With nearly every World War 2 battle having been recreated in some game, could there be anything left for a new World War 2 FPS to reenact? In short the answer is a resounding yes. Even if you've played Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and nearly every other World War 2 first person shooter Brothers In Arms give you something new to experience that the others don't.
Storyline & Game Play
Brothers In Arms Road to Hill 30 is a squad based first person shooter from Ubi Soft and Gearbox Software that puts you in command of a squad from the the famed 101st Airborne Division. Through out the single player campaign you must, act with quickly with sometimes spur of the moment decisions and offer precise directions for your squad from ordering covering fire to an all out assault on an enemy position.
Brothers In Arms begins the night before D-Day when the 101st Airborne Division (a.k.a. Screaming Eagles) are dropped behind enemy lines. Much like the real drop, the game does a good job of showing the confusion of that first night/day as you execute a small first mission as you try to link up with members of your squad. Gearbox designed the game this way for a reason, they more or less ease you into getting accustomed to the controls and giving you a brief in game tutorial on the squad based controls and tactics. Once into a few missions you will be in change of giving orders to fire teams, assault teams, tanks and more.
The AI in the game is pretty amazing, instead of walking blindly towards an enemy, your team will use real life military maneuvers to find cover (if possible) and when fired upon, return fire. Nearly everything is within your control and based on your orders. You can order suppressing fire, which they will continue to provide if needed, order an all out assault on a position, fall back and many other. The controls for all of these commands are fairly simple once you have had a few practice runs, be prepared, however, to accidentally mix them up once and a while and order an assault when you want suppressing fire! The enemy AI is also excellent, enemy units react to both your actions and movements, flaking is the best option but be careful of a German moving to counter your flanking position.
To help you in maneuvering around the battlefield and looking for the best position to assault or flank Brothers In Arms offers what's called "Situational Awareness". This is meant to be the equivalent to having reconnaissance maps, at any point in a mission you can enter "Situational Awareness" and you are immediately taken to a top down view of the battlefield. From here you are able to scroll through your position and known enemy positions looking for the best cover, assault path, or flanking path. Exiting "Situational Awareness" puts you right back in the heat of combat with a little better feel for your surroundings.
The storyline for the single player portion of Brothers In Arms is based on a true story with you taking on the role of Matt Baker a real life sergeant of the 101st Airborne Division. The 17 chapters closely follow the missions and engagements of the 101st from the night time D-Day paratrooper drop on. Each of the chapters is prefaced by a short monolog from Baker's character and then goes right into the action of the battlefield. Brothers In Arms also has a great cinematic feel to it and can almost be referred to as the "Band of Brothers" video game.
Multiplayer Brothers In Arms keeps many of the same aspects found in the single player version, Situational Awareness, squad/team based, orders and more. It allows games to be played online for two to four players on 10 objective based maps. You're never out of the battle, respawning occurs only when your entire team has been eliminated. and the multiplayer mission ends when one team has completed the objective.
