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Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 Preview

Writer: Jason Eder
Posted: 18th Jan, 2005

Publisher: Ubisoft
Website: http://www.Ubisoft.com The consoles have, admittedly, been doing badly in terms of war-based First-Person Shooters recently. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun was deemed average, as was the recently-released Call of Duty: Finest Hour, which initially looked very promising considering the success of its PC predecessors. There has been a light at the end of the tunnel, though; for months now, information, screenshots and movies of the upcoming World War II First-Person Shooter Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 have been circulating and generating interest.

Focusing on the third squad of the third platoon of the American 502 Paratroopers during the invasion of Normandy, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 takes place across twenty or so missions in which you’ll plough through various locales rescuing comrades and eliminating enemy forces. These locales have been created from their real-life counterparts; developer Gearbox Software built them from the ground up according to thousands of photographs that the team took. Expect only minor alterations; various walls, plants and the like had to be substituted, of course.

Throughout the game you’ll play as your squad’s leader, meaning you will, of course, have to issue various commands to your squad. This plays a large part in the game; after all, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is a tactical First-Person Shooter, despite the fact that it still manages to keep the adrenaline levels high with action-packed scenes every few seconds. Commands are issued via a simplistic context-sensitive system; all you need to do is tell your team to move to any area and they will do whatever is necessary to complete the mission or survive, scouting for nearby cover and taking note of enemy positions. Through this, you’re able to have all or some of your team suppressing the enemy while you flank them and take them out – this is, ultimately, the way every fire fight in the game is supposed to be handled as it was a key tactic for the paratroopers in World War II, and Gearbox Software has developed the game to be authentic as possible – and it’s looking that way, too.

Adding to the game’s tactical edge is a series of icons that appear at various points above your enemy’s head. These small, coloured circles let you know whether the enemy is suppressed or not, so that you can get a good idea of when you should be flanking them. In addition, the game features a tool known as the Situational Awareness View. With the tap of a button, gameplay freezes and your view swings overhead, allowing you to survey the area, evaluate flanking paths and view the exact positions of your enemies. The icons can be switched off in the options, though, so don’t worry about being stuck with them if you think they will detract from the game’s realism.

While the game has a tactical side to it, the way it’s played and seen is just like any other First-Person Shooter. You have (continued next page)