Brothers in Arms PC

[manny_c44]

War games usually make the mistake of aping off of war movies, rather than war itself. And, at least in the beginning, Brothers in Arms avoids the annoying man-against the Nazi gameplay that has barely been updated since we were gunning down the blue-eyed malcontents in Wolfenstein 3d.

The game removes the 'put reticule on baddy' formula that clings to other WW2 outings like death, and instead bases the game on flanking and cover fire. You can assign your squad (or tank--the most fun bit in the game) to pin down the enemy while you either try to pick them off or catch them unawares from the side.

I think reviewers haven't made the transition that games have over the past few years. They still review games based on their 'gameplay' or mechanics. But, in general, basic mechanics in most games are no longer fun, and these games rely instead on atmospheric tension to deliver their thrills. BiA is just that kind of game, and at the start of the campaign it's pretty thrilling. Your scrappy troop faces off with the Germans in small towns, running from cover spots and trying to gun down the howitzer operator so you can run your tank into town and pick off the remnants in grand style.

But as the missions get harder, you realize your scrappy troop is largely comprised of brain-dead sausages who are largely useless. At the end of most missions you'll be crawling half-dead on the ground with your tommy gun trying to shoot the tops of German helmets while your brigade busily marches infront of an enemy machine gun installation like fucking carnival ducks, or futily fires pot shots at sand bags. When the game asks you to be Superman it totally falls apart, the charade of gritty urban warfare is shattered, and without any real narrative or character connection, there's nothing left to keep you interested in the trial and error tedium of each level's endgame. And if you've ever been pissed off at checkpoint saves, this game makes no improvments to that formula.

If you had any kind of appreciations for stinkers like 'Call of Duty' or 'Medal of Honor' or any 'X of X' derivative, this game will blow your mind. Probably the best WW2 FPS ever. Still not that great.

[JoeX111]

I've been hyped about this game for quite some time and just recently got a chance to play the demo. Sadly, the game is kind of a let down. The ease of commanding your troops is wonderful, but they don't seem to have much common sense outside of your orders. If you don't continually tell them to follow you, they will remain behind and do nothing. Then, when you get to a position where you command them to open fire on the enemy, they will yell that they can't get to the enemy, because you left them on the other side of a building. Voice work in the game also seems to be questionable, as do facial expressions of characters. I swear, when the "old friend" of the main character showed up in the tank and popped his head out of the top, I thought he was going to say "Hey girlfriend!"

But at the same time, it definitely feels way more authentic than Medal of Honor or Call of Duty, as well it should with the amount of research that went into this game (unlike MoA, with entire sections of the game literally ripped right out of Saving Private Ryan). It is still a game I'd like to own and play all the way through, but after the demo, it has fallen off my "Must Have" list into something I'll just pick up when it hits the twenty dollar range.