A call to Brothers in Arms: hands-on preview

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 lesson one: do not charge the enemy, gun on hip, and fire off rounds with wanton abandon. You will die. A lot. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 lesson two: in the heat of battle, always adhere to lesson one. Or you will die. A lot.

Yep, it's fair to say that our first few minutes spent with the latest Xbox build of Gearbox Software's squad-based, World War II FPS were a harsh reminder that this is war. War, in fact, with big realism knobs on. Play it like the Call of Dutys and Medal of Honors of this world and the game will give you a quick, sharp slap in the face. And in our case with added egg due to our propensity for biting the dust in the early part of our hands-on time.

We could but emit an embarrassed laugh and hope that no one was peering over our shoulders at the time.

Brothers in Arms is a game of course, and repetitive death finally elicits a message about war being unfair but that a videogame shouldn't be, and you're given the choice of returning to the battlefield with a squad at full health. But that's the only time when suspension of disbelief is really broken, and the rest is a journey through history and a true account of a squad's harrowing and remarkable experiences on D-Day and beyond.

MISSION BRIEFING
On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces of World War II initiated Operation Overlord, a huge undertaking of massive military might and intense strategic planning that was the first step in the liberation of Western Europe from the clutches of Nazi Germany. In the early hours of the morning, airborne units were dropped into Normandy, those soldiers under orders to secure vital strategic locations necessary to the success of the follow-up beach landings about to commence at 6am.

The focus of Gearbox Software's WWII squad-based first-person shooter Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 is one particular airborne unit. The game covers the first eight days of the invasion of Western Europe, following Sgt. Matt Baker and his squad from Fox Company, 502d PIR, 101st Airborne, apparently the most outstanding US Army unit on D-Day. Undertaking missions to protect the northern flank of the beach invasion, the squad eventually ends up at Hill 30 - the sight of a German counter-attack against the Allied-held town of Carentan, a vital strategic location.

Now you know that, let's go back into action...

SQUAD! ATTEN-HUT!
So, we quickly discovered the hard way that it's vital to employ fire and manoeuvre tactics offered by the game's squad dynamic to overcome enemy positions. Historically, many of the Airborne troops were dropped into Normandy way off target and, finding themselves not only alone but in several cases weaponless, spent the night joining up in dribs and drabs with comrades to form ad-hoc fighting units. Gearbox cleverly uses this to gradually introduce you to squad control, beginning with one soldier under your command and then building on this until you have full fire and assault teams at your beck and call.

Squad command is one feature that really makes Brothers in Arms stand out from the rest of the competition - not least because the context-sensitive order system is an absolute cinch to use. Yes, OK, the levels have all been realistically modelled on the environment of the period, but when you're ducking incoming fire and cowering behind brick walls as bullets ping off your cover and zing by your head (this sounds so realistic it actually caused us to physically duck), being able to order a buddy to suppress the enemy is far more important than door A on building Y being accurately placed to the centimetre.

WAR, REAL UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
But still we have to admit that the result of Gearbox's efforts to accurately recreate the environment is commendable. It has also invested similar time and love into other areas of the game for authenticity's sake. Your squad behaves, on the whole, in an entirely believable manner, and is clever enough to use the environment to its advantage in firefights. Each squad member has also been imbued with their own personality, they bicker and argue with each other, they bitch, they shout warnings to you when you're not in cover which rather than insulting your intelligence blends seamlessly into the experience; and when they die, you genuinely feel gutted. Or that could simply be because we're big softies.

There are no health packs in this game. Take a few hits and you fall to the floor, vision blurring and the dim sound of German voices in your ear as everything fades to black. Ammunition is limited, although you can scrounge weapons and ammo from dead corpses. Firefights are fast, brutal, thrilling and deadly all at the same time. When you pop your head around a corner and an MG42 crew opens up, the only thing you can utter is "Oh shit" and take cover. "Put some suppressing fire on that machinegun goddamit!".

Hand grenades explode with a wince-inducing "boom", mortar rounds send gouts of earth flying into the air, mud spattering your vision. There's blood, there's dismemberment. German soldiers cower behind cover as our squad lays down suppressing fire, a suppression indicator above their heads (the indicator can be turned off to add extra hardcore value) indicating state of suppression. Rather than attempt to outflank the enemy, we decide to throw caution to the wind and order our team to go full assault. They run in, hurling grenades and firing weapons and employing swift rifle butts to the face as they go close-quarters with the enemy.

SITUATION REPORT
When things get particularly messy, which they do quite often, it's time to ponder tactics - cue switch to Situational Awareness view. An isometric-style view of the battlefield, Situational Awareness is a representation of Allied troops' knowledge of the area prior to the drop, soldiers having studied aerial reconnaissance photos and sand tables showing the lay of the land. In-game action halts, and from this viewpoint you can not only observe the position of your own troops but also the positions of enemy troops that you've sighted in first-person view.

Additionally taking into account the position of buildings, walls and other potential cover, you can then formulate a strategy that will, all being well, see you overcome enemy positions. Once you have squad members under your command, this invariably involves you ordering your fire team to lay down suppressing fire while either yourself or the remainder of your squad - or all of you - out-flank the enemy and take it by surprise. And you know what? It works. Like a dream. But don't get too cocky, toes must be kept on. The enemy is by no means dumb and can and will use similar tactics and attempt to out-flank your own positions.

TANKS FOR THE RIDE
We can't return to base camp for some R&R without mentioning tanks, which we have only admittedly dabbled briefly with to date, but wish to relate the experience. Rather than leap into a tank yourself and take it for a spin you instead command it much like you do your squad. An option is there to climb up onto the tank and take control of the machinegun on the turret, although when you do so the tank is unable to fire its main cannon. We're also reliably informed that you can clamber up onto enemy tanks and drop grenades through the turret hatch, but this is something we haven't had the opportunity to try out as yet.

DEBRIEFING
It's impossible, and unfair, to judge Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 on preview code, but we will say this: so far, so good. Comparison to other titles is surprisingly difficult to make, but we'd say it strikes somewhere between Hidden & Dangerous II and Call of Duty/Medal of Honor while managing to feel utterly different to those games at the same time.

It doesn't have Call of Duty's sense of the epic, for example, but this is by no means detrimental. Instead a sense of vulnerability pervades - every German bullet fired your way, every grenade thrown, makes you flinch, and Gearbox's considerable time spent on research and the evolution of that research into in-game authenticity has resulted in a stripped-back, raw experience that ultimately makes it all the more visceral and real.

It remains to be seen of course whether or not Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 has what it takes to nab the World War II FPS crown. But with the game pencilled in for a March 18 release on these shores, it shouldn't be too long before we get the full and final verdict.

Stuart Bishop