Brothers In Arms: Short Review

Gearbox is a very capable game developer and with the recent release of Brothers in Arms (BIA) there are signs they are still creatively coding entertainment.

Key phrase here is "there are signs". This is not to say that BIA is a awful. It's saying that Gearbox was able to produce a somewhat decent PC offering of a Console port. Yes, Console port. Again a publisher has opted to shovel one development over to the PC. The game does have plenty of eye candy but those blinders quickly start to fall off as the player goes through the single player levels. There are far fewer expanses of land to roam than the marketing campaign would have you believe. The biggest immersion killer during a fire fight comes in the form of invisible walls. I can see for another 20 yards but the designers felt that an unseen barrier was the best way to indicate I couldn't take cover over there.

It's clear that the same multiplayer design conventions that went into SW:Battlefront went into BIA. Again, one game play mode packed with unusual net code and hit box issues. I am not entirely sure who makes and then signs off on these final decisions but they can't be frequent PC game players and have a clear conscience about unfinished products like these.

Is this Realism?

There are plenty of people who like BIA as it is. Some are people who have actually served in the armed forces. They feel that given the era and the control limitations in BIA that this offers a well rounded feel for warfare. Who am I to argue or debate with them? That being written, I find it problematic not being able to hit a target 15 feet away standing up behind a barrier. Round after round hitting an invisible barrier that emits white puffs telling me he really is well protected.

BIA does make an attempt to promote squad team work by forcing/allowing the player to position them into tactical positions. The only problem with that idea is that the soldiers aren't always on their toes about the danger. It feels like walking five unleashed pups down a busy five lane freeway. They keep wandering out into harms way seemingly oblivious to the danger.

As a whole BIA offers a change of pace for WWII FPS titles but in the end falls well short of its potential. The limited 1vs1 and 2vs2 multiplayer further pushes this title toward the uninstall bin after single player is completed.