Delays happen. It’s a fact of life in the entertainment industry – almost every product, be it a movie, book or video game, experiences a short delay, be it a couple of weeks or a quarterly slippage. Delays of six months to a year usually indicate significant reworking or quality improvement – something we experience more in the game industry then elsewhere. A delay of two years, however, is the sign that something is terribly wrong. Once a highly anticipated part of Ubisoft’s 2006 holiday line up, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway slipped more than a group of pensioners walking down an icy path. As a result, our expectations for the game were minimal, but it’s safe to say that it’s not as bad as we thought it would be.

Hell’s Highway is set in and around the time of Operation Market Garden, an ultimately unsuccessful plan which involved landing three divisions of paratroopers behind German lines to capture a series of major bridges. This was to create a path which would allow Allied armoured units rapid advancement, with the eventual goal being to cross the Rhine into Germany. Players once again take control of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker (the antagonist of Road to Hill 30), a squad leader in the 101st Airborne unit. Baker and the remaining characters from the first two games are charged with conducting special pre-drop reconnaissance, before assisting with the securing of key operational targets.

Unlike most shooters set in World War II, the first two Brothers in Arms games had a heavy focus on storytelling, and Hell’s Highway is no different. In some circumstances, the heavy story focus can be a little bit detrimental to the Hell’s Highway experience; the game assumes you know everything that happened in Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood (despite the fact those games each came out over three years ago), so many players who are not familiar with the two early games will be almost entirely lost. The game does attempt to compensate with a few “Previously, on Brothers in Arms” segments, but they do little to help you understand the supposedly deep and complex bond the soldiers of this unit are meant to share, and glosses over important story elements, such as Baker’s “cursed” pistol.


Presentation is one of Hell’s Highway’s main strengths. The game attempts to portray itself as a high quality Hollywood-style production, especially with the high pressure, explosive cold introductory sequence. One still can’t help but shake the feeling that Gearbox is taking the piss with the unashamed borrowing of ideas from other entertainment productions – specifically Band of Brothers, which is thematically similar and even covered the liberation of Eindhoven in its fourth episode. Sound is the real star of the show; the constant thumping of explosions and gunfire is sure to give your sound system a workout, and the orchestral soundtrack is rather stirring. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3, but is generally unimpressive from a visual standpoint, save for the rather brutal slow-motion dismemberment scenes. Character models look rather dated- almost like they have sandpaper for skin, landscapes are huge but lacking in detail and the frame rate is seldom smooth.

Those expecting sweeping changes to the Brothers in Arms formula may be a little disappointed in Hell’s Highway. That’s not to say that there’s not a bunch of new features, but Gearbox hasn’t exactly changed the core formula. You lead your team of soldiers across various battlefields to accomplish your mission objectives, usually defending a point or attacking an enemy position. Strategy is emphasised over heroic charges; you need to place your teams effectively and have them provide covering fire while you (or your assault team) try to move around to take the enemy out, or do whatever needs to be done to accomplish the objective. Ordering your troops around the battlefield is nice and simple, thanks to a relatively intuitive command system. Simply hold the L2 button in and steer the reticule to the target or location of your choice and your boys will do the rest.

Hell’s Highway mixes the formula up by introducing destructible cover, meaning that you and your soldiers can never really stay in the one place for too long, which actually makes for a more exciting and tense gameplay experience. Unfortunately, the level of destruction is limited mainly only to cover-like structures – you aren’t able to blow buildings to bits with your explosives. The size and scope of the battlefields is much larger than before; where in the first two games you might only have to advance on two or three groups of soldiers, Hell’s Highway puts you up against much greater numbers of troops, but also provides you with more teams to even the odds a bit. It’s still mostly a case of waiting til your troops have suppressed the enemy with covering fire so you can sneak behind them and aerate them with a machine gun, yet it’s very engaging.


The most notable change to the Brothers in Arms formula in Hell’s Highway is the relaxing of the series’ much-vaunted realism. Managing Baker’s health is no longer much of an issue, as it now regenerates when you’re behind cover. On top of that, you’ve now got access to a sprint button, meaning that you can bolt around in front of enemy positions as much as you want, so long as a fence or haystack is nearby. It’s a lot more forgiving of players making stupid decisions and rushing into fights without proper backup, which really goes against the central themes and design of the game. The most disappointing thing has got to be the accuracy of the guns, which has been enhanced to a point of ridicule. Certain quirks of weapons of the time have also been made more lenient; you can reload the M1 Garand without having to expel all of the bullets in the clip (it is possible, but certainly not feasible under battle conditions). As a result of all of these changes, Hell’s Highway is remarkably easy (at least until you unlock the “authentic” difficulty mode).

Variety is Hell’s Highway’s biggest issue. The game shows all of its cards before you’re through the fourth mission, and settles into a predictable pattern of flanking and picking off the infantry until you’re able to move on to the next section. The problem here is that you’ve still got more than half the game to go at that point, and all it ever really does to challenge the player is to increase the number of troops you’re up against. The enemy AI is painfully average, never changing its tactics throughout the entire experience. One would think that they’d try to counter-flank, use grenades or something like that, but no, they’re always just in front of you, firing randomly in the hopes that they might hit you. Checkpoints seem to be spread inconsistently, meaning that in the rare event that you do die, you’ll be replaying the last 15 minutes. It will take a moderately skilled player roughly 8 to 10 hours to blast their way through Hell’s Highway’s narrative. The game’s malnourished multiplayer component does little to bulk up the experience, offering a scant number of maps and only a team-based capture and hold play mode. Matches support up to 20 players, and there is a bit of flexibility and customisation, but it all feels a little too familiar.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is a perfectly enjoyable shooter, but those expecting a significant improvement or change from the other games in the series is likely to be a bit disappointed. The game does seem far more forgiving than its ilk, it appears to have sacrificed some of the realism that was closely identified with Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood, and the multiplayer is quite barren. If you’re not bothered by those factors, however, then Hell’s Highway is worth a look.