14 DAY TRIAL // Having just received the review copy for Ubisoft's new squad-based World War II shooter, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, we were very excited to test it out. Based on Operation Market Garden, one of the most ambitious ones from the whole World War II, the game puts you again in the shoes of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker, veteran of the Normandy landing, who was the main character in the first game of the series, BiA: Road to Hill 30.
The game is very well balanced and promises to bring back the authentic feel of World War II, especially the emotional conditions in which the soldiers fought their battles. Created by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft, the game is available in stores since September 23 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and since October 7 for the PC. Here's my one hour spent with BiA: Hell's Highway.
15:00 I start up the game and watch the very long cinematic intro and beginning cutscenes.
15:10 At long last the in-game rendered cutscenes end and the game looks really beautiful with the Unreal Engine 3 giving stunning visuals yet again. Matt Baker is put in another difficult situation.
15:20 The tutorial part of the game is now over, the dig-in, or cover system, is quite useful and the weapons are very accurate, as opposed to the ones from previous games.
15:30 After another lengthy and confusing cutscene, involving the life of the soldiers a day before the start of Operation Market Garden, I am now placed in control of a squad.
15:35 The squad commands are pretty intuitive, although the use of the right mouse button to issue them is confusing at first, as most shooters have the zoom function of the weapon bound to it.
15:40 The first Germans are dead now, the squad does its job of suppressing the enemies, but you have to deal the finishing blows most of the time.
15:50 The Recon points and the reports that come with them are very nice, especially for people who are passionate about history and the WWII. We must now clear the landing zone of a US glider from the Germans.
16:00 Mission accomplished but there's no rest in this war. Our next task is to take down one of the many 88 mm cannons placed by the Germans across the territory of the Netherlands.
All in all, a pretty pleasant experience, with the game managing to bring a couple of interesting things to the very saturated WWII shooter market. Keep an eye open for our review at the beginning of next week.