Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway


Every soldier goes through Hell.

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By: Jeff Haynes

The game is often undermined strip battlefield of the Second World War for content, but some of the securities issued have covered the action or the stories of soldiers in the field of the Currency as brothers in arms series. Following in the footsteps of design and the actual experiences of the 502nd Parachute Infantry, 101a Airborne Division from World War II titles in the series have expressed a semper a glimpse of the men in the front line, including their thoughts and fears in the middle the seemingly overwhelming contrast. The latest installment of the game kicks off by men in the fields and farms of France in the Second World War more colossal failures for the Allies. But while Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway maintains its strong story and presentation traditional game, technical issues hinder such, is bound to be a great shooter or impressive.

The story of Hell's Highway revolves around Operation Market Garden, a plan designed by Field Marshal Montgomery to end the war before Christmas 1944 with the acquisition of a road through the Netherlands and punching through enemy lines in the heart of Germany. While it was the largest air invasion in history of the world, the Allies did not know that Hitler best soldiers and tanks were divisions in the surrounding area. After initial success, the Nazis crushed and allied troops surrounded, with the last victory of the Nazi war. Hell's Highway is set against the backdrop of war, telling the story of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker and his team as it tries to survive against the Netherlands that are constantly thrown their way.

The story is particularly trying to Baker, who was always an introspective character in previous games. Often stoic and measured in his thoughts during the down time between missions, the weight of war, of course, has begun to weigh heavily on Baker. Much of his time throughout the game is spent thinking (or perhaps reflecting on remorsefully) the death of many of the former soldiers under his command. This stress and the pressure appears to be occurring in the early stages of shell shock and there are some moments when Baker's mental state is called into question by both himself and his squadmates. E 'rare that you see a way how to handle this material with sensitivity, care and respect, and Currency makes a great work of this serious and life-changing condition that affects many soldiers and that realistically depicts.

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In fact, the story itself, which covers everything from the first few hours of Operation Market Garden with the ninth and final day of the mission, when the Allies were forced to retreat, Hell's Highway tells the incredible story. However, it is not necessary to know the history of previous games in the series to catch up on the characters in the squad (even if it is better to have a sense of how these men have developed if you do), the flashback cinematics and fill with newcomers more than enough information to explain the plot. Even better, the title offers a complete history of working with the game Recon reports, giving a full sense of the magnitude of the mission and how it was ultimately flawed. If you saw HBO's Band of Brothers, Hell's Highway feels like a lost episode of the show, and has a sense of scale and cinematic grandeur you'd expect from Hollywood.

Regarding the standard of play mechanics are concerned, Hell's Highway plays exactly like the previous titles in the game, so veterans of the series will have no problem falling into a warzone and attack the Nazis. In fact, you probably find that it's also easier to use the mouse to click carefully off enemy soldiers. For beginners, however, will quickly learn that this title is a much more methodical shooter than you might be accustomed. Simply by running forward and trying to blast anyone in sight is a quick way to get placed in a body bag, however, players will have to dig on the cover, pending or popping up to take aim and blast the enemy of security. You'll also effective way to control individual teams, pinning down threats with the removal of fire from one location to another team or you can remove them and the enemy. There are three different types of teams that will be able to direct, such as a fire team that are great initially suppress the enemy, assault teams that are good for flanking attacks and special weapons teams, as the machine gun or Bazooka crews, which are ideal for eliminating entrenched platoons or enemies of enemies.

There are three different types of teams that will be able to direct, such as a fire team that are great initially suppress the enemy, assault teams that are good for flanking attacks and special weapons teams, as the machine gun or Bazooka crews, which are ideal for eliminating entrenched platoons or enemies of enemies.

Know the strengths and weaknesses of each team, as well as adequately using their powers to destroy enemies, is a key tactic of the game. The same can be said of the new coverage included destructible, which is forcing operators to carefully consider what they've put themselves and their teams behind. For example, objects such as barrels, fences and sand can be chewed to pieces by machine gun fire, or blown to bits with well-launched grenades, or Bazooka round. By targeting and destruction of these objects, players can control the battlefield by flushing soldiers in the woods, easily cut them down with fire. Lifting the lid over a machine gun nest or an entrenched team with a rocket and clearing the area with an outbreak of fires is very satisfactory, and adds a great twist to the game. This is particularly true when you realize that your soldiers are smart enough to open fire on troops if they perceive a threat to their location, although you'll have to command them to use all the special weapons like a Bazooka.

Unfortunately, his team are sometimes stupid when it comes to responding to commands to maneuver to safety, which is one of the main mechanisms of play. For example, you tell the soldiers to run over to dig down and cover behind a wall of rock, intentionally placing the ring behind the command center of the structure to ensure the safety of your soldiers. Unfortunately, instead of running under the cover and crouching, you will sometimes do the soldiers directly in front of the enemy positions and jump over the wall, often get turned into Swiss cheese. Even worse are the moments when it is clearly directed against a wall and instead of digging in behind the wall, which digging on the side of the wall, still leaving themselves open to fire. This is a problem that existed within semper previous Brothers in arms games, but you need to think it would have been fixed by now.

