Everything a WWII game should be.
A lot of things I would have liked to have seen that weren't in the previous 2 games have made it here, the most obvious being the new 'dig in' cover system, which I suppose is similar to that of Gears Of War. You can now take cover against objects or walls etc and easily pop up and fire off a few rounds, then take cover again. When using this system, the view switches from 1st person to 3rd person, which makes the system a whole lot easier to use.
This does however make the game easier than before. In the previous games the whole thing was set in 1st person view and you couldn't lean around corners or pop up in the same way as here etc. The use of weapon iron sights won't come up much here because you'll fight in the dig in system for the most part. Even so, fighting in the new mode is good fun, and it's a change from the predecessors.
A lot of scenery is destructable, meaning you can hide behind a simple wooden fence and be perfectly safe. This makes the game more tactical and also look a hell of a lot more realistic since objects around you are being blown up rather than remaining static like before.
Squad commands will return pretty much the same as before. However, I feel that because of the dig in system, you'll often forget about your squad and fight solo because fighting is easier. When playing on easy, you can get through most of the game without your squad, but on the harder settings everything is the way it should be. Both your men and the Germans have good AI, and will always take cover or move to safer positions. The weapons are everything you'd expect- Garands, Thompsons, K98s etc. They handle well too, although snipers are a bit too good.
The series' story has improved a lot, cut scenes and voice acting are one of the strongest points about Hell's Highway. Animation is really great, and the story line features plenty of interesting stuff and twists etc. Most of the characters from the other BIA games return, and also some new characters replacing old ones.
The graphics are great if your PC is powerful enough. The game is powered by the UT3 engine. The cut scenes, as i've said are probably the most impressive thing here visually, but the missions do look like war-torn Europe. There are some cinematic slow-mo gore moments when you make a headshot on an enemy hiding or when you throw a grenade etc which does look cool, but at the same time can be annoying when several Nazis are all firing at you at the same time. There are better looking games out there obviously, but this is probably the best looking WWII game out there, in my opinion it surpasses COD. The sound is excellent too, the voice acting is great as i've already said, and the weapons sound like they should.
This game entertained the hell out of me, and is definitely on par with COD or MOH Airbourne in terms of single-player. As far as story lines and cut scenes go, this beats any other WWII game out there. It's not perfect, but it feels like a WWII film, and the combat is an improvement over previous installments. Hell's Highway was definitely worth the wait for me.