Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

The Brothers in Arms series has always aimed to be Band of Brothers to Call of Duty's (or Medal of Honor's) Saving Private Ryan. The series offers a more fleshed-out, intelligent experience where most WWII shooters go for a more visceral, arcade-centered one.

Working on a less-robust engine with a smaller crew (Gearbox has always put out these games), Brothers in Arms was always destined to be overlooked among the more visually stunning games with familiar appeal. While Call of Duty overtook the Medal of Honor series in every respect, Brothers in Arms is a series that can live happily side-by-side the public's favorite shooter series. This is due to it offering an entirely different brand of gameplay and storytelling that makes these all too familiar war stories renewed.

Upon release in Spring 2005, Road to Hill 30 merely found a niche audience due to the over-saturation of WWII FPS games at that point. The game follows Cpl Matt Baker and his battalion of the 101st Airborne (based on factual events), during the initial week of America's invasion of Normandy. The game offers an excellent pace, giving you a little more freedom and firepower with every new level -- essentially, you go from a private with a pistol to a corporal with a tank.

Instead of running and gunning from A-to-B, Brothers in Arms relies on strategy. The ability to manage two squads (or, sometimes, three in Hell's Highway) that work under you and follow your orders offers more depth to the duck-and-cover firefights.

The game isn't a FPS/RTS hybrid but if there was ever a game to drive a fan of one genre into the other it's this one. How the system works is you have an assault squad and a flanking squad. You position your flanking squad to provide covering fire, while you take your assault squad in for the kill. It can often be difficult to set-up your troops, but like in real life you can't really tell your troops to go to places you can't see; the game does offer a "situational view" that gives a layout of the battlefield. However, you can't give orders from the view, so it's mainly there to plan ahead than to act within.

Road to Hill 30 has many great moments, but it's limited by the Unreal Engine from 1998. It looks alright but the maps aren't as detailed and intense as they could be. If you look at the details, it can completely take you out of the experience and make the game feel like a glorified Unreal Tournament mod. Despite its repetitive combat and lacking story, Road to Hill 30 was an excellent first entry and a overlooked shooter from 2005.