Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox
System: Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Some days I feel this war is never going to end. Every time I think my tour of duty is coming to a close, along comes another assignment to guide the Greatest Generation through another World War II game. While it has become cliché to rail against the proliferation of WWII-themed first-person shooters, clichés exist for a reason, born of repetitive thoughts and actions. So each successive Axis and Allies adventure needs to bring something new to the forefront, or at the very least, offer a different perspective of the action. These are the marching orders that Gearbox, developer of the Brothers in Arms series, accepts in the creation of its latest title, Hell’s Highway.

Hell’s Highway positions your squad in Holland for the infamous Operation Market Garden campaign, a massive air-led assault that was designed to end the war by Christmas 1944. Market Garden has been featured in other titles before, most notably the Medal of Honor series, but it makes a welcome setting for this latest Brothers in Arms game. This series’ reliance on squad-based gameplay and the wide-open fields that dot much of Market Garden’s maps come together to provide a great backdrop against which Brothers’ unique brand of strategic first-person warfare is waged.

The Brothers in Arms series started on the last generation of consoles, making appearances on the original Xbox and the PS2. The success of Road to Hill 60 led to a sequel, Earned in Blood, a year later. Aside from its strategic bent, the Brothers series is interesting in that it’s one of the few World War II shooters to feature characters and stories that continue from one game to the next. Veterans of the series will be happy to see that Hell’s Highway grabs the baton and runs with it, providing a more in-depth examination of the squad members with whom you’ve been fighting. Newcomers to the series might take a little while getting their bearings, especially given the great deal of attention paid to the game’s story, but enough information is eventually revealed through the narrative to give you a sense of your soldiers and their history together.

While the game plays like a traditional FPS, its reliance on squad commands is paramount to successfully pushing into enemy territory. Depending on the situation, your character could be given control of one or two squads. These units come with three distinct load-outs: Assault Teams who tote rifles and smaller arms (similar to your character); and Heavy Machine Gun Squads that are ideal for laying down suppressing fire; and Bazooka Troops, that can be called upon to take down enemy encampments, heavy cover or large artillery, and enemy tanks. The game typically provides you with the squads necessary to overcome a particular level’s obstacles, but you decide when and how to employ them. Most players will find that they won’t make it very far without leveraging the strengths of their support squads.