It's always a treat whenever a news Brothers In Arms game comes out, as I've come to find out that it's one of the only videogame franchises out there that I actually feel emotionally invested in. I didn't even know this myself until sitting down to play Hell's Highway, and suddenly all the good times spent playing the first two games came back to me, and the emotional weight of the plight of Sgt. Baker and the rest of the 101st Airborne hit me full on.

I always feel like I'm getting smarter while playing the Brothers In Arms series, as they're constantly informing me on little known facts and battles that I never knew happened during World War II. The latest game – Hell's Highway – takes us to the namesake, which is where one of the biggest losses of life and blunders during the early days of the war took place.

Bazooka Fire

Much like the past two games in the series, Hell's Highway likes to play around with storytelling conventions, specifically in how it ties to going back to the past to work the narrative up to the current time and place. Hell's Highway begins in a hospital with you as Baker, going through an optional training mode (if you aren't familiar with the controls). At the end of the training level, however, a bomb busts through the ceiling, you're flat on your back, and several Nazis are standing above you. One of the Nazi's bullets go off, killing Baker, and then we're thrust back a handful of days before the incident that takes Baker's life…or does it?

A lovely thing about the history rewind is that you spend so much time in the past working your way forward, chances are you'll actually forget the opening until you're right on it, and then you're hit with the realization that you're about to die again. It's a credit to Gearbox and their attention to story, because the moment I realized I was about to go through the same thing again, a chill went up my arm. I didn't want to see Baker die if it actually happened like it does in the beginning.

I won't spill the surprises, but there's a lot of death and heartache in Hell's Highway, especially when it pertains to things such as survivor's guilt, the toll secrets can take on someone, and overall the way the sights of war can screw with your psyche. The Brothers In Arms games aren't just great storytelling videogames, but they honestly make you appreciate the men who fought for freedom during World War II, and makes you look at today's soldiers in a whole new light.

It's also not hard to get emotionally attached to the 101st Airborne either if you've been following their struggles since the original game. You're once again starring as the first game's hero – Matt Baker – but you've also got returning favorites such as Hartsock, Corrion, and a few other familiar faces. You see, Hell's Highway isn't about a bunch of nameless faces killing Nazis. Hell's Highway is about forcing yourself to maneuver characters around, trying to preserve their life at all costs. The game adds such a level of humanity to the action that other first person shooters can't even hope to reach it, and you'll even get a bit sad and angry when even the littlest nobody bites it in the field because of a direct order you gave.

Ducking For Cover

The Brothers In Arms franchise is one that plays like almost no other, as it's basically a squad controlled first person shooter. You play as Matt Baker and he's the only character you'll ever have full control over. You can have him run independent of everyone else, change weapons out, go after a tank, etc. The rest of your squad is computer controlled and follow the actions you give them. Squad teams can stay where they are, hunker down for cover, attack an enemy, follow you, or suppress fire. In most cases your team plays like a bunch of geniuses, as they know when to properly seek cover out so they're never standing in the open. Rarely will your team do anything stupid, though I did see them stuck in a jumping loop one time.

Given the size of the battlefields and the number of squad members at your disposal, you'd think the controls would be mighty tricky and hard to grasp. It takes a little time to become an order yelling killing machine, but it's thankfully simple once you know how to approach combat. Throughout the game you'll control at various points a fire team, assault team, and special weapons team, which will help you win the war by focusing on the four Fs – Find, Fix, Flank, and Finish.

Whenever an enemy squad appears on the battlefield (Find), the first thing you'll want to do is take the fire team and put some suppressing fire on the enemy (Fix). Once the enemy is fixed you'll then want to take the assault team and get around to the enemy's blindside (Flank), giving you a free shot at the enemy since they are focused on the suppressing team. The only thing left to do is open fire and kill (Finish).

The game is supposed to be played this way, and you'll have to have an understanding of the four 4s to survive at all in this game, though following them to the letter isn't always needed in order to win. For instance, actual shooting skill is also required, and will help you out. You'll often be hunkered down behind cover just like your troops, able to pop your head up and line a shot up. It's usually difficult to nail an enemy behind cover, but if you wait until someone's pops their head up or spin out of cover long enough, it's entirely possible to kill without the full use of your squad. In fact, I often killed more soldiers in this way than properly using the four Fs.

