Hell's Highway is lacking as a sequel- but on its own, it has a well-built single player experience that is worth trying
The story in Hell's Highway does not cling to historical accuracy as much as the first few games in the series- which literally had pictures of maps taken from that time and place and designed into levels- but it does so in return for a more engrossing story with a few new interesting characters. If you are starting out with Hell's Highway, you will be filled in completely from the start of the game with about 5-8 minutes of cutscenes that bring players up to speed on what has happened prior to the game's start.
The conflict is more man vs self than anything, as you play as Sgt. Matt Baker, who is mentally suffering from the traumatic events of the first two games (which are explained in the previously mentioned scenes). The story deserves a great deal of credit for unmatched character development- that is, the characters change as the story goes along- based on their experiences. The character ark of Sgt. Baker, and his good friend, Sgt. "Red" Hartsock is very intriguing and makes the overall plot feel more mature rather than like a cheap action movie. Despite the introduction, playing the previous games is still vital to understanding some mixed relationships between characters that are not fully explained- but become important parts of the conflict later on...
The gameplay has gone through some major changes here- a new health system, a new cover system, and new aiming system. Health is done similar to the regenerative method- that is; taking 5 bullets to the chest, than magically healing after staying in cover for several seconds. Brothers in Arms takes a more realistic approach to this system. When you are exposed to danger, your screen will start to turn red at a rate proportional to the amount of danger you are in (for example: how close you are to a soldier firing at you)- all while you never see bullets hitting you, unless the screen turns fully red, and Baker is instantly killed by the next shot. This system keeps things somewhat realistic- while not as frustratingly difficult as never being able to heal once you've started a level. You see and shoot via first person- but you change to third person upon taking cover. The cover system allows you to more easily issue commands to your squad without exposing yourself to danger, but when this system is combined with the new health system players may find that the game has lost much of its challenge, which is disappointing even knowing that the frustration over the first few game's hard difficulty are gone with it.
Squad commands are still the essential part of gameplay here. Your squad is as smart as ever, always finding cover for themselves if they are anywhere nearby when the bullets start flying. They'll still sometimes take stupid routes to the destination you've commanded them to go, however. It can make for some frustrating moments where you'll be insulting the characters on the television screen for running in front of MG fire instead of behind the trees to get to cover- but should this happen, your squad will be revived next checkpoint. Your squad-mates magically getting back up from a bullet wound is certainly distracting given the series reputation for a strict adherence to realism- but given the sometimes foolish AI, it can at times be a relief.
Combat is as much a "combat puzzle" as it was in the first game. You can pick off enemies if you'd like, but the fastest way is to use your squad to "find em', fix em', flank em', and finish them. You can order your squad to lay down suppressive fire, and than use part of your squad to flank, while the other half keeps the enemy hiding in cover. Its a very simple tactic that was used over and over in the first game- and you'll use it often here, checking you map for the best places for a squad to suppress or flank. As the game progresses however, it's not that easy, and you'll be glad to have squads that can use weapons like grenades, rockets, and machine gun's, which are specifically geared towards a task intended to have the player use every group of soldiers for their intended purpose. Thanks to these new weapons, squads are much more effective at taking down Germans, and the player will no longer have to constantly make up for the AI's shortcomings. Still, players will want to turn up the difficulty, as a result- since all these new gameplay factors contribute to make this game more easy than it should be at times.
To mix things up, there are a few solo sequences scattered around, will baker will go it alone. These sequences take strategy out of the game almost completely, but fortunately, they don't last long. There are some tank sequences- but they are well placed, and it's a nice change of pace to go from having to strategically position several squads of men to pick of a few germans, to just blowing through wave after wave of enemies in a tank.
Graphics are very good. Characters and animations look realistic, but there is a noticeable lack of polish. Foliage isn't as well detailed as it should be, cut-scenes are soured by texture pop-in, and there's the occasional issue with the frame-rate. To add to this, there are some noticeable omissions in character animations, like the movement of your gun when you issue an order- it is taken off the screen and put back on so fast when backer waves his hand to signal his squad that it hardly looks realistic. Also, when you're dug in cover and issuing a command from the third person perspective- Baker yells out the command to his squad, but his lips don't move. These problems add up just enough to become noticeable. Cut scenes could have been done better in terms of polish and reducing pop-in, but some are so emotionally charged that its hard to notice these aesthetic shortcomings.
The sound is brilliant. In Brothers in Arms, every gunshot sound comes off crisp- and actually sound adequately different given the specific gun you're using. There's always a gunshot being fired- it's fair to say that only about 1 percent of the gunshots you'll hear, will actually be coming from your gun. Voice acting is still top notch- every line is spoken with appropriate emotion and sounds purposeful. Among Sgt. Baker's voice are the yells of your own squad-mates that are appropriate for the given situation, as well as the germans yelling at you in their native language. You'll feel immersed given the shots and shouts all around you during any given firefight.
The campaign should clock in around 8-9 hours- but it's not entirely linear because of the strategic nature of combat, which allows the player to go back and try different strategies, flanking spots, suppressing positions etc, in previously completed levels. After the single player campaign, there is a noticeable void. Multiplayer is not as strong as in previous games- swapping out players leading AI controlled squads against each other in objective based missions- to more standard affair territories and other objectives without the use of AI controlled squads. Instead players are expected to work according to their given role in the squad which makes up the team- finding such cooperation, especially with very laggy gameplay, is difficult. There is no split-screen or online cooperative whatsoever as was the case in the previous installment "Earned in Blood". There's little special about the game, other than the single player portion- but the amount of effort put into making that experience the highlight of the game shows.
Hell's Highway is a good game- but obviously stands in the shadow of its predecessors in the series. You'll get the same package, but easier too shallow. Players who are especially interested in the story so far will be rewarded with yet another exciting plot in the franchise, so for those at least, it is a shallow experience thats worth having a few times.