Previews: Brothers in Arms 3
New impressions on the next-gen Brothers.
By Garnett Lee
05/23/2007
VIDEO: Click on the image above to check out
Brothers in Arms 3: Hell''s Highway footage -- in HD!
Gearbox Software brought a serious dose of tactics to shooters with its
first pair of Brothers in Arms games. Their gun-in-hand point of view
helped people feel at home, but winning battles required more than
simply pulling the trigger. With a squad at your command, success
hinged as much on your ability to direct your fire teams as it did your
skill with the trigger. A pattern of using one fire team to suppress
enemies, and then maneuvering the other to an advantageous firing
position, quickly developed into the game''s signature style. Keeping up
with it all put both man and machine to the test.
With the next in the series, Brothers in Arms 3: Hell''s Highway,
half of that equation gets a big boost in power. The benefits of
licensing Unreal Engine 3 shined through as soon as Gearbox president
Randy Pitchford fired up an early version of the
game at a press event
earlier this month. WWII soldiers make a great showpiece for the visual
capabilities of the engine, with all their insignias, ammo pouches, and
other gear and uniform details. Anyone who''s played Gears of War will immediately recognize the style, including the ugly maroon blood splatters across the screen in the heat of battle.
But the Gearbox developers have taken that engine as just the starting
point to build up from. In addition to adding polish to the graphics
with touches like self-shadowing and a bump in texture detail, they''ve
made significant additions to suit the unique Brothers in Arms
mechanics. Cover often means the difference between life and death in
this game, and it behaves pretty much exactly as you''d expect from
looking at it. Hunker down behind a stone wall and you''re in good
shape, but a collection of wine crates or an overturned wagon won''t
stand up long to a hail of bullets. The degradation, and eventual
destruction, of cover happens with an unbelievable degree of realism.
We watched as bullets took out individual slats on a picket fence in
one case, and shot the hub off of a wagon wheel, knocked the wheel
itself off, and then blasted through the deck of the wagon in another.
The significance of cover never strays far from your thoughts, and the
game makes sure to remind you if it does. The game takes a pretty
serious simulation approach to gunfire. For the most part, if you get
hit, you''re in dire condition. The good news is that at the range you
typically encounter the enemy, the first bullets headed your way
probably won''t connect. To give you a little extra push to get to
cover, when the lead starts flying, everywhere except suitable cover
positions begin to turn the screen monochromatic, indicating the degree
of threat to you. So, the more withering the fire, the more your
survival instinct kicks in, highlighting where you need to head to take
shelter.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Brothers in Arms 3: Hell''s Highway screens.
When you get the situation back under control, the Unreal Engine also
makes squeezing off the return fire pretty rewarding. Watching
Pitchford use the M1 from a flanking position to take down some
unsuspecting Germans made it clear that getting a rewarding gunplay
feel into the game also sits high on the development list. To drive
that point home, the demo wrapped up with Sergeant Baker clearing a
chateau on his own. He worked his way from room to room, ultimately
commandeering a German MG42 overlooking a courtyard for a dramaion.
These new solo segments will help break up the game and work with the
staged areas to take a significant step forward in the storytelling
element of the game. With the mechanic now set, Pitchford explains that
the developers want to steer clear of simply throwing a succession of
tactical puzzles at the player. This time out, they want it to all work
together to capture that intensity of being in the thick of battle.
That desire also figured into the decision to set the game in Operation
Market Garden. Sure, it holds the distinction as the largest Airborne
invasion in history, but it became much more than that as early Allied
successes stalled, and all too soon, they found themselves outnumbered
and facing strong German counterattacks.
Gearbox takes the gravity of the battle so seriously that all the
missions in the game are based on the historical orders and forces in
the field. As such, expect to find yourself in increasingly grave
situations as the operation progresses, hoping to hold on and get your
boys through to the end. If that emotional element comes through, this
time out the "brothers" in the title will especially ring true.
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