Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (pc: 2005): Reviews

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Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30


6.3

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 58 votes
Read user comments
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GAMES:

Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood

Created by Texas-based Gearbox Software, Brothers in Arms is the most realistic and authentic WWII shooter ever. While other WWII games have sugarcoated the war experience, Brothers in Arms is based on a true story and will immerse gamers into the gritty, uncensored and emotionally-charged side of war. The game puts you in the shoes of Sgt. Matt Baker, a D-Day paratrooper squad leader, and asks you to lead the squad as you balance their lives with the success of the mission. The true stories and historical events you experience on your perilous journey take you through real battlefields meticulously recreated from aerial reconnaissance images, US Army Signal Corps photos and eye-witness accounts of war-torn Normandy. Players of allskill levels can battle their way through this intense experience because of Brothers in Arms innovative and accessible command and control system. [Ubisoft]

PUBLISHER:	Ubisoft
DEVELOPER:	Gearbox Software
GENRE(S):	First-Person Shooter, Action
PLAYERS:	4
ESRB RATING:	M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE:	March 15, 2005

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Yahoo! Games

It's not just its uncompromising realism or its emotive theme, it's the whole package -- great looks, fantastic sound, and a gameplay and plot structure that promotes bonding with the men under your command. Wrap that up with a slick control method and, for once, some tactical depth, and you're left with a very special recipe.

Worth Playing

What impresses me the most about BIA more so than any other shooter about WW2 is that BIA treats WW2 much more in the same vane of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers."

Next Level Gaming

The game has something that many games are missing these days, and that is emotion.

Gamezilla!

Without a doubt, even with a few minor problems, this is one of my favorite titles of this year.

Pelit (Finland)

An excellent game. It is superbly written and researched. The situations and characters simply feel real. [Apr. 05]

Game Revolution

The realistic squad based action is handled well and provides a satisfying journey through the nightmare of war.

PC Gamer

It temporarily wrests the verisimilitude crown away from "Call of Duty" and - amazingly - revives Normandy's "dead horse." [May 2005, p.56]

IGN

Offering up engaging, squad-based battles and presenting it all in an authentic yet undeniably cinematic setting, Brothers in Arms is a game that, to borrow a phrase from General Patton, "grabs you by the nose and kicks you in the ass."

Total Video Games

Quite honestly the first realistic shooter I’ve found myself completely enthralled within. It’s cross between Medal of Honor/Call of Duty and Full Spectrum Warrior gameplay creates an experience that is fresh and compelling, while the multiplayer mode should make this one of the most popular titles around.

GameSpot

The campaign is varied and lengthy enough to keep players thrilled from beginning to end. There's even good incentive to play through again at higher difficulties.

GameSpy

The squad-based combat is handled elegantly, from the simple control scheme to the ability to switch out to a birds-eye view to strategize, and injects some life into a genre we thought had been milked for good.

2404.org

One of the best World War II shooters I've ever played, and certainly one of the better shooters of recent years.

GamingTrend

This is a labor of love by Gearbox and if you’re at all into historical stuff, this game is for you.

Computer Gaming World

This is one shooter in which your tactical skills are rewarded more than your ability to line up targets. [June 2005, p.76]

Game Over Online

In the end, crisp visuals, superb sound and an engrossing solo campaign all help Brothers in Arms stand out from an overcrowded crop of World War II shooters.

EuroGamer

The beauty of it is the ability to play it however you want, either going for all out rushes or a more strategic squad-based approach.

Gaming Horizon

Not only does it have everything that all of the other first person shooter games have had, but it also has a feature that adds just enough strategy to the game that separates it from the rest.

Computer Games Online RO

Can you forget "Medal of Honor" and "Call of Duty" by playing this game? Of course not, but Brothers in Arms marks a new beginning for the Second World War shooters. It's an extraordinary game, one that will change the history of war shooters forever.

PC Format

This is the point where the populist WW2 first-person shooter gets the long awaited reinforcements: New Ideas. [Apr 2005, p.98]

Computer and Video Games

Luckily, it's dead simple. When it comes to squad-level infantry manoeuvres, tactics have changed little in the last 2,000 years (so we're told), and they're almost insultingly basic. [PC Zone]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

The effect that all this adds to the game is more a sense of realism than a sense of camaraderie. The harrowing, dangerous nature of war is shown here in its truest form in a video game.

Play Magazine

With more of an emphasis on the intimate perils of war, the game feels fresh enough, but staggers in an attempt to draw us in to the characters. [May 2005, p.50]

GameZone

Unfortunately, with the limited MP games and buggy code, this game could still use some fine tuning.

