I just played 'Call Of Duty: Finest Hour' for the Xbox a little while ago. If you read my review of that game, you would know I wasn't impressed. I am getting sick of the WWII shooter genre and that game didn't help the cause. So when I decided to give Brothers In Arms a try, I was a bit skeptical. About a minute after I booted it up, however, I was sold and I knew I was going to be playing something different.
If you have ever seen the excellent HBO mini-series 'Band Of Brothers', you will instantly notice quite a few similarities in style to this game. I am in no way complaining, because that series was about as good as it gets. Even the music sounds the same at times. What that also means is that this game has production values coming out it's ears. It's hard to put into words, but you will notice right away how just well put together this game is.
As far as the gameplay goes, this is not your typical WWII shooter. I love directing your squads around the battlefield and the control scheme makes it so easy to do. That part of the game could have been easily messed up, so it's a joy to see that Gearbox got the controls and button mapping right. With the touch of a couple buttons, you can direct your squads to suppress the enemy, attack, or simply move to a different area. It all just seems to flow really nicely. And the game forces you to use your squad, as you cannot just run into combat Rambo-style and expect to live very long. It's a good thing that the AI of your guys is so good. They will tend to have a couple pathfinding problems here and there, but it's generally the best I have seen in a shooter.
I do like how the game follows around the same squad of soldiers. And the game takes great care to be historically accurate. The problem is that after the start of the game, the story takes a backseat. You basically go mission-to-mission and kill all Germans. I know most FPS's aren't really known for having a great storyline, as action is the most important thing in this genre. But when the game throws a supposed emotional moment at you, and you could care less because you never knew the characters real well anyways, it just doesn't have the same effect.
Add that to the repetitive nature of the game itself, the extreme difficulty of the later missions, the lack of checkpoints, and what starts off as a masterpiece of a game, turns into what feels like an act of endurance just to finish the game. A lot of the missions look the same. Either you are running through some run-down town/village or some grassy/woods type area. And while the squad gameplay is cool, it gets old after awhile. It's the same thing every single mission. You will also notice that around mission 15 or so, the difficulty gets jacked WAY up. And it's incredibly frustrating to have to re-do most of your mission because of the lack of checkpoints. If I have one pet-pieve in videogames, it's THE LACK OF SAVE POINTS. If you combine this with the high difficulty thing and the end of the game will test your patience.
Other than those complaints, the game is very good. It's very fun (especially at first) and the graphics are pretty good. Like I mentioned, the enviroments get a bit repetitive, but that's the nature of having a game in WWII. The music definately is a rip-off from 'Band Of Brothers', but like I said before, that isn't a bad thing. The voice acting is also very good. I just wish there was more of it. And after each mission you complete, you unlock some historical material about the real-life squad and other WWII stuff. It's a nice touch and adds a bit of replay value.
If you have soured on WWII shooters, like a lot of people have, I would still recommend giving this game a try. While I don't think it's the revolutionary shooter that other people are calling it, this is still the best WWII shooter I have ever played. You owe it to yourself to at least give this game a rental.
Create an Account
Member Login
