There's only one way out of hell...

...and that's throught it! Or so they said in some Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway trailers. Now, I'm a huge BiA fan, because not only the franchise brought something new to the done to death WWII shooter genre, it was also one of the most realistic shooters I've ever seen, probably only surpassed by the so-real-it-hurts Operation Flashpoint (epic game!).


It also had quite a great story to it, specially the second game, so I couldn't wait to lay my hands on the next-gen sequel. Also, the first trailers were nothing short of awesome, which contributed a lot to make my enthusiasm grow even higher. So, now that I've finished it, was it that awesome? Hmm...it was a great game, no doubt about that, but I'm afraid to say they didn't exactly deliver everything they promised.

About the changes, there are a couple of new things in this game. The story, for example, is much more present than in the previous games. This game has so many cut-scenes that sometimes it seems like a MGS game or something, but they're pretty well done, so no complaints there. Also, our character suffered a pretty interesting change, from the tough, always right and secure of himself, tough guy from the first game to a pretty damaged soldier. Legget's death, in particularly, affected him way more than we thought in the previous games, and it goes to the point of him allucinating and speaking to Legget's "ghost". Interesting stuff, no doubt about that.


Gameplaywise, now we have an additional team, besides our assault and "covering fire" teams. It's the bazooka guys, and they rock! Those guys can kill an entire platoon of german soldiers with just one well placed shot, not to mention that they can blow up solid cover like sandbags (don't expect them to blow up buildings, tough). They're an invaluable asset, too bad they sometimes get too confused to navigate the map properly and end up killed...

About the cover, now more fragile things like wooden fences, barrels, etc can be destroyed by your shoots, which is always nice, but unfortunately the same amount of interaction didn't go to all the other things that should react to bullets, like the objects inside the houses for example. The last big change to the gameplay is the cover system. Now you can hide behind cover Gears of War style, and the camera changes to the third person, switching your iron sights to a pretty damn accurate white cross. Now, it's not like I'm complaining or something, but this makes the game almost too easy, and makes veteran players feel cheated since we had to endure the whole previous games with just the fucking iron sights, with which you would empty a whole fucking magazine just to kill a guy. And that was in case you got lucky...


Anyway, the tanks are back, but instead of giving it orders, now you directly control it, Call of Duty-style. Too bad the controls suck and these stages feel somewhat unfinished, but they're a pretty cool addition nonetheless and provide for a nice change of pace.

I know I've been mainly saying good things about the game, and indeed it is a good game, but the early trailers showed more. For example, in a trailer you would see a dutch citizen warning you through a window to the nazi guy hidden behing some drying blankets, after which your character shoots the guy and he falls over. That looked AWESOME! In the final game there's nothing like it. Another example, in another trailer you could explore your base, watching your soldiers relax and doing something to pass the time. According to the producers this would allow you to interact with them and feel more connected to them by seeing their "human" side, when not killing germans. In the final game there's only gameplay, action levels and cut-scenes, and nothing like that. Fuck, I kind of feel ripped off...



Still, I would recommend this game for anyone not yet bored with WWII shooters who's looking for a different take on the genre. It gets the NebachadnezzaR's seal of approval. Now, Gearbox, do better next time, will ya? (I got a feeling from the final cut-scene that there's going to be another sequel somewhere in the snow, my guess is that it will be about the battle of the bulge)