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Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30


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.Image result for brothers in arms road to hill 30

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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