historical accuracy is pretty cool, the
story follows the actual mission of a real life unit and several real
historical figures appear. That was cool to see as a history buff. It
tells a good story, following Sgt. Matt Baker as he gathers his squad
members and pushes through enemy territory.
The characters are pretty well fleshed out and you really feel for them
and what they’re going through.
That’s
all well and good, but it looks and plays like absolute crap. The
graphics are one note and monotone and it all looks like a giant
mishmash of greenish-brownish nothing. Every so often, you see
a grey blob run out and shoot at you or a building, but that’s about it
for variety. Hell, the first level is so dark and washed out that I
couldn’t see a single thing. Using darkness to add challenge can work,
but it shouldn’t happen in the first level.
The characters look as terrible as the environments, especially when
compared to its contemporaries like Medal of Honor or Call of Duty. (A Note here, the PC version looks SIGNIFICANTLY better than the consoles).
The
controls aren’t the worst, but they aren’t good at all. The biggest
issue here is the delay. Aiming and shooting takes forever and its damn
near impossible to hit anything. The game appears to
be going for realism with its cover and flank mechanics, but it blows
that all to hell when you put 3-5 shots directly into a Nazi soldier and
they just shrug it off and fire back. There’s absolutely no indication
that you’ve hit your target, they don’t flinch,
they don’t bleed, you just have to hope you actually found your mark.
The
ultimate killer here is that the game is slow. Like S-L-O-W. You aim
slow. You move slow. Everything is so slow its painful. If you die,
you are looking at a five minute walk just to get back
to where you where (unless of course you die right after a check
point). I know the game is supposed to be more deliberate and tactical
than MOH or COD, but this is just too much. If the tactical gameplay
was that interesting it would help, but it usually
just boils down to telling your squad to hide and provide cover while
you attempt to S-L-O-W-L-Y flank the enemy.
I found
this game to be completely unplayable. An RPG with a story of this
quality might have been passable, but an FPS needs to have responsive
and intuitive controls and this game certainly does not.
The cover based mechanic is more annoying than entertaining and the
muddy graphics make it impossible to see. Being able to see your target
is kind of important in an FPS. Based on what I’ve seen, the PC
version looks way better, but if you are playing on
a PS2 stay far, far away from this one. Go watch “Band of Brothers” or
“Saving Private Ryan” instead.
3/10
Play this if:
You absolutely must play every World War II Game ever
You are a history buff who can tolerate lousy controls and bad graphics
You have
played through “Medal of Honor,” “Call of Duty,” “Battlefield” and all
their sequels ad nauseum and still need more World War II action.
Avoid if:
You have a life and don’t have time for it to take 20 minutes for a character to walk across the screen
You want to play a World War II game that’s actually good
You already own the box set of “Band of Brothers”
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