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.

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.

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.

• Clunky aiming and shooting when you're off on a solo stroll.
• Some AI niggles, with your so-called 'brothers' leaping suicidally over walls.
• Is this much gleeful gore in a WWII game not a bit tasteless?

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 24.09.08