Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway (PC)

Release Date: 10/10/2008
Pre-order
2 days to go!

Add To Basket Add To Wishlist

RRP £34.99
Save £10.00 £24.99 Delivered!

Despatched in time for delivery on release day.

GAME Reward Card members get up to 500 Reward Points (worth £1.25) with this item. About Reward Card.

Summary

Developer:: Gearbox Software
Publisher:: Ubi Soft

Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway brings the critically acclaimed squad-based WWII shooter into the next generation of gaming with amazing graphics and sound, new cutting-edge gameplay features and a totally redesigned online component.

Delivering on the franchise’s compelling story, unrivaled authenticity and intense squad-based action, Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway drops you into Operation Market Garden, the largest paratrooper operation in World War II.

Lead the 101st Airborne Division as they fight to open "Hell's Highway" in a daring bid for a quick end to the war.

Brothers In Arms Hells Highway Features:

Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway – next generation: The classic authentic, squad-based combat series explodes on next-generation hardware, offering unprecedented graphics and features.
New story, new setting:. Join Matt Baker, Joe Hartsock and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden as they fight to open the infamous Hell’s Highway in a daring bid for a quick end to the war.
Live the life of an enlisted man: Get orders from HQ, go on patrol, spot the enemy and set up a devastating ambush. For the first time, finding the enemy before they find you is part of the challenge.
Unprecedented character design: Lifelike characters look, talk, move and think with incredible realism. Game characters interact with the player and each other like true brothers in arms, trading ammunition, helping wounded allies and civilians, working together to man team-operated weapons, and more.
Rich cinematic experience: As the squad leader, you interact with and get to know your brothers. Each character has his own distinct personality, unique story and background, and grows throughout the game.
Powerful new units under your command: Players can use or command combined arms teams – machine gun crews create intense fire, bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks, and mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance.
Play your own way: Players can choose to use their squad to execute a tactically elegant flanking maneuver or charge in with guns blazing.
Destructible cover: Keep your men moving and choose your cover wisely – modeled using real physical properties and behaviors, weapons will damage, dent, scorch and destroy the world around you.
Completely new multiplayer experience: Fight major multiplayer battles with dozens of players on each side, combining all the intensity and accessibility of Deathmatch with the squad-based gameplay that helped make Brothers In Arms famous.

Collapse

Videos

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Trailer - You must be 15 years old to view this trailer.

Customer Link & Embed Info

URL
Embed

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Trailer - You must be 15 years old to view this trailer.

GAME Reviews

Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway Review; Author: Mark Scott; Published: 24/09/2008

Fight a battle you can never win

Operation Market Garden was the 1944 WWII operation that aimed to secure an allied route into Germany through Holland. It failed - and in Brother’s In Arms: Hell's Highway, you're part of that failure.

This first next-gen Brothers In Arms sees you leading the 101st Airborne on a gritty, guilt-ridden journey that couldn't be more like TV war epic Band Of Brothers if you stuck Dexter Fletcher on the box.

Flank you very much

It's squad-based shooting: Rainbow Six Vegas with windmills where the slot machines should be. A focus on the four 'F's - find the enemy, fix him down, flank him, then finish him - makes Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway slower and deeper than Call Of Duty and co.

There's a focus on the four 'F's - find the enemy, fix him, flank him, finish him.

Using a roving cursor, you can direct teams of troops to run over there, hide behind this, shoot at that. Not just can, must. In this game the map screen isn't just there to free your fingers so you can phone for pizza, it's essential for victory.

Specialist teams mean a big looming tree of tactical choices. The new Bazooka squad - whose lethal explosiveness never gets tired - will munch on machine gun fire unless you get the Assault team to flank first. The MG team is best used to suppress the enemy and give you time to think (or pray). As in Rainbow Six, good cover is crucial. Especially now that a friendly fence can be shot to bits, leaving you humiliatingly crouched down in open space.

Military intelligence

You still get to be the gung-ho gun-running solo hero at times. But that’s a clunky choice. This war works best when you're hanging back and sending your brothers off to die for you. Brother’s In Arms: Hell's Highway isn't quite as tactical as it thinks - you're shepherded along a fairly linear route - but it's a satisfyingly meaty challenge. As Carbines crack and artillery whumps and those Nazis creep to better cover and you try to think - think - what to do next, it feels like war.

As Carbines crack and artillery whumps and you try to think - think - what to do next, it feels like war.

And, oh, what a lovely war it is. Holland is all windmills, hay bales and sheep, and Brother’s In Arms: Hell's Highway is all the more disquieting for being played out in the greens and blues of open countryside rather than browns and darker browns. And when things go bad - buildings burn and church spires explode - the flickering fire and heat haze are gorgeous.

Admittedly, missions are samey (how many satchel-charge-vulnerable artillery guns can one Nazi nation own?) but locations are varied. One minute a firefight in a graveyard; the next, a neck-tightening creep around corners in a deserted hospital; then it’s on to one of the (occasionally dull) all-out tank-driving rampages.

Spiritual journey

Those tank bits are one of the few genuinely new features. Perhaps the reason there's no giant '3' on this third Brothers In Arms is that it's a fairly innovation-free threequel. There is a surprisingly chilling supernatural vibe, with our guilt-ridden killer unhinged by ghost children and a haunted pistol (seriously). But that's all slightly undermined by the unapologetic gore: legs insta-amputated, heads blown off, slow-mo zoom-ins on bodies literally torn in two. You can even kill those poor sheep.

But, unlike Market Garden itself, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway is pretty much a success. It's missing the screen-shuddering set pieces and flawless first-personing of a Call Of Duty outing - but if it's battles with brains you're after, Hell's Highway is heaven.

GAME's Verdict

One of the most realistic WWII experiences available outside of actual time travel.
A rewarding and challenging change from in-your-face shooters like Call Of Duty.
Characters you might actually care about.