The PC console port of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (BIA:RTH30) is yet another in a seemingly endless line of World War II-based first-person shooters (no bad thing, I love the genre) but at least BIA takes the tiring concept further by making squad tactics an integral part of the game play.While not the first squadbased shooter, Brothers in Arms does it properly unlike other games that have failed. You’re able to control up to two squads at any time, usually one a firing group equipped with rifles that is used to suppress the enemy by keeping up a volley of bullets, and the second an attack group armed with machine guns and grenades for flanking and eliminating the suppressed soldiers.You can also order your squads to risk everything, and assault directly.Tags over enemy posts and soldiers show the level of suppression each is experiencing, as well as giving an indication of when you can expect them to return fire, or burst forth.The control is simple.While you have your usual WASD configuration for movement, you use the left shift key for toggling and recalling squads. Holding down the right mouse button gives you a movable ground-based target which conforms to the terrain as you mouse-look, and lets you select when the squad should move to next. It’s simple and intuitive, and it helps you against some cunning enemy AI. A handy, but not very expansive, situational view gives you the chance to pause the game and check your unit’s health and positions before recommencing combat.
The gameplay is excellent, the graphics and audio gorgeous.Told in flashback, the first thirty seconds of the game immerses you in the brutality of the war in an in-your-face fashion. Heed the game’s classification though, as there’s a fair bit of swearing involved. Further immersion comes from the fact that the game (set in Normandy with the famous pre-D-Day paratrooper drops) is based on the true story of Sgt. Matt Baker a member of the 101st Airborne Paratroopers. The single player campaign spans eight days, and many missions, although again we were disappointed at the shortness of the game.There are plenty of extras to unlock though, and the squad-based multiplayer combat is astounding.You have your own squad, plus they are paired with another player commanding a second squad.You are then pitted against a further two players controlling another two squads. It makes it a much richer experience than being paired off against the enemy AI.
Brothers in Arms is one of the finest examples of FPS and squad games in one. The graphics and audio alone are by far better than the recent Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault and the NPC mapping, storyline and action are far superior.