Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway PC Games and Downloads

Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway Product Details

Released on 10/10/2008

• New 'authentic' Brothers in Arms game on the way

  Brothers in Arms, the excellent World War 2 shooter that emphasised teamwork and camaraderie, will continue according to Randy Pitchford of developer Gearbox.

  "There will be an authentic Brothers in Arms game," Pitchford said in an IGN interview. "We haven't announced that yet, but I'm really excited about where that's going too. We'll announce these things in due course. There's a lot of neat things we have going on...We love Brothers in Arms and we're committed to more time in that space."

  A new game in the series had been in development with the subtitle Furious 4. This over the top shooter featured four crazy characters on a mission to take down Hitler himself, and was best described as Borderlands meets Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. That game is still in development, but will no longer be part of the more sombre Brothers in Arms brand.

  "Most people will not recognize it as ever having anything to do with Brothers in Arms," explains Pitchford. "If you've seen the Furious 4 demo or you go back and watch that stuff, you'll notice the DNA. You can feel the DNA, because it's an iterative, continuous development process, but it's a process that decided to unhinge itself from Brothers in Arms and go where it needed to go. Furious 4 is evolving into something else."

  With so many shooters now following Call of Duty into the modern era, are we about to see a revival of the classic wartime FPS?
  

  Published: 12/02/2013

• Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway Review

  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.

  

  • 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

  Published: 24/09/2008

As a valued customer we now offer you the facility to sign up to email price alerts. Please enter the price you want to be, or below, and if drops to that level we will let you know...