Even stranger are the moments when you start to move forward alone on the battlefield, your vocation soldiers to form behind you, only to see a team that you know is at least thirty or forty meters behind you get warped until ahead of your position. In these situations, there is the execution team teleporting toward you, which makes absolutely no sense and even these guys left free to be blasted forward by enemies of his position. How and why it works is completely inexplicable. Then again, the issue is not only considered your troops, the enemy AI will perform the actions nonsensical as well. For the most part, they will attempt next to you, find cover and place in a large quantity of firearms on your positions, making progress extremely difficult. However, there are times when bird flu will simply stay outdoors and ignore incoming gunfire or explosions, will not move a muscle until you get within a specified neighborhood that seems to trigger came in their lives.

There are two problems triggered this response. The first is that simply does not feel at all realistic, and held out the atmosphere of the battlefield in an obvious simulation. The second - and more serious problem - is that the enemies will often shrug off this injury, as if it never happened, which feels extremely flawed. As I said before, this does not happen all the time, but when he does that stands out like a sore thumb. Furthermore, as an aside - What's with the guns aimed in a direction that can fire in a completely different? You can watch your team will aim Bazooka true north and watch as the tank has shot to the north-west off, or watch a Nazi machine gunner to another team, but the bullets come flying in your direction . This is a strange vision problem that seems related to these themes TO ...

You'll notice this especially during the solo sections of the game, which is no longer a command team and instead act on its own initiative. This is somewhat understandable 'during the tank sections, where it reads as a tank commander and his crew sanding the road through a section of the battlefield. However, it is somewhat 'strange to witness Baker leaving alone as much as he does in Hell's Highway. Whereas a lot of game highlights team tactics, Baker has a lot of times when runs through sections himself, taking the soldiers or objectives. In a sense, these segments make only the game feel somewhat 'more like "Brother in Arms: Baker of the Odyssey. While there is nothing explicitly wrong with these missions, it feels a little' unrealistic to see a platoon Only captain going on missions, in particular the house to house fighting was so lethal in some European cities.


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Unlike the console experience, which has had a ridiculous grain filter that has made much of the graphics look muddy and unnatural, graphics for the PC version of Hell's Highway, is significantly improved. While there are still some pixilated shadows, which are much milder than those on the console, which were extremely distracting from the game. Explosions look particularly good, and there are a number of sequences, particularly within cutscenes, where the screens look very similar to that of a photograph taken from war. One negative is that some of the items category, as the head or shots of limbs being blown bodies, watching a po 'unrealistic and cartoonish by comparison, because the details are so strong that these events stylized look. Particle effects during explosions, and the construction details and debris as it passes through villages look very nice, and texture of grass or other environmental elements look much better, which is to be expected with much stronger video cards available on the market. Flame still looks somewhat 'strange in the PC version, though it seems much better, and there is still slowing down, even if it is reduced. The other visual Gripe is that there is a lot of making pop-in that will pop up and distract you from the battlefield experience.

This is particularly true in the multiplayer game, which feels tagged on. Since most of the experience is really contained within the single-player experience, you get the sense that having a battlefield with a maximum of twenty players who fight across the limited maps in the game was only a slight nod to those players looking for some 'extra, but rather' disappointing. Your only goal is to raise or lower the flags at two locations on the map, or eliminate the enemy team, but the images in this way they feel as if they were intentionally downgraded to allow the twenty player cap.

The sound for Hell's Highway, fortunately, is for some of the downfalls of view of the game, with a client who feels pulled directly from a war film. Swelling orchestral pieces punctuate dramatic moments of the game, and it feels almost as if a composer was intentionally emphasizing action game for the exploits of Baker's team. Lines expressed by these soldiers are very beautiful and, although they tend to do continually repeat the same phrases over and over, which is always more than one lesson to you to help them in the middle of battle. However, when you just directed a team to go back to cover and you hear their cry: "Why are not there on the move, when they are being fired, it just feels like a bad disconnect of logic. The dialogue in the other game is pretty good, however, from kids asking why Germans are still struggling in the midst of a losing battle to name their ammunition States. However, just to warn some parents, there is some adult language here. While you can disable this feature, do not feel appropriate to the situations and men in the midst of battle.

Closing Comments
The Airborne soldiers who fought and lived the horrors of the Second World War, and in particular Operation Market Garden deserve respect, honor, and stories that highlight their sacrifices on the battlefield (as all soldiers do). Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway does a good job of presenting the story of these men, and that is what forced many films of war. While many traditional game franchise elements of return, such as controlling tactical teams, so that the problems associated with these checks. While the graphics are better, still has a number of issues of avian influenza, for a title that is good and even better than its console brethren, but not great.

© 2008-10-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved
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