Brothers in Arms Preview

By Jason Ocampo, GameSpotPosted Apr 19, 2004 5:47 pm PT

This upcoming first-person shooter will attempt to simulate what it was like to be fighting World War II with only a small band of soldiers as backup.

It's no secret that first-person shooters are among the most popular of genres, and that some of the most popular first-person shooters are World War II-based games such as the Medal of Honor series, Battlefield 1942, and Call of Duty. What all these games have in common is that they combine intense combat with a strong sense of immersion to make it really feel like you're running around the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. Now developer Gearbox is readying its own World War II game, Brothers in Arms--a game that will model what it's like to be stuck in the war with only a few good men (and a whole bunch of enemies).

The game will re-create the real-life battles of a squad of paratroops during D-Day.

Gearbox has a long track record of developing ports of other developers' games. Brothers in Arms will be the company's first original product, something that the folks at Gearbox have been working on for more than three years. According to Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, what will differentiate Brothers in Arms from other first-person shooters is its historical authenticity and, more importantly, a gameplay system that will put you in the role of a squad leader giving orders to your men in battle. You'll command men who act and behave like real soldiers--they employ proper tactics and procedures in combat--but it'll be up to you to lead them to victory.

As Pitchford explained, the team wanted to get away from the standard gameplay found in most first-person shooters in which the player's job is merely to react to the presence of the enemy. In those games, you usually run around a level until you stumble on some bad guys--then you just shoot them. In Brothers in Arms, your job will be to think much more proactively; in essence, you'll need to evaluate the battlefield as a real squad leader would and then direct your fire teams to maximize their effectiveness. Or, as the US Army describes it, you'll have to use the "four F's": find the enemy, fix the enemy in position with suppression fire, flank the enemy, and then finish the enemy off.

As a squad leader, you'll command up to two fire teams, each of which can consist of up to three soldiers. Army doctrine dictates that one fire team serves as the assault element; these soldiers are armed mainly with submachine guns and grenades, and their job is to close with and destroy the enemy. The other fire team serves as the base-of-fire element; armed with heavier weapons like Browning automatics, these soldiers provide suppressing fire to keep the enemy pinned down while the assault team maneuvers to flank them. The Army calls this tactic "fire and maneuver," and it's been the cornerstone of infantry operations for decades. In Brothers in Arms, you'll use it against your enemies, and they'll use it against you.

Pitchford demonstrated this tactic to us using the Xbox version of the game. He led his men along a road to the strategically critical French town of Carentan. A blocking force of Germans was detected, and the soldiers in the US base-of-fire squad automatically opened fire to suppress the enemy. These soldiers fired from cover using alternating fire, taking turns firing and reloading to ensure a steady stream of fire. Pitchford directed one fire team to maintain suppressing fire, while he ordered the other team to follow him on a flanking maneuver around a farm. However, as they swung around the farmhouse they stumbled upon a group of Germans attempting to maneuver on them, and a second firefight erupted in the field.

In addition to fighting, you'll need to direct the actions of your fire teams.

It may sound complicated, but you'll be able to control fire teams relatively easily. In the Xbox version, the controls are similar to those used for other first-person shooters, such as Halo. The thumbsticks control your movement and your direction, while the black button alternates between weapons, and the right trigger is used to fire. The white button will switch between which fire team you're giving orders to, and the left trigger will summon a context-sensitive icon that will let you give different commands to a fire team with just one press--similar to the system in Interactive's Freedom Fighters. If you place the icon on the enemy, your fire team will be ordered to attack that enemy. If you place the icon on a door, the fire team will charge the doorway. And if you place it on a location, the fire team will advance to that point and look for cover.

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