D-Day invasion! Brothers in Arms hands-on

There are many images conjured up by the term 'Crack of Dawn'. Until recently, it re-ignited the memory of a mate pulling a sly moonie atop a country hill, while the sun graciously rose in the background.

However, since last Thursday's press event in Paris, it's the brilliant Brothers in Arms taster which that term now immediately brings to mind.

D-Day The assault on Normandy, June 1944

As the name suggests, Crack of Dawn is a mission set during the early hours of morning, and more importantly, is also set somewhere towards the middle part of BiA's single-player campaign.

Following the re-establishing of contact with several of your fellow Screaming Eagle paratroopers, you'll find yourself in command of two mini-squads - a three-man Fire team (used primarily to deal with long-ish range targets and for providing cover) and an Assault team, trained in the art of full-on butt-kicking.

How you employ their skills and experience, of course, is entirely at your discretion.

Receiving your orders from a nearby superior, you, as real-life D-Day hero Sergeant Baker, must advance with your platoon up a pebbled road, sweep away any impending German threats, and eventually capture a machine-gun post situated in the field ahead.

Sounds easy on paper doesn't it? Trust us, it isn't. March just a few feet to the deserted farmhouse on your right, and you'll spy a couple of German soldiers perched behind indestructible cover.

The obvious path round this is to order your Fire team to seek similar cover behind a nearby wall and suppress the Germans with continuous fire (this is accomplished by simply clicking on your Command button and moving the cursor to where you want them to move to - very easy to master and not entirely different to the set-up used in Freedom Fighters).

While this is being executed, you and your Assault team can then sneak stealthily round the back of the house, and surprise the suppressed Germans with a crafty attack from the rear. Cheeky, eh?

Wing play

Then, of course, problem number two comes into play - the discovery of two further Germans positioned along the route behind the house. As soon as they spot you, it's shrapnel up the botty time as they certainly won't take too kindly to your presence. Fortunately, you have several options available to you here.

One is to lead a full-on charge through the middle of the German aggressors, firing repeatedly and hoping for the best. While this method is certainly quick and far more action-oriented, it does leave your troops susceptible to incoming fire.

The method we preferred (and generally found slightly more successful) involved employing your Assault team in a similar role to that of the Fire team, using their covering shots as a diversion for you to crawl stealthily towards the Germans along the far flank.

Reach your destination without arousing suspicion (a chipped wall provides ample cover) and you can either burst out, guns blazing, or alternatively, chuck a grenade into their midst. Achieve this, and despatching the other Germans being suppressed by your specialist Fire team should be child's play.

Fight like a soldier

There are several things that immediately struck us in this part of the game. The first is the sophisticated level of AI. While you are responsible for ordering your troops to attack, suppress, advance or hold-back, as soon as they come under fire, or stumble across enemy positions, they'll behave exactly like real soldiers - seeking cover, returning fire, re-loading at select intervals or aiding nearby mates.

Likewise, the Germans are incredibly smart, and will react to your every strategy (provided they suss it out, that is). If they see you, they become fully alert to your whereabouts, and will do whatever they can to stop you. Their actions are NOT in the least bit scripted, and they adjust and react to events around them with alarmingly authentic military discipline.

What's also interesting is how the game can be remarkably different each time you play it - presumably as a result of this sophisticated level of AI.

You might employ an identical strategy on each occasion, but the outcome won't necessarily always be the same.

For example, one attempt at Crack of Dawn saw us reach the elusive machine-gun post without firing a single shot in anger, simply because our fellow troops successfully killed the intervening German soldiers with the utmost ease. We just lucky, we guess.

The next time we played, however, a comparable tactic saw our men being totally suppressed by a stubborn German force, whilst Baker's out-flanking manoeuvre rewarded him with nothing more than an unwanted dose of lead up the jacksy. Ouch!

Ha ha - missed me!

Another highlight was the way in which most bullets struggle to hit their intended target. As BiA's full-time advisor and retired Army colonel John Antel explained, "there are a lot of shots fired during combat, but they rarely ever connect."

This is brilliantly conveyed in Brothers in Arms, and skirmishes often drift into the chaotic and tense, but are surprisingly (and commendably) low on the frustration factor. The way the barrel of your gun jumps and loses its line of sight each time it is fired only heightens this sense of realism.

Finally, the last thing that really grabbed us was the brilliant attention to detail. We literally had our hearts in our mouths during the lead-up presentation (without wanting to sound too girly, the snippets of rolling tanks, cutting machine-gun fire and exploding planes that we saw were genuinely scary), and playing the game in all its glory did little to dampen our spirit.

As well as brilliantly recreating the scenery of war-torn Normandy (we were shown genuine historical photos...and well, we struggled to tell the difference, to tell you the truth), it also featured images of historical fact - like the graphic and disturbing sight of a stabbed Allied soldier lying sprawled out on a picnic table.

Not exactly savoury, but then according to the men who were there, it did actually happen.

Plus, the lifelike faces of your fellow troops were spooky to say the least, with arguably the most authentic eyes we've ever seen in a game. In fact, they were almost too life-like, to the point of being freaky.

No wonder Gearbox want to keep the soldiers fictional - the idea is to give each of platoon member their own individual personality, something that would have been slightly unfair had they been based on real people.

The end - and not a single reference to Dire Straits in sight ...oops

There is so much more that we could say about Brothers in Arms, even from just this short mission alone, but alas, we wouldn't want to totlly spoil the surprise.

In addition to the good points, there were a few minor quibbles too - mostly regarding the differentiation between your Fire and Assault teams, which was a little messy to say the least. Fortunately, we have assurances from Gearbox that this is one area that will definitely be looked into.

All in all, Brothers in Arms is shaping up to be something great - an ultra-realistic, immaculately hardcore, sublimely strategic, squad-based shooter with immeasurable attention to detail.

The only sad thing is you'll have to wait until the first quarter of next year to get to play it when it releases on PC PS2 and Xbox.

We'll be sure to bring you further dispatches from the BiA front line as they arrive.

Stephen Daultrey