I used to love vanilla creme cookies. Couldn’t get enough of them. Until
one weekend about a year ago I ate an entire bag in about an hour or so. That
pretty much cured me of my obsession with those creamy devils. I couldn’t even
look at the bag any more without getting a little woozy. However about a week
ago I had one...cookie, not bag. And you know what? It was good. What does
this have to do with the PS2 game from Gearbox Software called Brothers in
Arms: Road to Hill 30 (BIA)? Simple, too much of a good thing can make you
sick but sometimes it’s worth trying again to rediscover why you liked it in
the first place. In this case, there have been way too many WWII first person
shooters to where I was getting pretty tired of them. But with Brothers in
Arms I have found new enjoyment in a saturated genre that I wasn’t sure was
possible again. Why? Read on gentle surfer and discover...
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| Your squad advances under fire. |
Brother in Arms follows the real life story of the “Screaming Eagles”, the
101st Airborne Division of the US Army. More specifically you play Sgt. Matt
Baker of the 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Fox Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The game follows Baker as he leads his troops
during the D-Day invasion. Unlike many first person games, you are almost
immediately thrown into action. The first action is actually very intense and
you quickly find yourself in a heap of trouble and it’s at this point where you
“flashback” to about a week ago and the events that lead you to your current
situation.
BIA uses cut-scenes to move the story along and the first one of you and your
guys sitting in a drop plane as all hell is breaking loose around the plane is
one of the best. It’s from here that you start the “real” game. One of the first
things for you to do is to round up your troops as you guys are pretty well
spread out. During this time is when the game teaches you how to play with
little tutorials. Nothing quite like learning by being thrown into the fire. I
have mixed feeling about this type of experience. While I do like the pacing of
learning on the fly, it can also be a bit of a hassle. I did find myself trying
to read the on-screen instructions at the same time as trying to listen to the
other characters informing me about important information. Unfortunately I often
missed both and needed to replay the whole thing. Nobody ever said war was fair.
(Oh, wait, I guess someone did...never mind.)
What makes Brothers in Arms a cut above the onslaught of other WWII games is
a couple of things. The first is a combination of story and emotional
connection. Since the basic story is taken from a true story Gearbox had a very
solid foundation to work with. A little more complicated was making the player
actually interested in what happens to his “brothers” throughout the game. This
is done by giving the characters, well, character. You get to know your brothers
and can tell differences in each. You can’t underestimate how much more powerful
a game experience is when you really care about what’s going on and the outcome
for each of the characters.
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