First Encounter
By Ben Barker
War, it's been said, is hell, but the particular hell of World War II has been a fertile battlefield for some great Xbox® games. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30™ is from publisher Ubisoft, whose track record is becoming unbeatable for hardcore Xbox Live™ greatness like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3. Developer Gearbox has included all the tactical maneuvering and strategy of Full Spectrum Warrior™, and tautly realistic (punishingly so) first-person shooter combat more in line with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3. For the intense single-player game, Gearbox painstakingly recreates a little more than a week of the war, starting with a parachute drop (first-person, natch) behind enemy lines and continuing on to the eponymous Hill 30. The stark attention to historical detail crosses into the game's XboxLive™ multiplayer component, where Road to Hill 30 focuses on mission-based action.
The, er, "music combo of male siblings."
In the single-player game, you take on the role of Sgt. Matt Baker. After a disturbing teaser that lets you pop off a few rounds at "Jerry" (and leaves Baker's ultimate fate in doubt), you flash back eight days to the harrowing drop that started it all. The opening is reminiscent, but not derivative, of the HBO series Band of Brothers, and immediately puts you in harm's way thanks to a less-than-accurate landing. You pick up the basics quickly as you first follow, then learn to give, orders to take out German positions and clear the beach (there's also an excellent narrated tutorial that gives you more background on the authentic military tactics in play). The game's difficulty quickly ramps skyward once you get the first soldier in your fire team (eventually you get two fire teams), and never lets up. It's brutal, it's tough, you get killed more than once, and it's exactly what's called for in this style of dramatic action game. Your introduction to the basic tactics that carry you through the game—suppress the enemy with one team while flanking and eliminating with the other—is very well done.
We said it was hell. But man, that's harsh.
The controls are a fluid blend of tactical squad commands and more traditional shooter elements. The strategy never gets in the way of the FPS aspect—the default controls only require a single tweak (swap the Y button for the A button) to bring them in line with the Halo®: Combat Evolved standard, and like other squad games the D-pad lets you issue general follow/stay commands. You can also get the lay of the land in a map view, explained away in terms of realism by mentioning that field commanders study the area beforehand, an explanation I'm totally fine with. After all, this is a game. By default, the X button reloads and is also the situational action button, the A button swaps weapons (you get two plus grenades), the B button initiates a melee attack, and the Y button makes you jump. The left trigger function is the biggest change from the shooter norm, as it's the squad command control and not the grenade button. Use the left trigger to move your squad to a new position (move the cursor with the right thumbstick) or hold it while you target an enemy position to move your squad in. If you pull the right trigger while holding down the left trigger and targeting the enemy, your team risks their lives storming the position. The pressures of command are not light, nor are you or your men super-soldier-cyborgs. Bullets hurt, and just a few can end your mission quickly. It makes for a tense, gripping experience every time—and the sharp A.I. makes sure to use different tactics when you change yours, even on a reload after one of your inevitable deaths.
Historical accuracy is the order of the day.
Multiplayer is also based on historical action, so you won't be getting Deathmatch or Capture the Flag games that pull you out of the gritty realism of the single-player experience. The play is mission-based, and, like another popular Ubisoft Xbox Livegame (and Pandemic Studios' aforementioned Full Spectrum Warrior), tightens the focus with two-on-two matches. One side controls the Axis, the other the Allies. You get plenty of A.I.-controlled squad help, and once you see how Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 uses the squad dynamic, you'll understand the wisdom of that decision. Instead of an unruly mob of players, you and your partner each get a fire team of your own with a single objective—taking out an anti-aircraft battery, locating documents, etc.—and the other two fire teams try to stop you. I admit I've never really warmed to some WWII shooters online because of the weirdness of "Deathmatch on Omaha Beach"-type matches, but Gearbox's instincts here were exactly what the game needed.
It's not easy to bring something that feels truly fresh to a genre as popular and well-explored as the WWII sim, but Gearbox has done it and done it but good. Even if you think you've explored everything this huge Xbox category has to offer, you'll findRoad to Hill 30 totally fresh, well-crafted, and, actually, well, moving. Check it out, and keep your Band of Brothers DVD handy.
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