Inkthinker
03-05-2005, 05:14 PM
So has anyone else checked out Brothers in Arms for the X-Box? I'm enjoying it quite a lot.
If you watched the HBO series Band of Brothers, you'll be very familiar with the setting and story in this game... the game obviously borrows heavily from that excellent miniseries, from the storyline (following the 101 Airborne as they drop into Normandy on D-Day, fight their way to the beaches and then force their way into France to unseat and defeat the German armies) all the way to the art direction... even the chapter titles are almost the same, plain white text broken by a red line over a black screen.
The game, developed by Ubisoft and a relative newcomer, Gearbox, takes a great deal of pride in it's authenticity... the developers actually traveled to areas to see the lay of the land, comparing it now with aerial recon photos from 1944, and using both to recreate an apparently very accurate representation of the towns and fields of Normandy. This authenticity extends into the gameplay, giving the player control over two squads in addition to himself. Much like Full Specturm Warrior, the player can direct a fire team to fix and suppress the enemy, while an assault team flanks and kills them. Unlike FSW, the player also participates by embodying the persona of Sgt. Matt Baker, a fictional character who (like the rest of the squad) is based on the accounts of real soldiers, from journals and interviews. Since the fire team usually remains semi-stationary while supressing the enemy, you'll usually lead the assault team... but you're not locked to them, so you can actually create three-prong attacks that are very effective.
This strategy is based on the real-life tactics used by Allied soldiers in WW2. The 4F's (Find, Fix, Flank and Finish) are going to be your standard tactic for each encounter, but every scenario leads to a different approach. In addition to your squad, you'll also occasionally be assigned a tank which you can direct as well as board and man the machinegun.
Gearbox has done an excellent job of creating a team of characters who feel like real people... or at least, like real characters. The dialogue can be pretty dramatic at times, but it works well in the context of the story, and so far isn't much worse than you might see in any series or film based on the same events (such as BoB or Saving Private Ryan). As a framework for placing the player into a variety of battle scenarios that recreate actual events taking place in the week after D-Day, it's better than adequate... each time one of your soldiers is cut down in the firefights, you'll feel a sense of loss. To see one of your men whom you've fought next to in dozens of skirmishes, who's told you stories about his kids and his dreams for the future, run into a position at your orders and then suddenly be cut to ribbons by an ambush or sent flying rag-doll from a mortar or grenade is heart-wrenching... though the characters themselves will only die when it's scripted to happen. Death in battle really only counts as "incapacitation" (though their pathetic little bodies look dead enough when slumped facefirst in the muck), and the squad is healed and rearmed at the beginning of every mission, which tends to take away a true sense of grief... nonetheless, they're alive enough to make you want to keep them alive.
And you need them alive... The battles are visceral and intense and very dangerous. This game pulls no punches in content or difficulty, as the Germans will cover and flank you as much as you try to do to them. The guns are accurate but not perfectly so, just as you'd expect their real versions to be.
This game is definitely a mature title, but it's not particularly gratuitous... just gruesome in the same sense that it's film and television influences were. Your soldiers curse as much as you'd expect a man in fear of his life to do, and when you kill a man the rag-doll physics recreate an accurately disturbing result, whether it's their heads jerking back from the impact of bullet or their splayed and dismembered corpses flying over the wall after your grenade bounces off the back of their heads. Mud and blood will fly into your "face" when bullets and explosions go off nearby, and you can be blown off your feet by a near miss from a grenade or mortar, causing you to slowly regain your feet and stumble woozily for a little while as you recover.
Surving depends a great deal on being smart. It helps to think strategically and use your teams effectively. This isn't your average run-n-gun FPS game, and charging any German position in MoH or CoD style will gain you a few extra holes in your wardrobe in short order. Only a few hits is enough to take you out, and getting too close to a grenade, mortar or tank shell's explosive destination is certain death... every time you die the restart takes a bothersomely long time to load, so it's in your best interest to keep yourself breathing.
For that matter, the game will take pity on you if you die more than a few times between checkpoints, and offer to heal your squad completely to make completion of the next checkpoint a little easier. I don't believe there's a penalty for this, but it does make you feel a bit like a wussy when it tells you "War's not fair, but a videogame should be. Would you like to heal your squad before you continue?". I hate being pitied... but I'll take that healin'.
I haven't had a chance to break into the multiplayer, but I've heard it's quite interesting. 2-4 players lead their squads (either Axis or Allied) into objective-based combat (not simple Deathmatch). It's an interesting strategic style of play that I'm looking forward to.
The game comes chock full of extras that are unlocked as you beat the chapters (the higher the difficulty, the more you unlock, and beating the game on Difficult unlocks Authentic mode, where you get less screen indicators and every bullet might mean your death). The extras usually extend into the realm of photos, essays, movies and other media that illustrates the historical accuracy and comparisons between the game and reality... pretty interesting stuff, and very educational. I've actually learned some interesting facts about the Allied invasion of Normandy through them.
If you like WW2 and are looking for a game with a great deal of realism and history, you ought check this out. Brothers in Arms is out now for the Box, and coming soon for the PS2 and PC.