My Gamer

So, even if you are weary of the WWII theme, don’t be so disillusioned by the overabundance of WWII games that you let this one elude you.

ActionTrip

In a nutshell, when its 'gears' are clicking, Brothers in Arms manages to deepen the shooter genre with the addition of some great tactical gameplay and relatively realistic depiction of infantry warfare... [but] sadly lacked somewhat in the execution department, making it not as good as the reigning king of the genre.

PC Gameworld

An average World War II shooter, with elements of strategy implemented somewhat successfully. However, the game is also available on consoles, and I can't help but think the game would have been so much better had it been developed solely for PC.

Pelaaja (Finland)

Brothers in Arms is a good start for Ubisoft WWII franchise. The drama of the story, frantic fire fights and well implemented squad command system makes other WWII shooters feel, well, just like your average shooters. Brothers in Arms is more of an authentic WWII combat experience. [May 2005, p.66]

Sydney Morning Herald

First-person shooter fans might struggle initially with the demanding targeting system, plus a selection of weapons that take into account the accuracy and range of their real-world counterparts.

Computer Games Magazine

Significantly more elaborate than any of the other [current tactical shooters]. [July 2005, p.49]

Gamer's Hell

While it offers a unique, new experience to the platform, it is nothing that is groundbreaking but can still be fun to play through once just for the historical novelty.

games(TM)

Gearbox should be applauded for taking the first-person genre in a bold new direction, but during the bulk of the game, players must be willing to sit back and let the developer tell the story. [Apr 2005, p.104]

Edge Magazine

Plenty of games have flourished around the slaughter, scale and destruction of war, but few have managed to realise a soldier’s role and worth - disposable, vulnerable, pivotal - as well as this. [Apr 2005, p.100]

The average user rating for this game is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 58 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Daniel C. gave it a1:
Sucked! Repetitive tactics get boring very quickly. If you're a drone, you'll like this game; if you're a human, stay away. I bought this game based on good critics' reviews. Something want terribly wrong here. Were all the critics on drugs, payed off, or just didn't bother playing through more than just a handful of missions. You can't judge a whole game solely based on a first few levels. Critics, play the whole game before providing your two cents worth. This game, although appearing good at the beginning, quickly becomes worthless as you play on. I think that this game will go down in history as the most overrated game ever. At least the users, not the critics, gave it a more fair review, although still a little hight.

Matt gave it a3:
I had such hopes that this would be a good game, but instead, it was a bad minigame drawn out to cover the plot. The mechanics of the minigame are simple: see the Germans, shot in the general direction of the Germans, tell your squad to stop taking cover from the wrong direction and shoot at the Germans, walk over to the Germans, shoot the Germans. The friendly AI is so useless that despite the levels constant attempts to railroad you into using this tactic, I found it more effective to order my squad to sit in the corner while I single-handedly slaughtered the Germans. The weapons behave as an experienced shooter would expect them too, in the hands of untrained game developers. The German AI compensates for the flaws in the American AI, demonstrating a complete inability to use grenades effectively, cover their flanks or rear, or even utilize the old tactic from Wolf 3d and gang up on the poor Americans. On authentic difficulty, the weapons are still almost completely useless, requiring multiple head and chest hits to bring down a German. Fortunately, the Germans have the same problem, allowing you to simply charge enemy riflemen, emptying the clip of a Thompson into them, and ignoring the hits you take in the process. Perhaps most disappointing was the fact that for all their efforts and attention to detail in historical accuracy, the levels were essentially long clear tunnels. If pinned down by a German machine gun in the street, it might seem reasonable to jump the fence beside the road and take cover in the ditch, move forward and flank, right? Wrong. The fence should be easily cleared, but it is in actuality the base of an invisible wall. Such invisible walls abound, in order to ensure that the path chosen by the game designers is the path the player follows. All in all, this feels less like playing a game, and more like playing a role in a movie, only instead of a script, you simply have a director yelling at you whenever you do anything that isn't what he wants.

