Although it's not the best World War II shooter out there, it's quite honestly the most realistic.
User Rating: 8.6 | Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 XBOX
World War II was one of the most important wars in the U.S. It was a truly a very constituent war in which many people had lost their lives. It was a horror back then, and for some, it's still a horror to remember even to this day. Important events during World War II like D-Day, Battle of Iwo Jima, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are all remembered to this day. They can't be forgotten, and most likely, they never will. Now to this day, lots of things portray the events and everything else about World War II, such as books, movies, and of course, videogames. Games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty do a great job on describing the information on the war, as well as letting you actually play the game to get a somewhat distinct feel on World War II. They take you through battles, events, and such so they can keep the gamer interested. But now, to this day, there are so many World War II shooting games out it's almost ridiculous. While some games can stand tall by themselves, most of them just come out as disappointments and perishes into the market pretty much never to be seen again. Well, can this be said about Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30? Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is based on the real-life occurrences of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during an eight day period of the invasion of Normandy in 1944. You take the role of a squad leader who is Sgt. Matt Baker, and he is a part of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. While preparing for their drop on Normandy, an artillery shell hits the plane, in which the 101st Airborne Division has to now evacuate immediately from the plane. This causes Sgt. Matt Baker and his paratroopers to be scattered across the French countryside. As Sgt. Matt Baker, your main goal is to find your fellow paratroopers and bring them back to safety, while controlling your own Allied men within the process. Along the way you'll be fighting German soldiers that get in your path, whether it'd be just shooting them and killing them, or throwing grenades to kill them rather violently, the choice is up to you to decide. First off, I would like to say that Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 isn't a game for 11 or 12 year olds to play. Pretty much everything about Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is graphic and violently intense. The dialogue has some rather heinous used words that shouldn't be heard by any child. It's gets more and more graphic as you continue on, in which that'll be explained a bit later on. When you progress through the game, you'll be treated to great storytelling scenes that offers amazingly accurate locations and events, so everything you hear from the story is actually really true. Many scenes like the opening scene give you a real sense of idea of what's going on and everything like that. It's something you don't really want to miss out on. The single-player in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 spans across 20 missions, that follow the eight-day span from June 6 to June 14, 1944. The first few missions or so will serve as a tutorial on the game, giving you information on the controls and things like that. Soon afterward, though, you'll be ready for action as the game will put you in the action pretty quickly after the tutorial. The campaign offers an auto-save feature, which, obviously, allows you to continue progress from that last save point. During the campaign, you'll unlock Chapters along the way, and they can easily be accessible and playable after you have completed the chapter. At the beginning when you first pop in the disc, you'll be treated to 3 available difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Difficult. Upon defeating Difficult, you'll unlock an Authentic mode, which pretty obviously makes the game harder. Authentic mode might be more frustrating than fun for some, but many will probably forgive this and just play it anyway. The control scheme for Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is kind of similar to Halo's control scheme, but with quite a few differences. Rather than use similar systems like in Rainbow Six 3, Brothers in Arms uses a hybrid style that slightly resembles that of Full Spectrum Warrior. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 will also be using the D-pad, obviously, to be able to control your squad mates. The suppressing indicator is also similar to that of Full Spectrum Warrior in that it displays the current suppression level of enemy units; red designates a threat, grey means an enemy is pinned down. The control scheme for Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 isn't too difficult than Full Spectrum Warrior, so if you played and/or mastered Full Spectrum Warrior, you'll feel a bit more at home with Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. As for newcomers, it'll take a few tries to get used to the controls, as they are somewhat confusing, but soon enough you'll be able to get the hang of it. Soon enough Matt Baker will be able to take charge of up to two different teams simultaneously. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 pretty much requires you heavily to flank the opposition with flank maneuvers and things like that. If any of your team members gets killed, they'll somehow appear back at the beginning of another mission. This might cause you to be a bit more careless about giving orders since you know they'll come back from the dead anyways. As for your teams, they are both better suited for one of both; either having one team being able to suppress, and the other being able to flank the enemy. You'll also be able to command a tank unit during the game as well. Within Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, there is a "Situational Awareness" mode, which can be used by pressing the Back button. This little nice feature that allows you to evaluate the current situation more closely and accurately. Situational Awareness allows you to see a bird or blimp view of aerial maps and photos, which should be your current location. This feature will also indicate where your squad mates and enemies are (if you have already met them prior). Don't worry, because when you use Situational Awareness mode, the game is paused so you can study the areas of interest, your