Brothers in Arms HH: More Than Meets the Eye... (Written Oct 2020)
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is a lot more than it seems. Unfortunately, it was released in fall of 2008. For those not familiar, 2008 and the years before were littered with World War II shooters. Even though HH was the third game in the Brothers in Arms series, it didn’t sell very well. The endless stream of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games seemed to kill any interest in new WWII shooters. The market was over saturated and HH suffered because of it. There were also a few other things holding the game back. First off, the title itself is quite generic. It doesn’t really help it stick out as anything new or different. Another major problem is the game's box art. The art is also quite plain and doesn’t reflect what the game is about at all.
While Call of Duty and Medal of Honor focused on action and fun, HH focuses its story on the human characters. Unlike the other WWII shooters, the War serves as a backdrop to the story being told. The actions of the characters and their squad don’t really end up winning the war. In fact the US lost Operation Market Garden, which the game’s missions are based on. HH has its roots in true stories and real locations. Band of Brothers is one of my favorite TV series ever. HH takes a lot of inspiration from it in the way it presents its characters. While you may not remember everyone’s name, you remember their faces. HH also features a strong protagonist in Matthew Baker. Interestingly he’s played by the ever-talented Troy Braker. Rather than focusing on how Baker affects the War, the focus is placed on the War’s effect on Baker. After all, War is not easy on the human mind. It’s very refreshing compared to the constant displays of badassery by characters in the CoD and MoH games.
That’s not to say the gameplay in HH is not exciting. It’s just exciting in a different way. The game is an FPS with a few twists. While the player moves around the battlefield, they do so in a first-person view. The gunplay doesn’t hold up too well, and probably wasn’t anything special when it was released. Thankfully though FPS combat is not the focus of the gameplay. When the player is ready to hunker down and take cover, the camera switches to third person and the gameplay becomes a cover-based shooter. I always felt like cover-based combat was more grounded in reality, so it fits well in this game. The key separator for HH and Brothers in Arms as a whole is the strategy elements. Like a real NCO, players are put in charge of 1-3 teams of soldiers. The player has to navigate each level with their brain. Ordering troops to suppress or to flank enemies becomes the focus. Combat seems to be more of a puzzle than an action-packed shootout.
Playing this game in 2020 isn’t as hard as you may think. While there are certainly parts of the game that are dated, the tactical gameplay holds up well. I’m pretty sure Gearbox has the license to Brothers in Arms. They just finished Borderlands 3, and with the announcement of a Brothers in Arms TV show hopefully this means a modern sequel is on the horizon. A new game in the series would likely do very well. Gearbox has been one of the top fps developers over the last decade and they have built a reputation on solid gameplay. It would be very interesting to see what a modern take on the Brothers in Arms formula would look like today.
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