Owen T. gave it a6:
This game is based on the hype around band of brothers, saving private ryan and like movies. Not that this is bad, but you need to add something original to stand out and not get boring. The developers did not try. they slavishy put everything what is part of the band of brothers trade in it: the melancholic overvoice, the dramatic music(stings!!! more strings!!!) and the reluctant hero(s). What is a pity is that you can't skip these ramblings of fantasy and you are forced to sit through them all. And then what is it? The game can best be described as a simple squad based shooter. It is basic because they stripped the shooter part to it's bare minimum: you can''t run, lean, lie down and aim properly. And even when you get close to a german you notice that your weapons are underpowered. It takes a full clip to kill one. An strinking example of this weakness is the grenade. When it detonates, you need to be very close to get harmed, less than a meter, and then it does hardly any damage or fails to stun opponents. Of course this was done on purpose. If this was a call of duty with a team added to it, you might ditch the team and go on your own. Because you would do this because your teammates are to stupid to be left on their own and need constant watching. So to prevent you from dumping them and to force you to work with the team they make you weak. But amazingly enough, the team tactics are very basic too: you can't command indvidual members nor assign members to groups, or arm them as you want them and you can only give them a few basic commands. In addition the game is very scripted. As in a shooter you run along one path. In this game however the path has somewhat been widened to allow you to 'Flank the enemy'. Because that is what the developer hit upon. Each and everytime the germans conveniently appear in small groups consisting of 2 to 4 men, take up position behind some cover where they stay until you have killed them. You assign one team to pin them, and you or another team move in from the flank. Luckily the german will fall for this same tactic each and every time. Germans won't attack you except in scripted moments or pin your team even if you are under fire from a mg, they leave their positions open to flanking fire and rear attacks, won't shift their positions,leave strongpoints open to the rear and won't cover the approaches or each others positions, and setup mg's and guns only to shoot out to one direction and finally: germans seldom use grenades(but we know why now). Brothers in Arms therefore quickly becomes boring. If you want proper based squad based game I would advise to try out SWAT IV or Rainbow Six.

Mork B. gave it a6:
This game is amateur work. Hands down, its amateur work, amateur game. It goes to show that the industry vets should do the inovating, and the newbies should do the polishing. Graphics are fine. Sound effects can be underwhelming, but are balanced out with great voice acting and music. Running speed it good, squad commands are functional. AI could use some work but is good as it is. All the basics to make a tactical, squad based WWII shooter are here. Too bad the Combat isn't. To start off, the shooting mechanics are terrible. Its funny, its like your player, a trained soldier, shoots with the skill of a game developer testing out weapons for his new game, so as to implement realistic recoil effects, without realizing he needs to practice take firearm classes for a month first. Anyway, recoil from guns is totally unrealistic (Trust me, I won 7 guns). Combat is slow, underwhelming, and utterly frusterating. Its also annoying as hell to lose a whole fireteam to a random artillery shell. Overall, actually fighting Nazi's in this game is like sludging through tar, its slow, annyoing, and something you don't want to do again. Its like this game never even went through a beta or an alpha stage. Rather than making you play the game the way it was meant to be played (tactically) with streamlined, intuiting gameplay, the creators gave up and just tossed in a few cheap tricks to force you to play how it was meant to. For example, the game doesn't reward patience, smart thinking, or good positioning. This is not like Red Orchestra. Instead, the game makes it impossible to kill anyone with anything other than a chest hit. Why? To FORCE you to flank those behind cover. So even if their heads are exposed, but they're crouched behind cover, you can pour on 100 rounds with a BAR at their helmets and the enemy will just sit there unscratched. This is, ironically, a method to make the game more realistic! This game should have been sent back to the drawing board. This game feels like it never went through any refinement process at all, at least gameplay and level design wise. This game is like playing a beta test. Guns are waaayyyy off, too many of the sound effects sound like place holders, sometimes kooky AI, bad, crappy level design. Usually after a beta test, the team cuts the bad levels out, makes more good levels to make for that, and fine tunes the gameplay. But it just seemed like that never happened here. Instead, the devs just stuffed in some cheap tricks to make you play the game as it was advertised, instead of refining and adding stuff to they "F" system, and published it.

Nejc C. gave it a9:
I thing this game is better than Call of Duty. Allies aren`t dying here on every corner. It`s more realistic. Sounds are great, graphic could be better.

Jarryd R. gave it a9:
By far the best WW 2 GAME I have EVER played it brings MOA , COD and fullspectrum warrior all into one ... the MP is fun.and for that guy that said the AI is dumb play it on difficult or Authentic for a all out challange.... over and out.

Aaron B. gave it a9:
I don't know why people's opinion of this game vary so much, especially about ai. I found the ai in this game to be very good. The only time when there is a problem with the ai is when the engagements are very close. I shoot, and I find that the gun sway isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be. This isn't as good as CoD, but its pretty good.