WW2 shooters might be old hat, but the squad tactics inject some life into this old dog.
World War 2 has been depicted in games for many years, so a shooter set in this period needs to do something different to stand out. Brothers In Arms does this by being not just a first-person shooter, but a tactical squad based game as well.
There is a lot of character development and cut scenes throughout the game, though they can be a bit disjointed. There are flashbacks, or events that appear out of order, so you are left wondering what is happening some of the time. As a newcomer to the series I'm uncertain whether previous entries will shed more light on the story. All of the characters are well realised, and during the cut scenes you do feel a connection to people who have been affected by the war, and the emotions they are dealing with. You won't find any arrogant wannabe heroes here. From the loss of friends, potentially going mad, a young soldiers misguided love and covering for friends mistakes, the story is multi-dimensional and effective, even if you are left a little puzzled early in the proceedings.
As a first person shooter, BIA : Hell's Highway is adequate. It offers a cover system, something that you must take advantage of if you want to survive. Staying out in the open will get you killed quick smart. You will have a choice of weapons and can carry 3 at a time (handgun, rifle, machine gun), and also have a handful of grenades. While standing, holding down the grenade button shows the expected landing place of the grenade which is useful; unfortunately this does not appear when you are in cover, and standing out in the open to throw a grenade can be deadly. Enemy positions are marked, so you will always know where enemies are. This might sound like it makes it easy, but becomes more complicated by the suppression system.
Enemy positions appear with a suppression circle above their positions, which start out red. Red means they are not suppressed, and if they shoot at you, they will deal significant damage. By firing towards their position, the suppression circle will change to grey. While suppressed, enemies will not fire as frequently, will do less damage if they do fire, and will take more damage. Occassionally it seems silly to be shooting an enemy that isn't supressed with your rifle and they don't fall over, but it isn't unreasonable about it either; a few good shots and they will still go down. And this is where your squads come in.
During most missions, you will be accompanied by one or more squads, comprising 2 or 3 members each. Directions on the D-Pad will select a team, and then you can hold the left trigger to bring up a reticule to direct them to either move to a certain position, fire at an enemy, or destroy a barrier if able. You squad members suffer the same fate as yourself if they stand out in the open, so you need to direct them to safety. Thankfully, if they start getting shot at, they are smart enough to find the nearest cover. They key to success is to move one team at a time, suppress any nearby enemies, then move another team forward, and try to flank enemy positions. Enemies are also pretty smart about cover as well. If they start getting fired on from 2 sides, they will try to minimise their exposure by jumping to the opposite side of a wall, or retreating to another more well-defended position. You can bring up a map of the area so you can see where enemies are, and walls and buildings are shown on the map so can plan your attack.
Missions are broken up into objectives, which are often blowing up gun emplacements or reaching certain destinations. Occassionally here the AI is a bit dumb, such as when placing a charge on a gun emplacement, your allies quite often stick around and get blown up in the blast. Any downed allies can make your job much harder, but they respawn after the next checkpoint, so your struggle usually doesn't last for long. There are a few missions where you will play solo, but the squad tactics are the games main draw and these sections feel a bit generic. There are also a few sections where you will play as commander of a tank. These sections are a bit more gung ho, but you do still have to be careful not to allow your tank commander (who mans the minigun) to get killed, and need to be watchful for other tanks. While you are on foot you will also encounter opposing tanks, which can either be dealt with by your bazooka squad (if you have one) or running up to the tank if you can flank it and placing an explosive charge on it.
There is a bit of flair when it comes to kills, as every so often when you place a killing shot the game will slow down and zoom in on the kill, showing a soldier being thrown backwards in a fountain of blood, or if you are in a tank, a sandbag wall being destroyed and soldiers being flung into the air. It happens infrequently enough that it doesn't get annoying and remains entertaining, but you can always turn it off if you prefer. The game last for several hours, and while sometimes situations can feel similar to ones you have been in before, the game is designed well enough that most of the time it feels different even if the objectives aren't terribly varied; for example, you might have different squads on different missions, and sometimes elevation plays a part as well.
Brothers In Arms : Hells Highway is a great game that delivers on its squad based tactics. While slightly convoluted, the story is good and worth sitting through the puzzling parts in the beginning. Controls are responsive, so whenever you fail you know it is your fault and you need to change up your tactics. It offers a good challenge, and is an entertaining experience all around.