Brothers in Arms preview

I love it when my spine tingles, the way it does when I see a new WWII shooter at E3. That genre is a huge fetish for me and almost every year sees the release of a new game that looks totally mind blowing and sends my nervous system into overload from excitement. Back in 2001, that game was Medal of Honor. In 2003, it was Call of Duty. And in 2004 it is most definitely Ubisoft’s Brothers in Arms. Every time, my new fit of excitement has made the previous ones pale in comparison and this is no exception. Brothers in Arms really made my WWII fetish blossom all over again.

This time around, the bulk of my excitement is caused by the way your opponents and allies act in the game and the way you really get emotionally involved with your army buddies (in a very manly way, I take it? – ed.). This, coupled with a very accurate recreation of historical events, makes sure that this title is not just another Medal of Honor clone.

Real people

Brothers in Arms not only has a title that is similar to Spielberg’s amazing TV series Band of Brothers. The game is actually about the very same, famous division, the 101st Airborne Paratroopers. The developers, Gearbox, have spent three years working on the game and they have obviously allocated a lot of that time for research. The objective is clear: to create a scarily realistic experience. Therefore, your fellow soldiers in the game are authentic historical figures from the war. If you search for their names on Google, you’ll be able to read about them... they will all have personalities, background histories and great influence on the game’s storyline. As the retired Colonel John Antal, full-time tactical and historical advisor for Gearbox during the last year, says:

”They’ll mean a lot to you. If you lose one of your fellow soldiers, it’ll hurt.”

The detail fanaticism not only covers the characters in the game, but also the lush surroundings. We were shown a level with the Carentan village (which viewers of Band of Brothers will know) and it was truly amazing. Beautiful and varied landscapes rolled before our eyes, and they definitely didn’t look haphazardly put together.

”If you play Brothers in Arms, you’ll be qualified for becoming a tour guide in Normandy. That’s how authentic it is,” John Antal said.

Use real military tactics

"Get my money for nothing and my kicks for free."

When games like Brothers in Arms come along, similar-themed games seem meaningless in comparison. The devil’s in the details, as they say. For instance, the game probably has the coolest “iron sight” (i.e. aiming with you weapon reticule, like in real life) feature I’ve ever seen in a game. And when you pull that trigger and see startled birds fly away, it feels so real it hurts.

But Brothers of Arms is not just your run-of-the-mill first person shooter, it’s actually a tactical shoot ‘em-up. Imagine a cross between Ghost Recon and Call of Duty and you’ll have a general idea of the gameplay. You have two teams with you – a “fire” team and a “manoeuvre” team.

”You will be using the tactic which we refer to as ”find them, fix them, flank them, finish them,” the colonel explains. This means that you will make one team lay down fire on the enemy, making him stay behind cover, while your other team flanks him. This works surprisingly well, bearing witness to a very sophisticated AI. The AI also makes sure that enemy soldiers don’t just hide behind objects and then stand up to fire at you once in a while, as we have seen in countless other games. No, if you shoot a German soldier, the guy next to him will do his absolute best to stay hidden afterwards. He simply becomes afraid for his life... of course, you won’t be the only party to use the tactics mentioned above and therefore you will often be having some very exciting fire fights with the Germans.

We had a demonstration of one of these skirmishes and it really was so good that it made me plot how I could steal the Xbox controller from the hands of Gearbox’s Randall S. Pitchford, who was demoing the game. Very few games can deliver entertainment of that calibre.

Blood on the screen

During the fight, Randall tried to go to the right of the defending Germans, but he chose a route on which his team was too vulnerable, resulting in the death of one of them. Others in the squad commented on this, especially the colonel, who advised Randall not to pass through open terrain. A couple of seconds later, Randall himself was hit, and his blood splattered onto the screen. This was a cool effect, which may be brutal, but adds to the realism. The graphics are generally top notch, sporting very detailed character models, great effects and beautiful levels. But beauty isn’t everything and the addition of the Ghost Recon-ish tactical elements truly makes for a much deeper experience. Call of Duty gave you team mates (Medal of Honor didn’t really do it fully), but Brothers in Arms put you in control of them.

Realism is a central issue of almost every WWII game and Gearbox have really raised the bar by using authentic aerial photos from the war, Army Signal Corps photos and eye witness accounts as references. Just writing this article makes my spine tingle and I really can’t wait until Brothers in Arms is released for PC, Xbox and PS2 this October/November.


Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Jonatan A. Allin (neonwolf)