Hell's Highway introduces a few new features, which only help immerse the player into the game even more, and makes the action that much more engaging. First up, players can now hurdle certain objects with the press of a button, but otherwise you still can't jump around whenever you want. Another gameplay feature includes destructible cover, which really does change the game up and makes it more realistic. Standing behind a stone wall or cement trough will still protect you from nary a scratch (less a tank comes along), but hiding behind things such as a picket fence are now short-term solutions at the best as they'll splinter with enough damage, revealing you to be easy pickings. The destructible environments hurt the Nazis as much as it helps them, as you can splinter the cover on their side too, making it so they have to run to find a new cover as well. The game also features a new health system, which warns you by darkening your screen and making it redder the closer you are to death. When your TV starts to get really blood red, it's time to take a quick breathier, duck behind cover, and wait for it to clear before going back to battle. It's a lot like various Halo shield systems, but much less intrusive and easier to acknowledge right away.

In terms of additions that offer nothing towards the gameplay, Hell's Highway features slow-mo death replays when a shot is particularly earned. Manage to snipe a headshot from a good distance away, for example, and you'll get a gruesome slow-mo shot as the bullet enters the guy's head and explodes it. The game also rewards slow-mo kills for things like explosions and tank destruction, usually resulting in sending several Nazis flying, often missing chunks of their legs in the process. It's gross, cool, and realistic all at once.

Enemy AI is solid in Hell's Highway, as the enemy does a great job at not only finding cover when the situation changes, but they also know how to properly flank you too. So even though it's important to strategize a game plan (thanks in part to the overhead map you access by clicking the Back button), you'll also need to know how to adjust tactics on the fly to counter other flanking enemies.

Unlike the last two games, Hell's Highway features several moments where you don't control a squad at all, but rather only play as Baker. The segments feel a bit weird considering so much about Brothers In Arms is about the team, but the controls are still the same, you'll need to duck and cover, and the relatively short segments are a blast and also feature some great storytelling moments too.

Wood Splinters

The game also features a few segments where players will take control of a tank as it tries to help clear a path for Baker and company. The tank is a little hard to control when caught in tight corners, but it's easy enough ducking for cover inside, and blasting open holes with your heavy fire. When it comes to the tank, my only complaint is that the very final moments of the game have you driving the tank and not on-foot fighting with Baker, which is particularly saddening when the game would've ended on a brilliant note had it stuck with Baker. The final tank segment isn't bad, but once again, a game focusing on the squad leader and his squad should actually end with his squad.

Besides the single-player adventure, Hell's Highway also features a multiplayer mode for players to participate in. Given the focus on single-player storytelling, this year's multiplayer feels tacked on for the most part, and it's generally hard to find enough players to reach the 20 player maximum limit and really have a good time. The multiplayer mode plays like the regular single-player game, but with an emphasis on either killing all the enemies or raising a flag to obtain their control point. The game features several options to tweak the multiplayer, such as allowing friendly fire and to what degree, as well as letting you adjust things like the time limit and prep time.

The graphics of Hell's Highway are really good, though not as great as the best offerings on the 360. Character models and textures are really well done, as is the effect of boards splintering, but overall the game just lacks a slight bit of polish. The game also has some great sound work, ranging from the beautiful game score to the voice acting that isn't bad at all. The real standout in the sound department is in the effects, as it's unbelievable how realistic things like the whizzing of bullets or the firing of a gun sound. The coolest sound effect is the ringing in your ears after a shell hits too close to the player, and the way in which the sound is slightly muted until your hearing clears up.

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is a great game that lives up to the quality and surpasses the original games in the series, though a thrown together multiplayer mode and a lack of polish in some areas bring the score down slightly. If you've been with the 101st Airborne since the beginning, Hell's Highway is a great continuation of their story. The game has a nice recap at the beginning for new players too, so really there isn't any reason why anybody shouldn't pick this game up.

Score