tactics, and other important things for that matter. You really have to get used to this feature, because you really can't go far without this mode. What I really didn't like about Situational Awareness mode is that it really detracts from the intense firefights and it pretty much slows you down in terms of getting where you need to go. It's kind of handy when your facing a bunch of German soldiers, but as intense as it is, it just slows down the gameplay and ultimately turns it into a planning game which takes up a lot of time. I actually didn't mind this mode, but since it'll be used more than often, and the fact that you really need to use this mode a lot to succeed, it doesn't come out as flawless as it should have been. The A.I. in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is quite good, especially on difficult. They will take cover, they will try to avoid grenades, they will try to kill you with everything they've got, and plenty of other nifty neat things. Although I kind of expected it to be a bit more challenging, the A.I. here will provide a challenge for some. As for the multi-player modes available in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, it's quite a bit more different than the regular FPS modes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, etc. Instead, the multi-player modes are objective based, which means a bit of teamwork, if not, a lot of it. Two to four players can able to join the game with XBOX Live, and offline, only 2 players can able to play. I was really quite disappointed that there was absolutely no co-op in this game, and two people planning on what to do next is better than one. There are a total of 10 maps available, and each one has a specific mission-based objective that you must complete. Some of these objectives might be destroying a bridge, giving out orders, and other missions that could also be found in the single-player campaign. But of course, it's not as linear as it seems. You might have to collect things in order to actually complete the objective. For example, as for destroying the bridge, you need to collect the explosives, plant them, and destroy the bridge. Most of these objectives have already been done before, but as realistic as Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, it's a nice, but not superb, touch. There is only a max of 4 players that can play via XBOX Live, which means that A.I. soldiers will be in the combat as well. The A.I. acts just like they do in the campaign, and you'll be able to control them as well, so it's a test of who's got the better strategy and planning, not a test of who can frag the most. It's a nice step towards a "not-so-known" direction, so you might actually have a bit of fun on XBOX Live. There are also quite a bit of issues with the framerate, as sometimes it stutters here and there, and thus making the game a little big laggy. If you're more into the heavy intense action, the lag might slip away unnoticed for you, but at times it does give you a little annoying and 'adhesive' experience. Visually, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is good...not great, not superb, but good. The backgrounds of each level do look well-done and the gritty violence as well, but everything else feels like it had been slapped together rather quickly. Soldier models, for instance, just pretty much look like any other soldier model. Sure, these are real people, but graphic-wise and close up, they don't look all too good. Weapon models do look good, but since they are real combat used weapons in World War II, they could of looked better. Clipping issues are found a bit throughout the game, which can sometimes give you the advantage. The blood and violence and limbs being blown off and whatnot, have their clingy sense of feel. Soldiers are ripped apart, legs are blown off when you throw a grenade under a German's foot, and all that rather gritty stuff. It all looks very realistic, and extremely well-done. You haven't seen a realistic war game like this, and it seems a bunch of work was put into this visual portion of the game, and it came out great. The audio and sound of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is quite stunning, to say the least. Voice-acting in this game is edgy with plenty of slang and obscenities to keep with the realistic presentation. Also hearing the ambient sounds of guns blazing from far away, bombs exploding from a far away distance truly give it a more realistic feel, and if you have Surround Sound, you're in for probably the BEST treat of the year from Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, sound and audio-wise. There are a few hiccups here and there, and the repetitive lines from the battlefield can really get on your nerves after a bit. Weapon sound effects are also well-done. They were meant to give you the ultra realistic sound of what that weapon sounded like back in the days of World War II, and it hasn't failed. Once again, if you have Surround Sound, get ready for a nice treat that will shock you when you play this game. Other things like explosions from nearby are also done well with great endeavor. Multi-player via offline or XBOX Live can become tedious for those who really don't like objective based multi-player missions, but for those searching for something different, you can have some fun here. There is occassional lag on XBOX Live and the framerate isn't steady especially in huge battles, but you still might be able to enjoy Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30's multi-player features well enough to play again. What makes Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 a great game is that it achieves things that other war games couldn't. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 strives for realism, and it hit the nail on the head with it. Many people might think of this game as another World War II shooter - but it's not. It's more than that, and that's the real huge thing with this game. A few gameplay and graphic problems do hold it back as being the best World War II shooter out there but where the main concept lands, it lands hard on the target. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 gives you basically everything you ever wanted in a realistic World War II shooter game. Although it's not the best World War II shooter out there, it's quite honestly the most realistic. If you are looking for a great World War II shooter that strives for pure realism, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 offers exactly that.