If you watched the HBO series Band of Brothers, you'll be very familiar with the setting and story in this game... the game obviously borrows heavily from that excellent miniseries, from the storyline (following the 101 Airborne as they drop into Normandy on D-Day, fight their way to the beaches and then force their way into France to unseat and defeat the German armies) all the way to the art direction... even the chapter titles are almost the same, plain white text broken by a red line over a black screen.
The game, developed by Ubisoft and a relative newcomer, Gearbox, takes a great deal of pride in it's authenticity... the developers actually traveled to areas to see the lay of the land, comparing it now with aerial recon photos from 1944, and using both to recreate an apparently very accurate representation of the towns and fields of Normandy. This authenticity extends into the gameplay, giving the player control over two squads in addition to himself. Much like Full Specturm Warrior, the player can direct a fire team to fix and suppress the enemy, while an assault team flanks and kills them. Unlike FSW, the player also participates by embodying the persona of Sgt. Matt Baker, a fictional character who (like the rest of the squad) is based on the accounts of real soldiers, from journals and interviews. Since the fire team usually remains semi-stationary while supressing the enemy, you'll usually lead the assault team... but you're not locked to them, so you can actually create three-prong attacks that are very effective.
This strategy is based on the real-life tactics used by Allied soldiers in WW2. The 4F's (Find, Fix, Flank and Finish) are going to be your standard tactic for each encounter, but every scenario leads to a different approach. In addition to your squad, you'll also occasionally be assigned a tank which you can direct as well as board and man the machinegun.
Gearbox has done an excellent job of creating a team of characters who feel like real people... or at least, like real characters. The dialogue can be pretty dramatic at times, but it works well in the context of the story, and so far isn't much worse than you might see in any series or film based on the same events (such as BoB or Saving Private Ryan). As a framework for placing the player into a variety of battle scenarios that recreate actual events taking place in the week after D-Day, it's better than adequate... each time one of your soldiers is cut down in the firefights, you'll feel a sense of loss. To see one of your men whom you've fought next to in dozens of skirmishes, who's told you stories about his kids and his dreams for the future, run into a position at your orders and then suddenly be cut to ribbons by an ambush or sent flying rag-doll from a mortar or grenade is heart-wrenching... though the characters themselves will only die when it's scripted to happen. Death in battle really only counts as "incapacitation" (though their pathetic little bodies look dead enough when slumped facefirst in the muck), and the squad is healed and rearmed at the beginning of every mission, which tends to take away a true sense of grief... nonetheless, they're alive enough to make you want to keep them alive.
And you need them alive... The battles are visceral and intense and very dangerous. This game pulls no punches in content or difficulty, as the Germans will cover and flank you as much as you try to do to them. The guns are accurate but not perfectly so, just as you'd expect their real versions to be.
This game is definitely a mature title, but it's not particularly gratuitous... just gruesome in the same sense that it's film and television influences were. Your soldiers curse as much as you'd expect a man in fear of his life to do, and when you kill a man the rag-doll physics recreate an accurately disturbing result, whether it's their heads jerking back from the impact of bullet or their splayed and dismembered corpses flying over the wall after your grenade bounces off the back of their heads. Mud and blood will fly into your "face" when bullets and explosions go off nearby, and you can be blown off your feet by a near miss from a grenade or mortar, causing you to slowly regain your feet and stumble woozily for a little while as you recover.
Surving depends a great deal on being smart. It helps to think strategically and use your teams effectively. This isn't your average run-n-gun FPS game, and charging any German position in MoH or CoD style will gain you a few extra holes in your wardrobe in short order. Only a few hits is enough to take you out, and getting too close to a grenade, mortar or tank shell's explosive destination is certain death... every time you die the restart takes a bothersomely long time to load, so it's in your best interest to keep yourself breathing.
For that matter, the game will take pity on you if you die more than a few times between checkpoints, and offer to heal your squad completely to make completion of the next checkpoint a little easier. I don't believe there's a penalty for this, but it does make you feel a bit like a wussy when it tells you "War's not fair, but a videogame should be. Would you like to heal your squad before you continue?". I hate being pitied... but I'll take that healin'.
I haven't had a chance to break into the multiplayer, but I've heard it's quite interesting. 2-4 players lead their squads (either Axis or Allied) into objective-based combat (not simple Deathmatch). It's an interesting strategic style of play that I'm looking forward to.
The game comes chock full of extras that are unlocked as you beat the chapters (the higher the difficulty, the more you unlock, and beating the game on Difficult unlocks Authentic mode, where you get less screen indicators and every bullet might mean your death). The extras usually extend into the realm of photos, essays, movies and other media that illustrates the historical accuracy and comparisons between the game and reality... pretty interesting stuff, and very educational. I've actually learned some interesting facts about the Allied invasion of Normandy through them.
If you like WW2 and are looking for a game with a great deal of realism and history, you ought check this out. Brothers in Arms is out now for the Box, and coming soon for the PS2 and PC.