GC ‘07 - Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Preview
OK so it’s another WWII shooter, but having played the other titles in the Brothers in Arms franchise, I’m pretty psyched to see Gearbox’s newest take on Operation Market Garden.
Returning to join Sergeant Baker will be Paddock, Hartsock, Corrion, Courtland and Zanovich. You’ve got the ability to command a further squad from a selection of new specialized units (bazooka teams, machine gun teams, mortar teams, as well as radio teams with which to call in artillery support). Your attacking squads will also move and behave more naturally, whispering quietly in the threat of enemy presence and speaking freely when the area is secured.
To add to the realism, there will be some civilian interaction, but to what extent remains uncertain. In the action you’ll also come across ‘Bro Mos’ (Brotherhood Moments), times where your character will do things like catch fallen comrades if they’ve tripped over, emphasizing the bonds formed during war. Another neat little part of the game will be the recurring hallucinations and flashbacks from previous BIA times, like when Pvt Kevin Leggett bit the dust.
Environmental destructibility promises to be put to less gratuitous use than in Bad Company: You’re forced to choose your cover wisely as the wooden crates don’t hold up too well amid MP40 fire. And finally prone has been implemented, which should add a lot more to firefights.
For the first time in a WWII shooter there will be no objective marker, as you need to rely on in game hints and cues (such as puffs of smoke from AA guns) to guide you to your target. Your journey through Holland will take you through burnt out, just liberated cities to abandoned hospitals, all painstakingly recreated in a way that displays Gearbox’s dedication to the genre and its historical roots.
On the multiplayer side of things, Hell’s Highway will implement an interesting new system where the player can fight on a campaign map in a somewhat cooperative way. The player and a friend will fight over territories and then gain positional advantages to take hold of Europe. There are a couple of unsubstantiated rumors surrounding online play, namely 1) cross-platform online play between the PC and PS3 versions, and 2) Xbox 360 version will feature online and split-screen play.
Even if both of these don’t come into fruition, by the looks of it we might have a pretty decent WWII title to keep us entertained before Bad Company comes out.
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