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Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway has been in development for a while—long enough that we have previews going back to E3 2006 over two years ago. However, Ubisoft and developer Gearbox Software are winding up production of the title, which now has a September release date planned. The recent E3 show gave us a chance to see the latest on this game as it comes into the home stretch.
For those who haven’t kept up with the game as it’s been created, Hell’s Highway continues the story of Matt Baker as he’s returning from Normandy. This title takes us into the heart of Operation Market Garden, which started on September 19, 1944, where the city of Eindhoven, Netherlands, was bombed by the Germans with a few hundred casualties, many of them non-military citizens. The operation sent 30,000 Allied paratroopers into the area, with one of the key roads being fought over dubbed “Hell’s Highway.”
In the words of Retired Army Colonel John Antel, Gearbox’s military consultant/authenticity advisor, Hell’s Highway endeavors to use “real tactics” by forcing the player to strategize for such things as flanking maneuvers. He states that these tactics are more important than “accessorizing” with different weapons and gear—“Accessorizing…that’s what girls do with earrings.” According to Antel, position is critical to driving back and defeating a robust enemy.
With this in mind, one of the strongest concepts to success is the use of suppressing fire, and Hell’s Highway provides icons where enemies are located, which show if the enemy is free and clear to fire at you or if he’s skittish over the recent changes in his status due to you and your men slinging bullets at their location. If the icon is red, it signifies danger…that the enemy is exposed and unfettered to shoot at you. You’re in better shape if the icon is gray, though it works like a timer and will wind down if you don’t keep pressure on him. Antel also notes that you can turn off the icons, if you want to be a bigger test of your skills.
Corrugated metal: Good for hiding...but bad protection.
Some of the most fun in Hell’s Highway comes from the “action moments” that are set up in the gameplay. If you’re firing on an enemy, you can trigger—pun intended—an action moment by sniping him with a head shot or tossing a grenade to blow up a number of foes behind cover. The reward is a slowing down of the action and zooming in so you can relish the damage you’re doing. These come pretty often, if you’re a crack platoon leader, and don’t mean much to the player other than it being a chance to get a dramatic playback of that segment of the game.
Though there’s still time for tweaking and such, we did find that the controls might take some getting used to, especially if you’re comfy with old-school shooters and action games. A number of the control pad’s functions are in place, but not causing the effect I expected it would. For example, many games use the Left Trigger to facilitate a zoom down your scope. In Hell’s Highway, the Left Trigger instead is used to direct your fellow soldiers to a specific location. That’s not to say that this game has gotten it wrong, but just that you’ll need to get plenty familiar with the gameplay mechanics in order to be the most successful.
While Gearbox’s big focus seems to be spread among a few projects, including 2K’s Borderlands. However, there's no slacking on Hell’s Highway and the development team seems incredibly driven to make the game solid. We're pretty anxious to get to the front lines on a final version of the game. In the meantime, we'll bring you any news and updates on this title as we get them.
